Tuesday, January 13, 2015

Winding up the cotton experiment

I have been spinning my cotton for 6 months. I have now completed spinning 2014 and it made 1 pound 1/2 ounce of spun cotton. And about 2 pounds of seeds.
My 2013 cotton made less- about 3//4 pound and 2012 made about 1/2 pound. When all is said and spun, I should have about 2 pounds of yarn +/- and way too many seeds.
Now it the time to plan a project on the loom with this cotton. It is surprisingly consistent in size and I am thinking a long warp of commercial natural color with the homegrown, hand spun cotton as the weft. But then my mind wanders off to colors and possible fabric for clothing items. Would an indigo dye pot be the answer? Or some of that olive green? do I want towels or a shirt?
I am getting ahead of myself because I still have 4 months of spinning until the last is done. But planning the project is the fun part for me.
Maybe I should just make the items already on the loom and spin the cotton before I start mentally weaving something. But it is very exciting to get this close after three years of working to make enough cotton grow, harvest, gin, and then spin.
My garden plot of cotton was 5 ft wide and 10 ft long. In the third year, it made enough cotton to weave fabric or knit fabric for a shirt. It took about the same amount of water as a lawn or fruit tree. I deep watered one time each week. I didn't weed much after the first year. The cotton plants have deep roots. I fertilized one time per year in the spring. I would say that this is a relatively easy plant to grow. Totally organic, low water needs, and quite productive. I am growing Pima cotton varieties and will again try some of the colored cottons next year.
So back to the wheel. I have more to do before I can plan with my loom.

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