Walkin' in High Cotton

I'm an Air Force kid, my dad was a fighter pilot, and so I was raised all over this great big, beautiful country (and for a while in Japan), but home to me will always be Tahoka, Texas.

Tahoka is a very small town south of Lubbock in the plains of Texas's panhandle, and where both my parents were raised. Needless to say, I'm related to most of the town! Every summer, and most Christmas's were spent with my extended family there, and to this day, I drag my Yankee husband and four Yankee kids with me to Tahoka every Fourth of July (there's nothing like a Fourth in Texas!).

And what do we all talk about? Cotton. Both my grandfathers, all my uncles, a cousin, and most family friends have been, or are, cotton farmers. Tahoka is surrounded by cotton fields, and it is the sustaining resourse for life on the plains. Everything revolves around cotton.

My Grandfather, his brothers and their wives and kids on tractors--farming cotton.

Last year, in the midst of all this cotton talk, my uncle Gary turned to me and said, "Why, you could spin us up some of that cotton." Let me take a minute to address the type of cotton grown in the heat of Texas. It is not long-staple Egytian cotton that glides through your fingers at the wheel. Nope. It's short-staple, denim or T-shirt cotton. As all you spinners out there can understand, I froze. Ummm . . .  I could physically spin it, with a lot of patience and determination, but what in the world would the finished yarn look like and how would I use it?! I had images of finished yarn simple drifting apart once it hit water!

Gary, hilarious and determined man that he is, was set on my daddy buying me a bale of cotton for spinning.

And here it is:

That is 30 pounds of compressed West Texas cotton from my uncle's co-op. Luckily, my dad now works for FedEx and got it to us for a reasonable price! 30 pounds! AND, luckily, my mom was with Dad for the purchasing, and got me a little tourist version so that I don't actually have to open the big bale (could you imagine 30 pounds of cotton popping out of those metal bands?!). It's currently being used as a footstool/cat bed. And a good one at that.

I opened the small, 1 pounder, washed a bit up (when wet, cotton closely resembles a spit wad), and sprinkled it onto a batt. There is no way to card it by itself for a resonable puni unless I get out my hand cards (I'm soooo not getting out my handcards!).

And, besides, I'm loving this:

This is Bluefaced Leicester dyed in shades of denim and Texas sky. The white, webb-y stuff on top is the cotton.

I knew I didn't have time for spinning this, but wasn't really ready to put it up in the shop (Frankly, I wasn't sure at all how the cotton would react once spun! And this was just one of those batts that was hard to let go of.)

What to do? What to do? Fate would have it that my best friend, and fantastic spinner, Petra, fell in love with it!!! So it was gifted over to Petra as long as she promised to spin it up and let me take pictures of the finished yarn.

Ta-Da:

Isn't she a fabulous spinner?! Didn't the yarn turn out awesome?! I love the texture of the cotton, and Petra assured me that she really enjoyed spinning it up. She's encouraged me to make more for the shop, so that's on the to-do list, right after I get November's Phat Fiber samples ready! And battle more laundry.

I'd love to hear what you think about this little adventure!

Art Batt Spinning

Update: These yarns are now up and for sale at Inspiration Fibers on Esty.

I had a lovely time this weekend spinning up some of my art batts, and was so excited about the end results, I thought I needed to share!

Art Yarn #1 will be called "Leaves" when it goes up in the shop later today.

It was made from a batt that I had for sale, called "Buffy" and another smooth, BFL batt in the shop called "Cozy Teal." I spun Buffy thick/thin and then plied it with the smooth Cozy Teal.

BuffyCozy TealThey came together well, didn't they?

This next batt I made specifically for spinning, and was never available on the shop. But it was also plied with Cozy Teal.

It will be called "The Life Aquatic" in the shop later today!

Hope everyone enjoys the gratuitous pics!!

New Tutorial--Carding Striped Batts with My "Layers" Method

Last week I promised a new tutorial, and here it is!

Carding Striped Batts

I was going to make one big tutorial about making the yarn I'm using for Hannah's vest, but as I was writing, I realized it really needed to be two different tutorials. One on making the batt and one on pulling the roving. So next week, it's all about pulling striped roving and spinning it up (a little trick here, too!). AND, you'll get to see the final yarn. I just may have the vest finished, but don't hold your breath!

I'm struggling to get my laundry caught up after a week and a half of no washer or dryer (tough with a family of 6!), and getting the whole house unpacked and set up. Busy, busy! Aren't we all!

Have a great Crafty Friday and Fiber Arts Friday!! Follow the links to a ring of artsy blogs!

Art Batts--I Finally Broke Down

I really like planning. Maybe sometimes I'm not very good at executing, but planning I'm good at. I like research, and I like thinking. When it comes to art, I've always approached projects with a plan, once I'm comforatble with a plan, then I can let go a little, but I at least start with a plan.

That quirk is very evident in my batts. Tidy, well planned, I keep detailed notes about color weight and order so that both batts in a set match, and I know what will happen when a spinner drafts them out.

Dappled Sunshine--Shepherds' Friend Romney BattThis one will stripe if you pull strips from the side and are careful to draft them in order. OR, you can roll the whole thing and pull to blend the colors in one roving. My notes read: red: 5 oz, orange, 5 oz., gold, 5 oz., teal, 2 oz., brown, 1 oz. Batt order: r, b, o, t, g, o, r, t, g, r, t, o, r, g.

Tidy Dappled Sunshine Batts

Planning: it's fun. But I have to face the harsh reality that it's not always appealing to everyone. Spinners are a crazy, wild bunch!

Art batts are the thing. I admit, I love looking at them, I love touching them, I love spinning them. I even love making them. So why have I waited so long to start making them for my shop? Because you just can't always make much out of them. I really like offering enough wool for a complete small project to my customers. My carder can only make about a 2 oz. batt, and art batts are impossible to make identical.

They're also always full of lots of different breeds and non-animal fibers, while my goal is to help spinners learn the characteristics of each breed. And I'm just not a sparkly kind of girl; I'm not sure if I'll ever do bling in my batts. I may break down there too, but not for a while.

And, there's something else I have to admit. They kinda feel like cheating. I mean, they're not completely a no-brainer to make; I chose colors within the same family and add a pop here and there of something else, but they just feel too easy. And, I really can't tell a spinner what they'll produce.

But I broke down and did it! I've made a set of four art batts from my studio scraps and they're getting posted over the next few days. Here's a sample:

Sloppy,fun art batt named Anita

Another view of the anarchyOf course, I had to have some plan, so I gave them a new name. They're Sassy Batts in my shop. And I'm naming each one after a sassy lady in literature, history, film or pop culture. Anita is after Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter; it's a book series by Laurell K. Hamilton. One of my secret pleasures.

I may even loosen up and extend this new approach to my Shepherds' Friend batts. I think I could simply weight some dyed locks and throw them into the carder willy nilly.

Maybe.

If I think about it really hard first.

It's Fiber Arts Friday and Crafty Friday, so have fun checking out everyone else's blogs for some great inspiration!

My Creations in the World

I love getting to see what people do with the yarn and fiber I've created. I plan, I make, I admire, then I send it off into the world to be loved by someone else. Sometimes it's hard!

One of my best friends brought over a neck warmer she's knitting for a friend, and, being the good friend that I am, I ooohed and aaaahed over it. It really was beautiful--she'd spun the yarn herself and then knit the warmer in an Entrelac pattern.

She smirked at me and said, "It's your BFL."

Oh. Don't I feel sheepish? It was a Color Blending Kit of BFL that I'd dyed more than a year ago and she bought from me. The woman she's knitting for had bought the finished yarn from her and then gave it back to have it knitted as well.

I was so pleased with myself. Especially after finding out that the woman who owns the yarn, and will soon own the neck warmer, loved the yarn so much that she took it with her to hold during her meditation sessions. That just warms my heart! Of course, the beautiful spinning  and knitting done by my friend is what makes it soft, loveable and squishy, but I'm pretty happy with my role in the finished product, too!

On top of that, I had a past customer send me a link to her Ravelry picture of her finished yarn with another of my Color Blending Kits!! It was called purple pansy and included a roving of brown and a roving of purples to be plied together.

Heiress21's Purple Pansy Hand Spun YarnThis was only her second hand spun yarn! Can you believe it? Just beautiful. AND she spins on a drop spindle. I know that's how most of us learn, but I'm still amazed at the patience you need to finish a whole skein of yarn on it. I really take my wheel for granted!

Really, I love seeing the Color Blending Kits most of all. I plan two colors to be either drafted together or plied together, and even though I base them on color theory, I really don't know what they'll be like once spun up. It's hard for me to turn some of them lose without spinning them myself. They're little mysteries that are just too tempting!

Thank you to all my past and future customers for creating such beautiful and inspiring work with my supplies!