Tips for handspinning cotton on a spinning wheel

All the wool is a vlog  all about handspinning yarn, processing wool, knitting, owning a wool mill, farm life and everything in between.

It's officially summer and what better time to learn to handspin cotton then now!!! I share with you some of my tips from cotton type to processing type to how to adjust your spinning wheel. 

If you would like access to the Patreon cotton spinning workshop I did recently, follow the link to subscribe a the $10 level. https://www.patreon.com/EwethfulFiberMill

Find me at:
https://www.ewethfulfiberfarm.com/

Blogging at http://www.beingewethful.com/

To watch the most recent YouTube episode

https://youtu.be/OgYdngFGY08

Join Ewethful’s Patreon Community
https://www.patreon.com/EwethfulFiberMill

Ravelry group: Ewethful Fiber Farm & Mill
To ask me a question
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdkoshX7grvAiOcNxwAlUqFskm-opVlE1h_L6jmdO-CvGX8kg/viewform?usp=sf_link

Free hand spinning resources - " Ewethful's Wool School"
https://www.ewethfulfiberfarm.com/pages/wool-education

For details and to purchase the online course to  learn to handspin on wheel
https://www.ewethfulfiberfarm.com/pages/lets-make-yarn-landing-page

For details and to purchase the online course to learn to spin longdraw
https://www.ewethfulfiberfarm.com/products/2256545

Shop for Ewethful handspinning fibers
https://www.ewethfulfiberfarm.com/collections

Mentions in this episode:

Joan Ruane is the queen of spinning cotton. You can find several old videos from her on YouTube.

Julie Drogsvold is her mentee. She is teaching a cotton spinning class at BSG. She also has a website you can visit.

Sally Fox is the farmer growing the organic cotton in CA. She has lint, carded sliver (basically top), yarns and other lovely products. https://www.vreseis.com/shop

Hipstrings is another good resource from cottons.

My cotton cards are from Clemes and Clemes.

Affiliate link if would like to support me while buying from these companies

Woolery
https://woolery.com/?aff=352

Mission at Ewethful:
My mission at Ewethful Fiber Mill is to fill making hands with small batch American grown yarns and fibers. I strive to produce lightly processed products that maintain their character, have low environmental impact and tell the stories of the animals and shepherds from whence they came.

Transcript

0:01

Hey everyone. This is Kim Beagler with Youthful Fiber Farm and Mill, and I am here today to talk about spinning cotton, some of my tips for spinning cotton. And I decided to do this because just a couple weeks ago, I did a workshop for my Patreon community. And we were on Zoom Live and I was doing a cotton spinning workshop and it went well. People were spinning cotton afterwards, so I thought, let me give you some of the tips that I gave them. Now you can't see it obviously, but if you are interested, you can go join our Patreon at the$10 level. And you can get access to that video. It's up and it was just recently posted, so if you're like, I wanna see more of this, there is a great place you can go support me on Patreon and get some great workshops from the past. There is also a video on YouTube I've done. I'll try to find a link to it. It was from a while ago and it wasn't as in depth, but I am spinning cotton, so it may help if you're just trying to see a visual of it. If you're trying to find me, youthful fiber farm.com is a pla great place to go. I'm on YouTube as all the wool and of course you can join the Youthful community where there's workshops, you get access to fibers before everybody else. And it's a great way to support all the different things that I do here. So, okay, let's talk a little bit about spinning cotton. So if you can spin wool, I think you can spin cotton if you're newer to spinning, I would say maybe not cotton and don't start to learn to spin on cotton. But if you've been at it for a while, I think you can give cotton a try. So. Let's start with not all cottons are the same. There's a bunch of different types of cottons you can spin. There's also a bunch of different ways you can get it as far as processed, unprocessed, different varying degrees. So the biggest thing about cottons not being the same is the staple length. And we are talking a very short staple length in cotton, lots of times, like a quarter of an inch. So, some cottons can be a little bit longer though, so obviously the longer the cotton, it's slightly, would I say easier? Maybe it's easier because you need a little bit less twist to keep the yarn together. But you know, it's fun just to play with the different types and see what you like. You can get it, you can get cotton bowls. You can get cotton on the seed, you can get lint, which is, it's already been cleaned and a lot of the BM is taken out. Depending and then you would hand card that, so you get ies. You can also get it already processed to top. There's organic cotton, there's colored cotton. So there's a whole range of things you can play with, and I do have some kits that are up in the online shop that are just little sampler packs that have some different stuff. I believe it tells you in the description has some different stuff that, so you can just kind of play with cotton. I think it's easiest to start with ies, which is what you hand card yourself. I also think it's really fun to spin off of the seed. So just, you know, whatever works for you. Okay, so let's talk about. Just some quick adjustments to your wheel because how your wheel is set up is going to make, it's gonna be a game changer for this, right? So if you have a wheel that doesn't tend to put twist in very fast, that may not be the best wheel to spin on. You want to have a. Wheel that has whirl sizes that can put twist in fast. So generally speaking, you have a whirl on your wheel. If you have multiple sizes on it. The smaller size is going to put twist in faster. So if there are options, a lot of wheels you can buy even. Faster world sizes and that's where you wanna go. Because not all wheels can spin cotton. I would say that because you need the twist to go in fast. And if you have a wheel that potentially can't put twist in fast enough, it's gonna make it harder to spin cotton. And I'm talking specifically about wheels. You can also spin cotton on support spindles, but I'm not gonna dive into that. So you need your wheel set up so that you are on the fastest world size, or you have your wheel set up so that the fastest twist can possibly go in if you're on a double drive. However, you can adjust your wheel so that you are getting the fastest twist. Most double drives have different or sizes, so so you want a world size with the fastest Swiss possible. You also want. The lightest tension you can possibly get. So if you have scotch tension, you want that tension as light as you can get it. As light as you can get it where there still is some uptake. And by that I mean like it will kind of feel like you are feeding the yarn on. So you need a little bit of uptake, so it will actually take it away from you, but you really don't wanna feel a big pull off the wheel. So when you go. You do your draw, you've got your yarn spun, you're ready for the yarn, the wheel to take it up. You might get some flex in the yarn going in because you've got the tension, so light. So it's a fine balance, but the lighter the tension, the easier it's going to be to spin your cotton. So those are your two big wheel setups. I do when I spin cotton also, this is the one time I tend to slow my feet down. Even with those adjustments to the wheel, it just gives me a little bit more control. I'm not like. Baby stepping, but just slightly slower than I probably normally do. And of course, as you settle into spinning cotton, that can shift, right? Like you'll, you'll start to daze out and you'll get to your default and it will be just fine. But when you're first starting, I think it makes you feel like you have a little more control if you have the wherewithal to, to just tread a little bit slower. So now our hands, so this is kind of big. Because you do need to spin cotton long draw, whether you're on a support spindle, which spinning on a support spindle is spinning long draw, or you're on a wheel. And by long draw, I mean instead of pulling small amounts forward. As in short forward, we are now going to draft backward against the the draft against the wheel, and that is long draw, so your front hand's not really doing a whole lot. Your back hand is drafting backwards and twist is entering the yarn up to that back hand. So this is different than short forward. The reason you need to be able to spin long draw for cotton is because that staple length is so short and because you are having twist go in so very fast, you need to be able to draft backward. If you tried to short forward cotton, it would just keep, the fiber would just keep breaking and breaking and breaking because you only have a quarter inch or so of fiber. If you spin long draw, you're drafting against. The wheel, you're pulling the fibers back, but they're not breaking because that twist is going in so fast, it can twist. While you're drafting backwards, so you do need to know how to spin long draw. I wouldn't necessarily recommend trying to learn long draw while trying to learn to spin cotton. You certainly can ignore everything I'm saying and do whatever you want, but I do just a reminder, have a long draw class that's online. You can get it, I think it's$37 and you can start right away and you'll be spending long draw. It does assume that you already know how to spend short forward, so keep that in mind. But just head to my website. There's a wool school section and you can sign up for the online long draw class. So you need to spin long draw. Part of spinning long draw is that you need to have really, really light hands. So if you use your front hand to spin, supported long draw, which is really what I teach in the class. That's the main thing I teach because it's the main thing that I do. Your front hand is super light. It just kind of acts as a little bit of extra like tension for the yarn to run across, and it will help fix wobbly, wobbly or whatever in your backhand as you're drafting back. As light, you've never wanted your hand. So light on fiber as with cotton, because the slightest bit of tension on that backhand as you're drafting back and you're gonna get SLBs and while SLBs, you can get away with with a lot of wool because the staple length is longer and there'll be some twist in there with cotton, if you get a slub. It's probably just gonna break because there's a big chunk of fiber with short, short staple lengths, and it doesn't have any twist in it. So the lighter, lighter, lighter, you can keep both of your hands, but most certainly your drafting hand, the easier it's going to be to get a yarn that doesn't get SLBs that is more consistent and won't break on you. When you go to apply. One of the most common things that. Happens with long jars, especially when you first start to learn, is that you're not putting enough twist in. So actually when you're spinning cotton, the twist is coming in so fast, it does sort of take away some of that. You're not putting enough twist in and there's not a whole lot of over twisting of cotton. I don't think you run into over spinning cotton as much as you run into overp spinning wool. So if you haven't learned long draw yet, I encourage you to do that and then start spinning cotton. Those would be my, my biggest. Tips there, the lightest hands you've ever had, you're gonna have to tell yourself it's okay. Trust the process, and it's gonna take practice and patience with cotton. So I do think that starting with IES is an easier way to start, which means you would get cotton lint, you would have some hand cards. There are cotton specific cards. You can get away with wool. It's just not gonna card quite as well. And you would. You would carve out your own, they're called ies if you're spinning cotton basically because you do a little bit of tightening. I think I show this in the video on YouTube, but like I said, I go more in depth in the Patreon workshop that I did recently. But you do a little extra twist at the, at the end of it, so you get a tighter little poy and you get a tighter poy. If you're doing wool or other fibers, it's called a Rolex. So just a little difference sir. I think it's the easiest way to start spinning. But you can certainly start with anything. You can start with anything. If you're going to start with a already processed top, I would recommend getting the easy to spin cotton. You can definitely get that on Ravel or Ravelry. You can get that on Wry. And I do have a link in the show notes an affiliate link to Woolery. So if you're gonna go through Woolery, use the affiliate link please. You can get, it's an easy to spin cotton and I think they even have it in different colors. So it'll say in the description, easy to spin. It'll mention Joan Ruen, her name in there as the person who came up with this. Easy to spin, I think, is the processing type. So read the description. If you go to Woolie to buy cotton, there are, you can buy stuff from Etsy. There's different places you can buy cotton, but for that top, I would say get it from Woolery. Easy to see. Spin and then move on to other cottons, or just grab a sampler pack from my online shop and you can just play with different things. I sw an entire like tank top quantity. And then after that, and that was from the easy spin top and then after that started spinning from seed and was just absolutely addicted to that. So, it just depends. But I have, like I said, I have the sampler packs and you'll get a couple of IES in there. You'll get some lint, you'll get a little bit of different types of top and some seeds and things. So all sorts of fun. Okay. I'll put a link in it in the show notes if I can remember, but you can go to the, the website page and find it pretty easily. So my top tips for spinning cotton, first off, take breaks. First off, know how to spin long draw. I would start there. Take breaks. So remember, this is a very different fiber than spinning wool, than spinning alpaca, than spinning just about any animal fiber. So take some breaks, you know, plan on sitting down for 10 minutes or so at a time. Don't take too many breaks as far as don't start and then take a week off. I would try to stay as consistent as you can because it's like anything else. The muscle memory, your relaxation, everything's gonna settle in the more you practice. So take some breaks. Keep your hands as light as you can and I mean, talk to yourself and say to yourself, can I hold this even lighter? Even lighter. Even lighter. And you can practice this with your wool too. I used to do it all the time when I'm spinning long, when I was learning spinning long draw like, can I hold my hand lighter? Can I hold my hand lighter? Actually, when you're spinning short forward, you can do the exact same thing. You can say lighter light. How light can I hold this? And still have a small semblance of control because really the wheel is doing most of the work. The wheel and the twist. All those things are doing the work and you're just sort of. Holding fiber. Okay. Light hands. Try different cottons. I'd say, you know, even if, and you can try to spin from, if you get top spin from each end of the cotton, there will be an end that is going to be more stubbier while you're spinning than the other end. Try different ones. Try from different sources even because some sources are gonna have cotton that has a lot more vegetable matter in it. Some of them are gonna be really clean. If you get cotton seeds that come off of more of a tree versus cotton seeds that are grown on the ground commercially, those may have a lot more VM in them the ones that are on the ground. So just try different things. And your fiber triangle, because I think I forgot to mention this in Patreon, but your fiber triangle is gonna be tiny. Your hand is going to be very light, but because those fibers are so short, you're not gonna have this big giant fiber triangle. You're really gonna have, the fibers are kind of right in front of your thumb, let's say. And. It's gonna be a little triangle, but your thumb is so light. Your thumb is so light. And all your fingers are so light. Are you getting the point here? Light, light, light hands. So those are kind of my, some of my big tips. Take breaks. Give yourself some grace. Don't look at the yarn. Don't worry about what the yarn looks like. I still get little curly cues on my fiber or on my bob and things. It's okay. Just practice the art of spinning the arm. And just a quick follow up here on finishing it is different with yarn. So let's say you've spun your two singles or whatever you're gonna do, you're ready to finish it. So you apply pretty much the same. I do tend to take my singles and put them on storage bobbins because I do tend to get a little bit more curly cues and spots like that are just not so pretty on the bobin. And I have found if I rewind onto storage bobbins, that it's a lot easier to apply off of. I did do an episode on storage Bobbins. In the audio podcast so you can scroll back if you haven't heard that. Like you're like, what is she talking about? Storage bobbins. But it's basically a way to make your yarn, to take your yarn from one bobin to another and have it be more consistent. So your plying can be a lot more consistent and easy. And if you're getting a lot of curly cues and things like that on your bobin, it does make it significantly easier. So once you've applied, you take it off your nitty naughty, I finish it by, this is not how everybody does it. But I finished my cotton yarn by boiling it. And I know that sounds terrifying for us hand spinners, but think cotton is gonna shrink if you throw it into boiling water. Your shrink factor is done like you're done. And so I just throw it in. I bring a pot to boil. Boil it for a couple minutes. That's it. Don't pull it out right away'cause it's gonna be hot. So let it cool. You're gonna have kind of a stickyness to the water and to the fiber, but that's okay. You know, just let it cool, rinse it off, hang it dry. The same as you would do with your wool, pretty much from that point. But the boiling can seem like what? And remember, once you knit this up or crochet this up, you can throw it in the wash. Technically, you can throw it in the dryer, right? And especially if you boiled it, your boil, your shrinkage factor should pretty much be taken care of. So that's how I finish mine. The last thing I wanted to just touch on was, ding it. There are different ways to dye cotton. You wanna make sure that you get if you're gonna use commercially processed dyes, that you wanna get one that's made specifically for cotton. The dyes that we use for wolves will not work the same. So get, dye that you can get and you can get it on. derma.com has cotton dyes and I, I have not dyed any of my cotton, but you can, I have heard, just stick it in like a mason char with the dye with the water and put it in the sun and the sun will take care of the rest. So I believe it's very easy to die cotton. Like I said, I haven't tried. One thing I did forget to mention is that you, there are some, there is one colored. Cotton that when you boil it, it changes to the color. So I think it changes to a green, or it's a green, I can't remember, but it's kind of a fun thing. It's just one of those fun. That's why I actually started boiling.'cause I was like, well, let me try to boil this one. And it worked. So let me just boil my cotton. So. There you go. We spent 17 minutes talking about cotton. Before I go, I did want to mention a couple other resources. So like I said, you can check out Patreon, where I have a workshop in there that you can watch. You can check out my YouTube channel. I'll try to find the link to that. But I know there was an episode where I talk about spinning cotton probably a year or so ago, but it's in there. You can find Joan Ruen on YouTube. She is kind of the queen of cotton. She has a cotton spinning book. She, I think she may still have a website, but she, there are very old videos of her on YouTube. Prepping, like carting cotton, spinning cotton. So head there, that's a free resource there. And Julie Fel is actually a mentee of Joan's, so you can check out her website. I'll put all this in the show notes. You can check her out. Woolly is a great place to buy that easy spin cotton from, they do I think have some other cottons as well. And fringe lunatic yarns is another place I think you can buy. A couple different cotton, cotton products there and there are some more, and I'll try to put them in the show notes as well. But those are the ones that are coming to mind. So, okay, you all, I think that's it for this time. If you are interested in the sample packs, head to the website for some cotton sample packs. If you want to support what I do from the various content that I make, or just get access to a new community in the fiber world. Head to my Patreon and you can go to the website for other information. I think that's everything I've got, so everybody take care. Get lots of spinning in and maybe think about spinning some cotton. It's that time of year. Okay. Thanks everybody so much for listening. I hope to see you somewhere in my community. Thank you.