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"EASY TO SPIN" COTTON Most cotton is carded for machine spinning. Joan realized that what is good for machinery is not always the best for hand spinners. Thus she went in search of sliver or roving that was easy for hand spinners to spin. Kay Fielding, who use to own Custom Colors probably had the best type of roving of anyone. Working with that and with a carding company who has some new top of the line carding machines, they came up with "easy to spin" cotton roving. |
Dear Hand Spinners, For years all the spinning books were saying cotton is hard to spin. Then when the Linder's began teaching in the late 70's there was little to no sources for cotton fiber unless you went directly to the cotton gin. This is what Harry Linder did, he bought a bale (480 lbs.) and put it on his front porch. When he and Olive were going to go give a workshop, they would take a wafer off the bale and that was what they had to teach with. Then in the 80's we started to get a little commercial sliver that was carded for the cotton mills. At least it was clean and already carded but was not the easiest to spin. Also the spinning wheels were designed for spinning wool and long staple fibers. This meant the cotton spinners had to treadle fast and hold the yarn extended out for a long period of time to get enough twist in the short stable cotton to make it a strong stable yarn. Between the wheels with low ratios and poor cotton being available for spinner, I can understand why people thought cotton was hard to spin. It would be the same as trying to spin poor quality wool with a high ratio, all you would come out with, is over twisted wool yarn with lumps and bumps in it. But today we have spinning wheels with very high ratios, well educated spinners and a great selection of cotton fibers. Sally Fox played a very important role in getting to us some wonderful colored cotton sliver and roving. Presently there are a lot of shops that carry nice cotton that is suitable for cotton spinners. Roving is usually simply carded and not combed or drawn. Sliver has been combed and most of the crimp that is natural in the cotton, and is what makes cotton easy to spin, has been taken out. Thus the fiber is slick and slides quickly and does not spin easily. This spring I purchased some Pima and a small quantity of Sea Island ginned cotton. I had this cotton especially carded so as to allow the natural crimp to stay in the roving. I am calling my roving "Easy to Spin" Cotton Roving. Also I select only the best ginned cotton that is clean, strong, long staple and fine. The Sea Island MIC is 3.9, length is 1.36, strength is 36.1. The Pima MIC is 3.9, length is 1.39 and strength is 43.1. The carding equipment is very new and modern so that the roving is very clean and consistent. The following shops are now carrying my "Easy to Spin" Cotton Roving: |
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