peeps

my friend, rachael, needed to go to ohio today to pick up some newborn chicks from a hatchery.   she had ordered some previously,  and had them shipped,  but there were a few that needed to be replaced, so she decided to drive over rather than risking shipping on these.    i was excited to be invited to ride along.  :-)

the hatchery is about 2.5 hours away.  we had a great time chatting on the way.   there are always lots of things to talk about...spinning,  weaving,  dying fiber,  and of course, chickens.  lol.    the hatchery is waaayyyyyy out in the boonies, in amish country.   we saw lots of horses and buggies,  the occasional amish pedestrian,  and a flock of sheep.    when we arrived she was presented with these little balls of fluff.....

it was too cold to stand outside taking pictures,  but i got a few of the hatchery through the car windows....

this is how far out in the boonies we were...

kinda reminds me of my home town in michigan....


and there was this cool, single lane tunnel....

i rode home with a small box of peeping baby cuteness on my lap.   i kept catching myself talking baby talk to them.   but oh my.   what cuteness, lol.

Cotton....

I've been spinning yarn since the late 1970's. i've used bottom whorl drop spindles, top whorl drop spindles, and a variety of spinning wheels. i can spin just about any type of fiber..... but cotton has always been my fiber nemesis. it has a short staple (each individual fiber is short) and requires a lot of twist to hold the yarn together. i had tried drop spindles and spinning wheels, but just couldn't get the hang of it---couldn't produce a yarn with which i was happy.

A year or so ago i saw a cotton fiber sampler which included a tahkli down at darn yarn needles and thread. a tahkli is a small supported spindle, often made from metal, that is traditionally used for cotton spinning in india. i read that it was invented by ghandi in the 1930's but haven't verified that bit of info. i kept wondering whether this specific little spindle would make the difference for me.

I had been thinking about this sampler ever since, so thursday afternoon i bought one. i was amazed that i was immediately able to spin a fine, fairly consistent yarn. i had never had any interest in supported spindles before, but now i find myself searching youtube and drooling over russian supported spindles on etsy lol. this has the potential to turn into my next fiber obsession.....

So far i have spun less than an ounce of the cotton but i already have visions of weaving dish towels from naturally colored cotton.... i'm partial to the green. but the shades of brown are also nice. I also have a few seeds for green cotton that were shared by a nice person on ravelry. i'll plant those in the next month or so and see whether, by planting in containers indoors, i can create a long enough season for the bolls to mature. i wonder how long it will take me to spin enough yarn for a couple of dish towels using my little tahkli..... Maybe i should save up for a box charka...

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so...   it takes me a couple of hours to spin the roving that it took ALL DAY yesterday to comb.

sigh.

lots more combing to do.      this frigidly cold weather is the perfect motivation to stay in the house and comb wool.    how's that for finding a silver lining, lol.    :-)