Cotton, cotton, and more cotton!

Remember the cotton bolls I grew and harvested last fall?  Well, over the winter I "ginned" them by hand.....the pasta maker did not work, unfortunately..... and it is amazing how much cotton I now have from only 36 seeds planted last spring!  I will never ever need to buy cotton seeds again!

Cotton seeds from the 2013 harvest!

Here is my harvest of each of the four kinds of cotton that I planted:

This is the entire harvest spread out on my queen-sized bed, with cat and paperback book for comparison.
Keep in mind, I started out with only 36 seeds!

White.
I am not sure what type.  There are many and this one was
not labelled.

Sea Island Brown

Erlene's Green

Nankeen, not nearly the yield as the others.

I believe that I would have had a better yield of the Nankeen if I had not planted it so late.....several weeks after the others.  By the way, Nankeen cotton's color probably looks familiar to you.  It comes from India where it was commonly used for British soldiers' uniforms, and the name for those uniforms....."khakis"!  The draw was that it was cotton that didn't need to be dyed and it was cheaper than the white.  Because white cotton had a longer fiber staple and could be easily dyed in lovely colors, it was more expensive and desirable for commercial applications.

One interesting thing about my crop was that I didn't think what the outcome might be by planting the green, white, and brown right next to each other.  I watched the bees go in and out of the blossoms, still not realizing what might happen.  Then when I started "ginning" the cotton bolls, I noticed that cross-pollination had occurred, most evidently with the green and brown, which bloomed after most of the white had already started making bolls.  I saw several shades of brown that had crossed with the green, and many more shades of the green that had crossed with the brown and the white.  You could identify each of the crosses as either mainly green or mainly brown, and the green with brown was definitely a different color than the brown with green.  A blue-green and a reddish brown were also noticeable in more than one boll.  I saved some of the seeds of each color variation to plant for further exploration.

In this enlargement of the photo of my green cotton, the different shades of green are quite evident.

The ease with which the colors cross pollinated is why in some states and/or regions where white cotton is a commercial crop, you are prohibited from planting colored cotton.  Keep this in mind if you are thinking of planting cotton in your garden.  You can find out by simply calling your local extension agent.

Picking the seeds out by  hand was an adventure. The Sea Island brown was the easiest to pick, then Erlene's Green and the Nankeen.  Hardest of all was the white, which wanted to hang onto the seeds for dear life!  

You can see how relatively clean the Sea Island seeds are compared to the others.

The length of the staple was different in each variety as well.  The green and white were the longest, with the Nankeen being very short.  Not sure if this is due to my late planting of it, and therefore less time to develop in the boll, or if it is just the nature of this variety.

Although not a great photo, this shows the various staple lengths of the fibers by variety.

I found the green to be the softest of all, with the white coming in a close second in this category.  All in all, I was most impressed with the green.  I will try the Nankeen one more season to see if I like it any better, however, as it stands now I don't think I will like it enough to plant more of it after this year.

This year I will plant the different colors away from each other to lessen the chance of cross pollination.  At the same time, I am going to plant the seeds from several of the cross pollinated bolls in large pots, again away from the others and each other.  I would like to see if, for instance, the blue-green is viable in the seed, or if it will just revert to the original.  I would love to develop a blue-green cotton!  I also like the brownish green and the reddish brown.  Could I eventually produce a cotton more red than brown?!  Stay tuned....I am loving these possibilities!  I am a sucker for genetics.  At one point in my life, a very long time ago, I dreamed of being a research biologist.....

I spun up some of my harvest just to see what it was like and below are some labelled samples.  I can tell you that, at first, I felt like I was spinning "string" and it was not very exciting after years of spinning other, more "interesting" fibers like wool, llama, yak, buffalo, or silk.  So, I decided to blend it with another fiber.... llama in one case, and silk noils in another.  I really liked the latter!

As I spun the different yarns, however, I began to have a better appreciation of spinning cotton.  It can, and sometimes does, seem like spinning string (especially with the commercially prepared top that spins very smooth), but if you relax your control and let the cotton do what it wants, then the most wonderful lumps and bumps, and thick and thin places appear, and it begins to take on a really nice character that only cotton has.  I became more and more excited with each of my samples as I saw all the possibilities of spinning with cotton!

I will be trying my hand at spinning cotton this spring and summer and will keep you updated.  I really want to spin cotton for several reasons:  I live in a warmer climate where wool really isn't practical for the most part, cotton is a common crop here in the South and I can easily grow my own cotton source, and I like a challenge (sometimes!). I am also drawn to it because it was the fiber that Gandhi (of whom I am a great admirer) spun on his charkha during his civil disobedience movement.  I spin my cotton right now on my Ashford Joy or my Ashford Traditional wheels, but I would one day love to learn to spin it on a charkha of my own.  It is on my Bucket List!

Cotton must be processed in a different way compared to other fibers that we spinners enjoy spinning.  I will outline those steps in a future post, along with some processing and dyeing tips and tricks!

If you would like to grow some cotton of your own, please email me a request at llama_mama@msn.com with "cotton seeds" in the subject line, and I will get some to you at no charge.



Spring seems to have finally gotten here, and I am standing in High Cotton here on HeartSong Farm!

Tour de Farm 2014

Spring continues to try to break into full swing, with a day and/or night here and there where it seems like Winter is having a hard time letting go.  My Bradford pears have all bloomed fully and the red buds are now taking their turn.  The ones on the east side of my house bloom several days ahead of the ones facing north, with the one on the northeast corner right in the middle.  I find this interesting, a micro climate easily seen, literally in my own front yard!

This is one of my Bradford pear trees in full bloom one day this week. 

Look how the pastures are greening up! This one is directly in front of 
my house, and was Smokin's pasture until last fall when he passed away.  

In a  week or so, I will move his son, Jagger, out of the backyard and
 into this pasture for the spring and summer.  The highway is in the distance.

This past week I was thinking that it is about time I show you around HeartSong Farm.  So, let the tour begin.......!

This is not the front door, but it is the door everyone uses for one!  It is on the west side, by the driveway. Many years ago, Ben built an arbor over this door for me and I planted a yellow Lady Banks rose on each side with the idea of keeping some of the sun and heat off that side of the house.  The roses evidently liked the job that they were assigned and now we have to prune them several times during the summer months just so we can go in and out the house and get in and out of our vehicles!  The difference they have made in my electric bill is very much appreciated, as are the beautiful yellow bunches of blossoms each spring. Speaking of which, they would normally have bloomed by early March......hmmmmm......but not this crazy year!

This is Max Steed, our guard feline who lives outside and doubles as our barn cat.
He is great at catching mice and snakes, but steers clear of the raccoon and possum!

Here we have Ben's "man cave" to the left, and to the right is where we
keep the hay bales and some of the outdoor tools and equipment.

This is the gate to the backyard from the driveway side of the house. 
As you can see, Jagger has been pastured here for the winter and has

done a really nice job of keeping down the grass and weeds for me.  

He will soon be moved out front to his own pasture so that I can use

part of the backyard for growing my vegetables.

This is the back pasture where Texanna resides.  At one time I had ten female llamas and their crias in this pasture, but all except Texanna are now gone and it is quite empty to look at sometimes.  I used to really enjoy sitting in my back porch swing and watch them graze and interact within the female herd.  The fox family lives way back up there in the back past the fence line, and I suspect that some wild hogs live up in that woods as well.  

Here we have my ramshackle barn...not nearly as old as it looks!  I trusted someone that I shouldn't have and paid them good money to build it for me.  The roof leaks terribly.  Nevertheless, it has worked well enough up til now, and maybe it will last until I don't need it any longer.  It is located to the east of the house, half in Texanna's pasture, and half in the front pasture where Armando and Moonshadow reside.

My llama weather vane on top of the questionable barn roof.
 I just absolutely LOVE it!  (The weather vane, not the roof.)

This is the front of my log home taken from Armando and Moonshadow's

pasture out front and to the east.  The house itself faces due north.

Okay, this is the Real Front Door!  There is a small porch and this is where the Eastern phoebe pair make their nests each year on the ceiling light fixture.  Ben built a pergola of sorts for me extending out from the porch, and now jasmine and a climbing white rose grow up and onto it.  That red bud to the right got mowed over by the same Ben at least four times before he finally remembered to mow around it!  It is a true testament to the power and determination of Nature....

This is the back of the house, taken from Texanna's pasture.  There is a nice long porch along most of it and a porch swing for sipping tea and relaxing.  I would really like to enlarge and screen it in one day.  It is the perfect place to catch a spring or summer breeze coming around the corner of the house from the northeast.  Couldn't live without my porch!

  

Sir Prize is now 15 years old.  He was my first baby llama (cria), and he is still 

an intact male and is pastured away from the other males as he would fight 

with them over Texanna, whether they could breed with her or not.

Texanna is also 15 years old and was the first cria I got to 

see being born!  She is the only female I have left on the farm.  

These two guys are my geldings.  They are half-siblings born in December 1999, so they 

are 14 years old now.  They have lovely, soft and dense fleece which is a joy to spin!

And this is my baby, two year old Jaguar Moon, or Jagger for short.  Texanna is his mama and Smokin' Jaguar was his sire. Smokin' passed away last October, 2 weeks shy of his 19th birthday.  Jagger is the spitting image of his papa except that Smokin' was a silver gray with spots and Jagger is a cream with spots.  He is the only male that Smokin' ever put spots on, although I had numerous females born spotted. Knowing that I would not be breeding much longer with Smokin', I bred him to Texanna, who always had spotted females despite being a bay, and then for the next 11-1/2 months I prayed for a spotted male.  My prayers were answered with this sweet fella!  And his fiber is AWESOME!

From Sir Prize's front pasture, you can see the highway to the north.  Once the tree line fills out in May, the traffic noise is much less noticeable, for which I am grateful.  You can see the red clay that makes up most of my property in that reddish orange spot to the right in the photo.   That is part of a dust bowl where the llamas enjoy rolling around in during the spring and summer, fluffing up their fiber to help them stay cool and to keep the bugs from bothering them too much.  

This is The Brier Patch between the house and the highway.  I prefer to put downed limbs and cut branches, etc., in this pile or "snag" so that it can be a home to rabbits, mice, birds, insects, or whatever, rather than doing what has been suggested by some and simply burning it.  Brush and grass fires are just way too common around these parts.  And, I like to think I am providing a home and cover for those creatures who need it.

This is my trailer for transporting llamas.  It is made from a 4 x 8 utility trailer, a 4' gate and two 8' gates, all "welded" together with duct tape that gets re-furbished once a year.  I added some cattle panel a few years ago when I discovered I had a llama that thought jumping out would be a good idea!  This simple inexpensive trailer will hold four llamas for short distances, and I have trailered 2 adult and 2 young llamas nine hours from here to Arkansas twice!  I made it in 1999 and it still keeps working!

This is the Big Pile of Topsoil for making more veggie and flower beds this Spring. 

Looks like a lot work, doesn't it?  It will be well worth it come harvest time!  That
is the highway out front in the distance.

And look what I found in the front yard while I was walking around this week!
They are some kind of wild hyacinth.  They come back every year about a week 
after the johnny-jump-ups, and bring a smile to my face every time!

Just now, as I was typing here at my computer, a downy woodpecker landed in the Japanese magnolia tree outside the window! When I lived in Connecticut in the 90's, we had downy and hairy woodpeckers everywhere, but this is the first one I have seen since moving here!  Wow!!!

And, for me and Ben, the REALLY BIG news here this past week was that we witnessed "my" red-shouldered hawk, Token, reunite with his/her mate!  Last year was the first time we heard and saw them find each other in the sky above the farm.  This year, first we heard one cry and then the other as they called for each other high aloft. And then.....one landed in the clump of trees near Ben's man cave.....and the other landed in the clump of trees about 20 feet away!  We were watching from the parking pad by the side door, holding our breath and grinning from ear to ear!  What an event to be privileged to witness!  After about 5 minutes, they left, one after the other.....reunited for the spring and summer to raise their young and continue the cycle of life!  Love it!

Everything is as it should be.....

And I am very much ready for Spring here on HeartSong Farm!

A final Retreat....

Last Sunday afternoon I returned home from the final Wildflower Fiber Retreat ever, and I am sad.  We all are. But all good things must come to an end, and our fiber retreats were a really, really good thing for those of us in this neck of the woods who are crazy about all things fiber, including fiber animals, spinning, weaving, and knitting, and getting together once a year with like-minded souls to learn and share in an atmosphere of fun and fellowship. For me personally, it was my life-line to communal creativity, and a testament to the fact that there really were others out there who are interested in the same things that I am.  This final get-together was the 20th Anniversary, and I have been blessed to attend 9 out of the last 10 retreats. I have the t-shirts to prove it!

We began arriving at Camp Tyler, on Lake Tyler, around 4:30 pm on Friday, March 7, 2014.  For many of us older ladies, it is VERY important to get there early so we can claim a Bottom Bunk in one of the cabins where we will spend the next two nights. I found out my first year that climbing into the top bunk is easy....getting down from it, not so easy, especially in the middle of the night for a potty call.  

Cabin at Camp Tyler

Most of our time will be spent in and around the Lodge, which quickly turns into a hive of activity as new arrivals are greeted, hugged, and registered for the Event.  There were several new faces among the "regulars", and everyone was excited to be away from their usual environment for a weekend ... ready to see what fun the Wildflower Committee had planned for us.  Ready to play!

The Lodge at Camp Tyler

Soon the main room of the Lodge was packed with spinning wheels, bags and baskets overflowing with equipment, fiber, handspun yarns, completed projects, UFOs (Unfinished Objects), and snacks (mostly of the chocolate kind). The vendors set up their wares in the library while everyone else got settled into the spot they had chosen in the main room of the Lodge.  Pizza and salad were served between 6 and 7, and then the real fun began! New spinners met in the Lodge's smaller room and began the sometimes frustrating but always rewarding journey of learning to spin fibers into yarn.  The "old timers" spent time catching up on each other's lives while we spun on what we had brought, visited the vendor's to see what we couldn't resist adding to our stash, and held impromptu "show and tell" with one another.  

My fiber purchases from some of the vendor's.  From left to right is
silk/merino blend, Shetland/Black Welsh Mt. wool blend batt,
Black Welsh Mt. wool batt,silk/merino blend, & painted wool roving.

Fiber Sisters

Wildflower Fiber Retreat Spinners

While most went to bed around 10 pm each night, some of us continued our tradition and stayed up way past midnight, talking and laughing and sharing, and then walked back to our cabins in the pitch black dark, swinging our flashlights and listening for rustling in the bushes. We crept quickly and quietly into our squeaky bunk beds, and before we knew it some one's alarm was going off and a new day of fun had dawned.  Time to get up, get dressed, brush teeth, comb hair, put on makeup (some of us!), and back to the Lodge for playtime!  But first some coffee or tea, and breakfast of muffins, fresh fruit, and yogurt.

Saturday was centered around learning how to create "art batts" which are quite popular these days.  You can find them for sale on Etsy, Artfire, Ebay, and Amazon.com.  We were going to learn how to make our very own!  What fun!  Linda Masters was to be our main guru with the help of one of the Wildflower ladies, Mitchie Ryan, who had been practicing different techniques of the spinning of art batts so that she could help answer any and all questions that we might have.  An art batt is made up of a multitude of colors and textures, with or without some sparkle or found objects.....truly one-of-a-kind, and creativity is the only rule.

Linda Masters demonstrating how to make an art batt.

Linda shows off the art batt she just made.
She is wearing one of her art batts as a cowl!
How cool is that?!

In the beginning, various colors and types of fiber were spread onto two tables in the Lodge's main room. Three other tables held drum carders....one at each corner of the tables...for a total of 12.  The minute the instruction was over, we scattered like fish in a well-mannered feeding frenzy to the mounds of colored fibers and began grabbing what we wanted to use in our very first experiments with this technique.  There was wool roving and top in a rainbow of colors, dyed mohair locks, natural and dyed uncarded wools and fibers, silk, soy fiber, alpaca, and llama.  And there were the bags of angelina and angelfire: synthetic fibers that glisten and let you add as much "bling" as you want to your carded batt. Some like a lot, some not so much....I am one of the latter.  To me, a little goes a long way!

Angelfire fiber and

Angelina fibers.....lots of glitz for lots of bling!

Then it was a race to the drum carders, although some of us, including me, took a much longer time deciding which colors of which fibers they wanted to use.  Once the carding began, the magic was everywhere! There was much ooohhhhing and ahhhhing as colors were blended, glitz was added, and batts came off the carders with a great deal of admiration by the onlookers who were awaiting their turn at the equipment. Once everyone had made their first batt, we were invited to make as many as we wanted as there was plenty of fiber to share. Some of us immediately made one or two more, while others were anxious to get started on spinning their first art batt creation.  Most of us ended up creating at least 3 batts to spin.

Using the drum carder to blend fibers

Creating magic with colorful fibers!

WOW!!!  My first art batt!  

My first art batt spun up, 2 singles plied together

After supper on Saturday night, it was time for announcing the skein contest winners, show and tell, and door prizes.  There is always a door prize for everyone who attends, which is really fun for me for I never had any luck with winning door prizes, anywhere, at any time.  You know how there are folks who always win something?  That is not me!  

At the conclusion of handing out the door prizes, we got busy again, and when the night owls among us finally turned out all the lights and headed to our cabins, there was fuzz and fiber and bits of glitz all over the floor,  on our clothes, in our hair, and only a tiny fraction of fiber left on the two tables.  It had all been used in the creation of handspun beauty, and creativity had taken its toll!

Another one of my batts

I will ply it with this copper metallic thread!

Another of my batts...

and another!  I made four in all.

When I left my cabin on Sunday morning, it was beginning to mist, and fog was beginning to roll in "on little cat feet" (thank you, Carl Sandburg!).  A line of waterfowl took off from the lake, and the smell of coffee invited me into the Lodge for our last day of the Retreat.  After breakfast, we began winding down toward an after lunch departure.  The morning was spent spinning, visiting the vendors (again!) and visiting with new and old friends. Email addresses, blog sites and other social media info were exchanged.  Most of us began moving some of our "stuff" out to our vehicles before sitting down at our wheels one last time until the call for lunch was made.

Flor shows off the yarn she spun from her first
art batt.... and she is a newbie spinner!!!

During lunch, there were a few announcements made relative to how we might continue to meet at various other venues as a way to keep the friendships, connections, and creativity flowing. We were all sad, but hopeful. Twenty years is a long time, and a lot of hard work for our fiber sisters, the dedicated women of the Wildflower Committee.  We are grateful that they had had the vision to host a Wildflower Retreat all those years ago, and then to continue to do so despite all the major planning that was involved.  We appreciate them all so very much! And it is not really Farewell.....it's Till We Meet Again!

View of Lake Tyler from porch of the Lodge

Around 4:15 pm Sunday, I arrived back home, tired but happy, to HeartSong Farm!