The 2010 Cotton Is In!

We finally got the rest of the cotton that was planted this year in today. This was the first time we had planted these three varieties and even though we got them in almost 2 months too late, they still produced very well.
The browns were Mississippi Brown and Sea Island Brown and the green was called Eileen's Green. Even getting them in as late as we did due to the flooding, the plants still managed to grow close to 6 feet high and were still setting blossoms after the first frost!
Where we live, the growing season is JUST long enough for cotton IF (key word here is IF!) nothing goes wrong! This year EVERYTHING seemed to go wrong from the May floods that destroyed not only Nashville but many of the roads and structures around here, to the unreal heat and humidity we experienced the bulk of the summer! If we had been able to get the crop in sooner, I have no idea if the result would have been more or if it would have all died from drowning!

Today we spent several hours cutting the remaining branches that were heavily laden with unopened bolls and bundling them in groups. Once bundled we tagged each one (experience is a HARD teacher!) so we would know which ones were which, and hung them in the living room to hopefully continue to dry and open. I'm curious if the quality of the cotton may suffer somewhat from not naturally maturing but it's a chance we are willing to take at this point. The only other option would have been to leave hundreds of unopened bolls out in the garden to rot. At least this way we have a chance to get some more! Next year we hope to return to planting white Pima AND get it in the ground much sooner. If all goes well, I will be documenting the planting and harvesting next year and will post it here!

Let the Woodstove Season Begin!

We have arrived once again at that time of the year when we stock up the wood pile and enjoy the warmth of the wood stove! Yesterday was spent dragging down wood off the hillside out into the field where I can cut it without doing my mountain goat impersonation! While we managed to haul in enough wood for several weeks, it wasn't without "incident". I did manage to get hit in the face and broke my glasses, stabbed myself in the gut with a tree limb, and twist and hit my knee which is now black and blue. (Guess it's a good thing I enjoy cutting wood!) Besides stacking in a pretty good store of firewood, I also managed to set aside a pretty good pile of nice spalted oak and dogwood that I will use in the wood shop. All in all it was a good day but I do have to admit that the pain today is more than I expected. I guess manual labor on the weekends is rather rough after standing at a printing press all week.

After getting cleaned up and having supper, we spent the evening watching a new DVD from Interweave Press that I bought called "How I Spin" by Rita Buchanan. Susie and I had the pleasure of taking a class with her several years ago at SAFF and I for one was rather intimidated and in awe of her, although she appeared to be a very down to earth person. (Part of that was probably being "male" in what tends to be a primarily female craft) I think the thing that interested me the most in her DVD presentation on her approach to spinning is how alike her technique and Susie's are. Neither of us realized that, since during the class, she didn't really do much actual spinning. I was also interested to find that Rita has only been spinning a few years longer than Susie has! (And her studio is the stuff dreams are made of!)

Tonight's feature on the DVD player is another set I recently purchased called "Spinning Luxury Fibers" by Judith MacKenzie.......stay tuned for an update on it as well!

That time of the year.

We have arrived at that time of the year again when we have to go pick the Muscadine grapes before the crows and deer beat us to them. While the colored cotton is still growing and producing well, it is behind a 8 foot high fence while the grapes are in the middle of the yard and rather unprotected. This is the 3rd year that the grapes have produced and we are now up to our eyeballs with grapes! I need to make a trip to town SOON and get the "fixings" to convert about 50-60 pounds of these into a distinctive wine that can only be made with this variety of grapes. While not a wine drinker myself, I have tasted the Muscadine wine and it is very sweet....unless you try to drink it with cake and ice cream....which in that case it's more of a sugar overload!

Comparison Shot!

After making the last post, I thought maybe a "comparison" shot would be in order. Here is a picture of Bram modeling with the skein. Bram is a Maine Coon cat and weighs between 12 and 14 pounds himself so as you can see, this skein is not something you are going to normally find at your LYS. (Bram is 6 years old and is still growing too by the way!)

Steroidial Skein!

As promised, here is the "mighty skein" that came off the Ashford Country Spinner. Once is was washed and dried I took it to work and weighed it on the digital scale and was surprised to find that it weighed in a 2.678 POUNDS! That's actually more than even Ashford advertises the bobbin will hold! My first purchase of this roving was 29 pounds so if the math hold true, Susie will be able to do 9.83 more skeins! Our next step with this will be to divide this finished skein and do a dye project. After we have it dyed, we will give it a try for the project it's intended for (which I haven't yet mentioned on here!) and if it works as well as I expect it to, I'll chain Susie back to her wheel and watch her spin the other 26+ pounds....then order another 29 pound bump. I LOVE having a reason to buy wool!

"The eye of the master......."

"The eye of the master will do more work than both his (or her) hands." I guess being a printer I find it very easy to both appreciate and relate to the saying of Benjamin Franklin. I remember seeing this saying years ago on the front of a graphics art instruction manual and thinking that it was a rather profound saying. After taking this picture of Susie spinning at the shop yesterday, I thought of it again and pondered the relevance it had in our lives.

While I understand the thought and meaning behind the quote, I both agree and disagree with it on several levels. First, I agree that while many people can do many different things....not just in spinning or printing....its the person that has "mastered" their craft or trade that uses not only the hands but the eyes as well. This sort of person has the ability to "see" what their doing and be able to change or adjust along the way to produce something that transcends what is normal or acceptable. This is what sets something apart and above the rest. This is the difference between an "heirloom" and a "throw away" piece....again, be it a shawl or the printed word.

While I say that I disagree with the quote, maybe it would be more accurate to say that in many instances, I'm disappointed with the outcome of what I do. There are many, many times that while I can "visualize" what I WANT to do, my hands have yet to MASTER the ability to fulfill what my EYES can see! I find this very frustrating at times. At other times I find it more to be a challenge. I know that years ago when I learned to make oval Shaker boxes, I had read and studied the process for close to 15 years BEFORE I actually made my first one, and while the first attempt was not perfect, it was sure a lot better than had I not been able to "see" the box made and understand the steps involved.

How does this then relate to our lives? I think I find it to be a word of challenge and encouragement to always strive to master what we are about. I know that it probably means little or nothing to those around us but Susie and I both want to make sure that we hear those words, "Well Done!" when we finish here on earth!

"Full Circle" Spinning

Susie started spinning about 28 years ago when a girl I went to high school with offered lessons in exchange for printing. Kim offered to teach Susie on her Ashford Traditional and like most beginners, spun a nice, fat yarn. I bought Susie her first wheel in 1982 and it came the day our son was born and the rest had been as they say, history! Over the years she has become more and more proficient and her yarn has gotten finer and finer. Over the past few years she has been spinning more in the lines of lace weight or cobweb yarns so the addition of the Ashford Country spinner has been a REAL departure from the norm. One of the things Susie has wanted to work on is rugs and with the larger orifice and bobbin capacity of this wheel, spinning a thicker yarn is a lot easier and efficient. The only problem is having been spinning finer and finer, going to a bulky yarn has proved to be harder than either of us thought. From my perspective, it just plainly looks funny since I'm use to seeing a bobbin filled with yarn that wraps at around 25-30wpi and now this wheel is sitting here with this HUGE yarn that wraps at more like 6-8wpi. I'm telling you, this is going to take some getting use to! The first bobbin is now full and has been skeined off (at 1096 yards) and as soon as we get it washed to set what little twist there is, I will weigh it and post a picture of the finished yarn. Ashford advertises a 2 POUND capacity on the bobbin and I'm guessing that that may be somewhat conservative. Stand by for future updates!