Guess where I'm going!

Twenty two months and getting to grips with life's journey. How I hope hers will be a long and happy one!

I don't know what made my dd decide that living in the middle of nowhere was a good idea, but on a day like this with the sun shining and the birds singing, she has a point.

One morning early, standing outside her back door, I was intoxicated by the sound of skylarks overhead. Last week, driving past the pig farm, just out of shot, I noticed that the road verge was covered in cowslips! What a pity my dd is oblivious to nature, especially when she can take a photo like this!

Looking at this photo, I felt the frustration of a weekend trying to spin from cotton sliver melt away. This was the result which, as you see, resembles bird's nesting material and not a nicely spun yarn! Oh the agony of watching the leader wizzing away from me through the orifice, then finally getting some twist in only for the yarn to break as it wound on to the bobbin.

I finally did what I should have done first and googled handspinning cotton. I found a tutorial that had the asnwer. The URL is http://www.cottonspinning.com and it's worth a visit. At last I have managed to set my wheel up to make it suitable for cotton spinning. I changed the drive band to a much lighter one and have reduced the tension so the flyer only just goes round when the wheel turns. I have also raided my old Ashford scotch tension for it's tension spring so now my Lendrum only just pulls the yarn onto the bobbin instead of yanking it out of my hand. Now all I need is the coordination and a bit of time to practice. Dare I suggest taking my wheel on holiday to Cornwall tomorrow?

Anyway, even if I can't squeeze it in the car, I can dream about changing this into a lovely yarn that will be strong enough to use as a warp so I can weave with it. Watch this space!