Cotton Bale

On a brisk December morning last winter, I had an opportunity to dig into a bale of Cotton.

Do you know how big a bale of cotton is?!? 450 lbs of ginned (the seeds removed) fiber. A block of cotton smashed into a rectangular shape about 5 ft by 3 ft by 3 ft. It was huge!

As you can see, the bale was a little dirty, a little saggy, but clean under the surface.

Since I didn't think I could spin 450 lbs. of cotton by myself any time soon, I thought I'd share. I invited spinners from my Saturday group and from GLASG to come and share the bounty. About 5 spinners showed up and more requested I save some for them to be delivered later. I was happy to do that.

As we dug into the fiber, we discovered that the center had rotted out and been eaten away by creatures unknown.

Close up of the center rot.

Then I heard the history of the bale from the Centennial Farm manager...The bale was purchased 20+ years ago to display with the few rows of cotton plants in the garden section of the farm. The bale was left outside in the elements for all that time. In late 2015 the management bought a new bale of cotton weighing in at a colossal  600 lbs. and was even bigger. Clean and now with it's own little house. No rot for this bale.

What to do with the old bale was the new problem. The farm was just going to throw it away. My local guild, SCWSG, demonstrates at the summer county fair every year so the they contacted us first. The offer was to have someone take it away in their giant RAM tough truck or set a date to have folks come and take what they wanted. I set a date and invited people. I'm kind of glad no one offered to take the whole bale after we discovered the rot inside. Ultimately, it was fun to dig into the cotton and rescue what we could. I estimate we salvaged altogether about 50 lbs. of fiber.

Ian had friends that came to visit the farm with us. What was left of the bale is behind them.

And just because they were so cute...I have to show the piglets we saw that day...

Mustard & Mushrooms

Mustard & Mushrooms. I won this fiber in a South Coast Weavers and Spinners Guild raffle sometime last year. 2 oz. of  Baby Camel, Merino Wool and Cultivated Silk from Capistrano Fiber Arts Studio. The fiber was originally called "Banana Slug". But I prefer my new choice. The fiber was a quick and fun spin. I chain-plied the single yarn to keep the colors clear. I ended up with 155 yards of 3 ply yarn.

This lovely fiber...

Became this yarn on my Ashford Joy wheel...

And then became this skein of squishy soft yarn...

 Here is a detail for the various colors. So pretty.