Growing and Spinning Florida Native Cotton
Today we’ll hear from guest blogger Caroline Tacker, who tells us about how she got started in the fiber world with a spur-of-the moment purchase of some inexpensive cotton plants!
I grow and spin Florida Native Cotton, which at its best has a ¾-inch staple. I currently use an Ashford Kiwi and Traditional for my spinning, but I can also use a Tahkli spindle. This cotton was grown in my front yard.
The Cotton that Almost Wasn’t
The bloom from a Florida Native cotton plant
Florida Native Cotton is part of the Hibiscus family, as are all cottons. It is an endangered plant in Florida. In the early 1940s a new bug was found on the cotton that resembled the boll weevil. Fearing another boll weevil-like attack, they decided to systematically destroy the plants. It just so happened that World War II broke out and those men left this project to join the armed forces. Hence some of this cotton survived… and NO new boll weevil was ever verified. There is an original strand of this cotton behind a synagogue at mile marker 31 on the way down to Key West. I can verify it’s there as I have seen it!
Florida Native Cotton grows much like our hibiscus: if left unattended it gets gangly and out of control. I do prune my plant back, to try and make it ascetically pleasing, and also to make it look like it belongs in the yard/garden. It is not cold tolerant; it prefers to grow below the subtropic line of Florida. I did lose all my plants to a freeze 5 years ago. Since then, a “volunteer” showed up.
The use of Florida Native Cotton in History
Caroline’s cotton plant
There is limited information about Florida Native Cotton; the one thing I haven’t seen about it is whether or not it was ever really used for anything. I’m sure people used it because that would be in our nature as pioneers: use what you have. As to what they used it for or on, I have not found any information. As to spinning it, my thoughts are it would be too labor intensive and not a good use of time for people who made everything from scratch, but I cannot find anything confirming they did or did not.
My Fiber Journey
My start down the fiber path started over 11 years ago in the spring when I attended a Florida native plant sale in St Petersburg, Florida (where I live). There I found Florida Native Cotton seedlings which they were selling at 3 pots for $1. I thought… if they live great, if they don’t I’m only out $1.
I was told that cotton liked full sun and carbon monoxide, so I planted my seedlings in the easement of my front yard, next to the road. As they grew over the next several months, they bloomed and then I had this white beautiful fuzzy cotton! Now that I had this lovely fiber… I had to figure out how to process it.
harvested Florida Native cotton
I did several web searches – how to clean, gin, etc. – and after a year of not finding much about how to process cotton, other than commercially. I’d kind of given up. Then someone suggested I go to Heritage Village (our local living museum). I contacted them and asked if they could teach me how to process my cotton and in exchange I would become a volunteer. In March of 2006, I met Wendy who taught me how to “gin” my cotton by hand and spin it on a tahkli spindle. I had the process down in about 45 minutes.
While volunteering at Heritage Village during their County Jubilee Festival, I met Judy of the Pinellas Weavers Guild. She was spinning on a lovely spinning wheel. We talked for awhile and she invited me to come to a guild meeting. I did and joined the Guild in December of 2006. Have loved being around other “fiber” minded people, I am currently still a member… and I am their curre
Caroline’s cotton ready to spin
nt president. I have also been the past Secretary and Vice-President.
So to sum it up… almost 12 years ago I purchased three Florida Native Cotton plants for $1. I have since learned to spin on a tahkli spindle, purchased 2 spinning wheels, a drum carder, a loom and other associated small equipment. I “play” with lots of different fibers, and I do sell some of the things I make, but I ALWAYS come back to cotton. I just love it.
Samples of Caroline’s cotton spinning projects
Have you ever tried to grow or spin cotton straight from the plant? Tell us about your experiences & ask your questions in the comments!
Caroline Tacker is a Florida native born in Orlando, living in St. Petersburg for the past 25 years. She volunteers with Heritage Village as a living history docent (spinning cotton by hand) and is a member of the Pinellas Weavers Guild, Bay Area Knitting Guild, and Florida Tropical Weavers Guild. Find her on Facebook for more information.
To the left is a photo of three different pairs of socks I made using singles yarns on the CSM. In this photo you’ll see three socks all made from handspun singles and knit on the sock machine. These are all socks that I have been wearing and washing by hand for at least a few months. The striped sock is made from a BFL x Romney fleece and was dyed – there is almost no biasing of the stitches present in that sample. The blue sock was made from a Dorset x Southdown. It might be 50/50 or 25/75 as it came from a fleece from a local flock but I don’t know which sheep. There’s lots of biasing in this sock to the point where you can actually see the stitches twist on the sock. The third sock is undyed Romney with a bit of sparkle blended in. This is the oldest of the three socks and you can see some of the wear in the right hand corner. This pair is starting its third year. I spun and knitted these socks in very similar ways – the only real difference is the wool type used.
probably have at least another year of spinning and weaving before I finish the original plan and since I began I’ve thought of new questions and experiments I want to look into.
But that’s not really what I’m here to talk about. Many, many people have asked me how I can spin that much yarn that is the same. Same size, same color, same everything. There’s no real secret. But I’ll tell yoou what I know now that I’ve finished three skirts and I’m spinning for the 4th.
After carefully teasing out the locks I put them through my drum carder. I usually use a Louet drum carder for Icelandic as it has longer and finer teeth and will take the loft of the combined coats more successfully than many other carders. Usually I put the fleece through at least twice, splitting the first batt into two lengthwise and then putting each through again. I hold the batt up to the light and see if there are neps and lumps that need further carding.
There are a lot of different ways to keep track of your yarn for consistency while spinning. I like the lazy ways. Here are four ways to keep track that I use when I spin.
don’t spin plenty of mill process wool. It’s like thinking about cakes. The completely home made from scratch cake will always be better than the box mix but that box mix surely has its place on my shelf.
buckets until they are a little over 3/4 full. It seems like a lot when you are going to put the wool in but the wool soaks up some water and often I have to top them off a bit after the wool is in.
of the scour to the basin. After all 4 have been emptied and refilled I let them soak for another 15 minutes.
used to just squeeze out as much water as I could and then roll the wool in towels but I like to spin it out in the washer now. It gets out more water and I don’t have as many sopping wet towels laying around.
These are just sweater drying racks that are stackable. I have several of them and if I run out of space i move to the floor. I wash wool until there is no more space and then I may need to take a a day or off while the fleeces dry and some space is available. I make sure to write the breed on a card and place it next to the wool. Sometimes if you have several white fleeces drying next to each other it can be a little confusing so the labels are important.
