Okay, you've hooked me! I want the DVD, if for nothing more than the spinning wheel modification.

If it's good enough for Ghandhi it's good enough for me!  I'll give it a whirl!

I hope you don't mind, but the post about Ghandi spinning reminded me of a favorite poem written by Agha Shahid Ali:

The Dacca Gauzes

By Agha Shahid Ali

… for a whole year he sought

to accumulate the most exquisite

Dacca gauzes.

—Oscar Wilde / The Picture of Dorian Gray

Those transparent Dacca gauzes

known as woven air, running

water, evening dew:

a dead art now, dead over

a hundred years. “No one

now knows,” my grandmother says,

“what it was to wear

or touch that cloth.” She wore

it once, an heirloom sari from

her mother’s dowry, proved

genuine when it was pulled, all

six yards, through a ring.

Years later when it tore,

many handkerchiefs embroidered

with gold-thread paisleys

were distributed among

the nieces and daughters-in-law.

Those too now lost.

In history we learned: the hands

of weavers were amputated,

the looms of Bengal silenced,

and the cotton shipped raw

by the British to England.

History of little use to her,

my grandmother just says

how the muslins of today

seem so coarse and that only

in autumn, should one wake up

at dawn to pray, can one

feel that same texture again.

One morning, she says, the air

was dew-starched: she pulled

it absently through her ring.

I love anything to do with Gandhi and his philosophy on peace and social activism. What a wonderful video clip; thanks for sharing.

cotton PHOBIA??  what a great headline to perpetuate the negative feelings towards this terrific fiber.   Count the number of garments you've got on right now made with either wool and cotton.   Why do we wear more cotton than we spin?  Anyone that can spin luxury down fibers can master cotton.  

doesn't take much to push my buttons about cotton.  It can be soft, silky, strong, warm, cool, environmentally good and bad. Ordinary cotton is far superior to spin than ordinary (not exceptionally nice) wool.

linda: YOU CAN DO THIS!!! i also had very negative feelings about spinning cotton a few years ago, as a new spinner. i was actually overwhelmed at the thought of spinning this unassuming fiber. but strangely, it was the words of people who told me that i couldn't do it, or that it was extremely hard, that pushed me over the edge! i finally had to try it!

i started spinning cotton on my ashford traveller. and although it was slow going, i was able to do it! but it was so tedious that i became bored with it very fast. i did, however feel great about conquering my fears and doing something that most people said couldn't be done!! it wasn't until i bought a tahkli that i found my cotton-spinning groove! i have never looked back! i love that tool so much and i have spun cop after cop of cotton singles and even plied with the tahkli! *now, if i had access to a charka it's probably what i would use, if i could get the hang of it!* my tahkli now has a permanent position on the table next to my couch- close enough at hand that i can grab it whenever i want! and if you have little kids, it's great: you can put it down and pick it back up in an instant! my current tahkli project: spinning baby camel!!! it's amazing! my only regret is that i don't own more than ONE tahkli!!!

so, like i said, YOU CAN DO THIS!!! with whatever tool you choose, it can be done! *in fact i'm quite jealous of your owning a charka! ;)

Linda,  

For several years I have been like you.  Gathering cotton, spindles, ect.  I was very frustrated with the whole process and have been moving my collection from place to place.  Recently, a friend shared her charkha with our Fiber Group, and this is something I have always wanted.  Should I have gotten it years ago, it would have ended up with the other items, not being used.  Now I have a renewed interest, and this time feel I will be more sucessful.  I viewed a DVD Charkha spinning class by Eileen Hallman.

Now I realize what I was doing wrong.  She takes you step by step through the elements of a Charkha and the spinning process.  Also learned there is cotton and there is cotton.  I actually was able to spin on my new Charkha made by my husband.this morning  He and I learned a lot watching the video and was able to finally get it up and running.  He started with plans from the 1996 Winter Spin-off.  While he didn't follow the plans exatly he did a great job of making a briefcase size.  I have a long way to go and need a lot of practice, but atleast I am going in the right direction.

Please let us know how your are doing with your personal challenge.

Lorie-AZ

YOU CAN DO IT!

I didn't think I could - there seems to be so much written about how hard it is to spin - on a wheel perhaps?  I didn't even bother to try... after all they say, "it's too difficult!"

But, on a Indian charkha - before I knew it -  I was spinning thread in short order.  I watched the magic of spinning as a fine thread was drawn from the tuft of cotton held ever-so-lightly in my hand.  It takes a super light touch, a microscopic drafting zone and more twist than you can imagine.  

Oh, and perhaps a bit of denial... after all they say,  "it's too difficult!"

Linda, I thought I'd never spin cotton until Stefanie B. called on me to write the article on Cotton Clouds. Irene Schmoller graciously sent me one of her All About Cotton kits and I'm hooked! While I love the qualities of wool, there's something about cotton that's so enjoyable to spin.

I should also add that I never thought I'd spin it because a) I'd heard it was "too difficult", and b) haptodysphoria (more about that <a href="slipstreamfiberarts.wordpress.com/.../a>). What a difference high-quality fibre and a little encouragement made.

Dear Linda,

You should take a page from Gandhi about spinning and try the cotton on a charkha. You will be amazed at how much easier it is! I invite you to join our charkha yahoo group.

groups.yahoo.com/.../charkha

We are a great group and very encouraging with each other as we explore all things charkha.

I can assure you, you will love cotton spinning once you get the right tool!

bj heeke

charkha list owner

Dear Linda

The clip of Ghandi is always great to watch, but the voice over is misleading. Yes, spinning for your own cloth supplements your income, but it went deeper than that. Indians were not allowed to spin cotton. All fabric was to be bought from English companies spinning and weaving in the industrial heartland of England. What Ghandi was doing and advocating was a very practical method of civil disobedience and demanding through his actions the return of a basic right, the removal of which was keeping his people in servitude and poverty (same with his insistence on making his own salt - same problem, same solution and still a political act). He hadn't "retired", he had changed tack. His actions were seen, rightly, as provocative and the role of spinning cotton in moving India to independence was recognised when the flag of India was designed. The spinning wheel is right in the centre of it.

Several years ago a friend brought me a charka from her visit to India.   That summer, like Gandi I got up every morning and spun cotton on the wheel.  I would like to get back to that and enjoy the fine cotton.