Guild Meeting – April 17 at 11 AM
Fairmont Clubhouse
715 Lexington Ave, El Cerrito
Report on Sustainable Cotton Harvest in Los Baños
Cotton Project hosted their annual tour of the Lost Baños cotton harvest last November, and Susan will report on her experience. So many issues surround cotton as an industry and fiber that Susan has a love / hate relationship with cotton. She’ll touch on global trade, history, agriculture, biology, farmers, and how the Sustainable Cotton Project evolved in central California.
One of the Project farmers provided 20 pounds of raw, organic, naturally green colored cotton. There will be spinning tools and fiber preparations to try followed by a slide show of November’s harvest. Feel the difference in cotton varietals.
Try ginning cotton with a pasta machine; former S&F member Lynn Ruggles shows her techniques:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DhCp0mDYe0
Try carding punis. Try your hand at spinning cotton with takli, charkha, drop spindle and support spindles.
For additional information, see the article in the Spring 2011 edition of CNCHnet:
https://www.cnch.org/cnchnet/spring-2011/cotton-harvesting-in-los-banos/