Since my husband is allergic to wool I spin a lot of cotton. While not an ideal fiber for a beginner --- cotton is not all that difficult to spin. I am constantly surprized by the number of people who are amazed that most of what I spin for others is cotton fiber. Anyone who can spin a short fiber like angora or merino certainly has developed the hand-eye coordination skills to spin cotton. But let's start at the beginning....
Cotton is from the shrub family of Gossypium a relative of the mallows, hollyhocks, and hybiscus... However for production cotton it is grown as an annual planted and harvested in one year. It grows in the warmer regions of the world and requires a long growing season of around six months. In the north, I've started it from seed indoors in January and with a very warm summer and fall it will come to boll. But in natural conditions, it prefers the warm south and south west in the USA. World-wide cotton grows in warm areas like Egypt, India, West Africa, and southern China. Some wonderful cotton is grown in South America. It is a rapid grower and needs quite a bit of fertilizer. Before growers understood this, many areas had the soil depleted by cotton growing.
Commercial cotton fibers range from Short staple of less than 1 inch, to Medium at 1 inch to 1 1/8 inch, Long staple 1 1/8 to 1 3/8 inches and finally Extra-Long staple at 1 3/8 or above. The fiber is also rated on whiteness or brightness factors with those cottons being closer to pure white being considered ideal by most of the commercial market. This is why many states have laws against colored cotton plants for fear of gene pool contamination.
Cotton is an ancient fiber used by the Egyptians, Indus Valley Indians, and the pre-historic South Americans before 3000bc. Some wonderful textiles have been found made by these peoples from cotton fine spun on drop or support spindles.
Since it is a short staple it is best spun fine and plied for width. It takes more wraps per inch to hold cotton together because unlike most wools the fibers are short. In this country the longer staples most commonly available are called Sea Island and Pima cottons. They have the extra long fiber which makes learning cotton spinning easier. They are derived from Egyptian cottons and have a creamy color. Regular cotton is called upland cotton and is whiter, but shorter stapled.
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