I had 5 or 6 cotton bolls that were either ripe or mostly ripe, and I picked the seeds out during Arts & Science Night this week.

Mistress Argent was also in attendance, and she graciously tested out my tahkli, a tiny Indian-style spindle for spinning cotton. Mine is made of metal. So it is, in fact, possible to spin the cotton I grew on the tahkli that I have. Now can I spin cotton string? … Not yet. I think it’s going to rain for a week, so I’ll have plenty of indoor time to figure that out.

I am delighted by the colors in the cotton fiber.

I noticed that the pigment is concentrated around the seeds. The hull of cotton seeds is poisonous, so hmm. I don’t plan to eat the cotton, so I’m not concerned, just interested. What pigments make the color and are they also poisonous? In the picture below you can see a green dot in the lighter fiber. That’s where the seed is.

As far as the plants are doing: The bolls are supposed to be ripe in October here in NC. Despite this, some of the plants are still producing blossoms. The blossoms are beautiful and similar to their botanical cousin, the hibiscus. Cotton is also related to marshmallow and okra, which are also in the Malvaceae family. The random assortment of cotton I’m growing this year produces white or pink flowers.

I also need spools to put my cotton thread on once I figure out how to spin it. That seems like a good starter project for my quest to learn wood carving. I’m just waiting for carving knives to arrive in the mail.