I started spinning cotton on a Tahkli so I could spin cashmere — and quickly discovered two truths: cashmere is easier to spin than cotton, and I was hooked on cotton. I then mastered cotton on a charkha. But I had a friend who spun lovely cotton on her wheel, so I wanted to learn that. When I finally showed her a skein, she laughed: “Why did you bother with your wheel? You have a charkha — that’s the right tool for the job.”
I sometimes joke that spinning cotton is my tiny penance for Britain’s role in India’s history. Inspired by that, I watched a video of women assembling charkhas and demonstrating their amazing skill in producing Khadi cloth. I had my father and a friend build a similar charkha. My dream is a stage performance: assembling it, then spinning as the lights fade to black. It connects me to tradition, to my dad, and to the joy of cotton spinning — and I’m still chasing their slick no-stop wind-on — one day, I hope to catch it.
The Tahkli is the perfect spindle for cotton - its thin steel shaft gets great speed from a flick, and the weight of the disk keeps it spinning a long time. I usually carve the hook off my Tahklis so it's just a point - sometimes you can buy them that way. The hook just gets in my way, as I am not going to use the Tahkli suspended at all. It also forced me to learn long draw, as you twirl the spindle with one hand and draft with the other. It took a while! I spent evenings during a long hotel stay playing with the tahkli and various types of cotton. The one that clicked was the cotton/recycled blue jean blend. I was so thrilled to finally master this skill!
Then I moved on to a book charka - I loved the silliness of the book shape and had visions of tromp l'oeil painting it to look like some book - but what one? So it is still unpainted. My first one was from India, it was so much fun getting an international package! But it was fiddly, so I graduated to a Bosworth book charka - sweet! Reaching further I tried a Bosworth attache charka - but found it was so fast, I was overwhelmed. So I happily spin on my book charkas now. I did eventually get an improved book charka from e-trade industries in Inda - it is really much improved over the basic Indian book charka, though a step away from the quality of the Bosworth charkas.
But as I mentioned earlier, I felt I had to master cotton on the wheel. It was not as much fun as the Tahkli or charka, so when my friend made her comment, it gave me permission to return to those tools. I hold onto plans to spin naturally colored cotton for a hand towel kit I have, and plop the charka quill straight into the shuttle I have that fits it. We will see how I like that - usually I spin with end-feed shuttles.
What makes a charka so good for cotton? Speed. It is very easy with your hand turning the wheel to get up to speeds hard to achieve on a treadle wheel. E-spinners can keep up, though you may want a quill on your e-spinner to avoid the drag of tension on the cotton. I learned cotton well before e-spinners entered my life, though, and have not spent much time playing on my e-spinner with cotton. It's just such a delight to pull out my charka, so that's my go-to cotton tool, with a Tahkli tucked away for on-the-move cotton spinning.
What do you spin cotton on? Or, what has kept you from trying out cotton?
~~~~
© March 18, 2026 by Ask The Bellwether, posted at http://askthebellwether.com/
