How is cotton, which comes as short strands of fibre from the plant, made into a continuous thread?
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Basically the same way as any other form of cordage. Flax (linen), hemp, yucca, wool, even dog hair.
The fibers are twisted together so that they grip each other and form a continuous strand. Once you have a long enough strand, in a lot of cases, you can continue adding twist until the line twists around itself in the opposite direction (“reverse-twisted” cordage), leading to something very much stronger.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_b3Heo48I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kH_b3Heo48I)
I actually made a basic [drop-spindle](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKAJTKvl0nE) and spun some husky fluff into yarn one time. I’m slightly allergic to pet dander (even though I have a bunch of them) and found out the hard way that spinning it puts a lot more of that in the air, enough to set off my allergies. Which is why I only did it once. I ended up with about 3 feet of yarn, that I managed to reverse-twist into about 2 feet of “[chiengora](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiengora)” string.
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