The first is that I finally finished spinning the cochineal silk. I have come to the conclusion that I really don't care to spin silk. It took me so long to spin because I just kept ignoring my wheel and making up excuses as to why I had no time to spin. And while I was busy, I could have been doing some spinning on it. The big clue was when I took the silk bobbin off and grabbed some black merino. Just because. And it was like entering an oasis after a trek in the desert. Speaking of oasis, there were two things that helped me finally finish this stuff. One was Whitefeather. At our spinning group, I asked her for some pointers. Pre-draft was the answer. It helped. The other was Viggo Mortensen. We watched Hidalgo last night. He kept my mind occupied while my hands were busy cursing the silk.
The silk is really different from anything else that I have yet spun. The fiber staple is really long (of course it's long, duhh, it's SILK) and it has a mind of it's own. I think that I am going to have to try some blending with the silk that I have remaining. Or maybe I'll just let it sit for a while. It's not going to go bad.
Here it is in all its glory. It's about 4 ounces and heaven knows how many yards.Now I have to decide what to ply this stuff with. I have several options and will be performing some tests in the near future. I have several different colours of roving that I have recently dyed and I also have just plain black. The plan is to spin the merino, ply it with the silk and then knit my self a lace shawl. I've wanted to do this for a while and I have a friend nearby who is willing to give me a quick lace tutorial. The shawl that I want to knit is kiri from all tangled up. The pattern is under the e-mail sign on the top right. I love it. But I fear it too.
The socks that helped to get us lost are almost finished. I'm down to the toe on both!
The last thing that I have to share is Chris Jordan. His photos are incredible and really put the consumption of our society in perspective.
5 comments:
Ahhh...don't give up on silk yet. It's a different fiber from wool...and yet there are a lot of different silk preparations. Like wool, they just take some time to master.
Those long silk fibers you describe respond well to spinning from the fold. Then there are silk bells and hankies, which are fun to die, gently pull into sliver, then spin or knit directly from the predrafted fiber!
That doesn't mean that your merino won't always be your "oasis", but you can learn a lot in the "desert". Spin onward! (you do such nice work.)
I agree with Valerie. There are lots of different types of silk preparations to spin. One of my favorites is to take some silk noil, dye it, and card it into a nice wool. Makes a lovely textured yarn with nice bits of color.
there's silk and then there's silk... sometimes it just has a mind of its own. It sure looks lovely though... and just think how sweet it will be plyed against something else!
What crayzee weather!
summer will come, I know it will!
Deb
I think the spun silk along with some merino would be perfect for a shawl.
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