Spinning Silk
Little by little I've been working on spinning up something new to me: 100% tussah silk. It took me and my hands a little while to figure things out and for me to adjust my wheel correctly: longer draw, and only enough tension to keep it drawing on the bobbin. Today, while spending an afternoon spinning with Julie, I finally had the whole 2 ounces spun up.
Nice and squishy and soft to the touch is this bobbin full of fiber. The single is a bit variable. It probably all stays in the laceweight range, but goes from thread-like in places to rather thicker. My control on this wasn't really as good as I wanted it to be. I learned that it's very hard to correct mistakes with something that has as long a "staple" length and as little elasticity as silk does. Instead, the most important thing I could do seemed to be making sure that the fiber was well pre-drafted and that any clumps, VM or neppy things were removed from the top before spinning.
I also found, and this became especially pronounced after I moved it from the bobbin to my niddy noddy, that my silk has something of a fuzzy halo. I'm not sure if this resulted from the fact that I hadn't spun it tightly enough or that in the process of drafting I was not keeping the fibers together very well.
2 ounces did give me a significant yield, however: 528 yards of single. The jury is still out on the plying issue. I think I like silk better as a single, and I worry that it would get a little cord-like if I plied it. But it's also very fine, and I'm not sure I can bring myself to knit with it on size 2 needles! I saw a number of very nifty little scarves made out of a silk single at MS&W, and I am thinking that may be this yarn's destiny as well. But the pattern will have to be something that does well with stripes, as this single definitely has long stretches of the same color.
This may be the prettiest yarn you've spun yet, at least in terms of appearances on the blog. Great pictures...it really makes me want to touch it! Congrats, it's beautiful.
I like the looks of this yarn. I'm interested to see what you do with it. I've got some silk fiber that I've been putting off spinning. If it looks as good as yours, I'll be pleased.
i plied some tussah silk a while ago, and it just seemed to get softer. i still have no idea what to do with it, though, so i just take it out every so often, pet it and put it back.
Beautiful! I love the colors.
Oh my gosh, that is just so pretty. And SO even. You should be proud of that skein!! (I know I would be.)
I'm trying to pet that right through the screen... I'd better watch out, or I'm going to start spinning soon!
Ohhhhh, that is gorgeous!
That silk is gorgeous! I'm sure that no matter what it becomes - it will be beautiful.
Remeber, when you ply you remove twist, and plying would actually have the opposite effect. You would be allowing the silk to relax some during plying but it is a GORGEOUS single. YOu might want to wash it an weight the skein to set the twist. Otherwise you may have difficulty with it kinking on itself.
Perhaps a multi directional scarf since that would give the stripes more visual interest... Then you could iron the scarf and see that amazing sheen.... :)
I appreciate the complements on this spinning project. I really like silk blends for spinning and this turned out to be almost equally wonderful.
Last night I did give it a little bath (to set the twist and get rid of those kinks that Liz mentions) and left it to dry. It's not quite as smooth as it was right after spinning (think Morehouse Merino laceweight), but it's still just as soft!
One of the newest Spin-Off has several scarves that are knit with singles--most seem to be done without setting the twist.
looks very beautiful!
That silk is beautiful. You should be very proud to have such a rewarding skill.
It's really pretty. I haven't tried my hand at silk yet, but one of these, I swear I'm gonna try it all!
Don't you think it would be more fun if you gave that skein to one of your loyal readers? Wouldn't that be fun? So much fun? Boat loads I'm telling ya. Especially if it was a loyal reader in Oregon. SUCH a loyal reader. Really really loyal.
ahem.
I have 8oz of dyed silk that's waiting for me. I spun a little of it last week and plyed it and although I was happy with the result it didn't call to me. I don't have a clue what I'd knit with it so it can sit there a while longer. I'll be interested to see what you do with yours, it might kick me into action.
That silk is really beautiful! Tussah does seem to get a bit of a halo. The ends are not quite tucked into itself and because the fiber is smooth, it doesn't stay tucked. Not sure if that made any sense. I'm not sure why but I found Bombyx silk is a bit smoother than Tussah. If you're going to ply it back on itself, the colours will blend a bit more so you won't have long stretches of single colours. If you want to keep the colour bands, try navajo plying.
Silk is one of my favourite things to spin. Sometimes after I knit up spun silk, I brush it lightly to bring out the halo more. It makes your knitting softer and it is really a neat effect.