Silken Sloth

One of my earliest fiber purchases was this braid of silk from Inglenook Fibers, and I bought it well before I discovered that silk was supposed to be scary to spin.  I had no idea how to handle it, so it sat for a long time.

Last fall, the Sweeties held a spin along where the only requirement was that the fiber be silk.  As it turned out, there were several of us who had never handled silk and, fortunately for us, several others had and were more than happy to share their knowledge.

There are several different preparations of silk.  It can come in a braid, as above, in a brick, in a hankie, or in a cap.  You can even purchase cocoons to reel off or stretch on a frame. 

Silk is very fine, very fly away. You will want to make sure that your hands are smooth so that the fibers don't catch on them as you are drafting.  It also wants to be spun very fine, so you have to be careful, or you will wind up with thread.  My singles were finely spun because I intended to chain ply them to keep the colors together.

If you are curious about reeling silk, here is a wonderful blog post:  Reeling Silk.  The whole website is quite interesting, and the owner (WormSpit) can also be found on Ravelry.

Lots of bobbin pictures, because the transitions were so beautiful.  

To set the twist, you soak and snap, but more gently than with wool, as silk is more fragile when it is wet.  It has an odd smell and an almost crunchy feel to it, but when it is dry, it will soften up in feel and regain its strength.

The final product.  You can catch a sense of the luster, especially towards the bottom left of the skein.  While the picture looks more like an Easter egg, the colors, particularly the purples, are much richer than my camera could capture.  The bobbin pictures are far more accurate in terms of color.

This will be made into a gift for a friend who is allergic to wool.