Spinning silk

I've got 3 ounces of silk hankies that I started spinning Saturday.  There's a woman in my Guild that spins silk and knits shirts/sweaters on the fly.  She starts with a drawing and then pretty much makes up the pattern as she goes along.  She's promised to teach me to do the same.  So, I started spinning the silk hankies, which is slow going.

If you're not careful, attenuating the silk can be very rough on your hands.  Silk is extremely strong and stretching out the hankies can hurt if your not careful.  It's going to take me a while to spin up those three ounces of hankies and even then, it probably won't be enough to finish the simple summer shirt I plan on knitting.

I have so many projects that I need/want to work on right now.  There just isn't enough time in the day.  There's the silk hankies to spin, a quilt design to sew, strawberries to pick, jam to make and berries to dry.  Not to mention a house to clean.  I love having lots of projects to keep me busy.

While relaxing after work yesterday, I saw a Ruby-throated hummingbird.  He was beautiful.  Galen just thought he looked tasty. 

Comments

[gayle]

I've got a stack of silk hankies somewhere, beautifully dyed by a friend of mine. I need to get them out and do something with them, eh?
I've never spun silk before, though, so I'm waiting till I can really focus on it. (Which, I'm beginning to fear, may be after I retire...)
Does the silk need to be plyed?

[Becky]

I dont think it has to be plyed but Im pretty new at this. Im plying mine because my singles have lots of twist and are very fine. Apparently, the more twist you add to your spun silk, the shinier is will be.

Beck

When I stop learning, Id better be dead.