My Very Tiny Singles: Let Me Show You Them.
I’m working on twisting up a LOT of silk for a project. This is a bobbin nearly-full of twisted singles.
It’s a Very Fast Flyer bobbin on my Lendrum wheel. I haven’t done a count, but I’m guessing in about the 1500 yard range. The camera is not off its white balance; the silk really is butter-yellow. It’s made from special cocoons that I raised, blended with silk that I’ve made at various events over the past year or so, plus silk from other sources.
Very close to, you can actually see some of the barber-pole effect – two of the filaments in this part of the single are yellow, two are white. The yellow will come out, unfortunately, during degumming. The very close shot makes it look like the single is pretty big…
But they are not big.
This is a quick finger-twist to show what the finished yarn will look like before degumming. It’s going to be about the *weight* of a medium-size sewing thread, although with the lower twist, it will have more loft and more shine, so it will look bigger. Because I want a yarn that will be very shiny and “silky,” this is low-twist; higher twist would make it stronger, but less lustrous. The finished yarn will be a 40d3x2 organzine.
And, totally unrelated to silk, but remarkably similar in color… Chris is working on making his first batch of mozzarella cheese! This started with some unhomogenized whole milk that we got at a local natural grocery, and it has a delicious buttery flavor.
The ball of finished cheese looks to me a lot like bread dough – which makes sense, as it’s been stretched and kneaded. It has to rest in ice water for a while, then it’s ready for eating!
My goodness, what will you make with that?
That silk is lovely.
I’ve made mozarella – lots of fun, and very tasty. I want to try aged cheese, but haven’t gotten organized enough.
Perfection! The silk and cheese are both very yummy looking !
Hello! I stumbled upon your blog while searching for methods to throw or twist silk filament. I make jewelry from hand-cut metal and hand-braided kumihimo rope. Until now, I have been using cotton only for the rope. I am currently living in South Korea and last week had the pleasure to tour a silk factory here. I told the owner that I was interested to procurring some silk thread to use for my jewelry and she gave me a bag of different colored silk filament. The filament are very fine and straight, completely untwisted. I am completely new to silk, and trying to figure out how I’m going to be able to twist these filaments into a bit thicker thread to use for my braids. Any tips you could provide me would be very gratefully followed!!!
Alexandra
Hello! I stumbled upon your blog while searching for methods to throw or twist silk filament. I make jewelry from hand-cut metal and hand-braided kumihimo rope. Until now, I have been using cotton only for the rope. I am currently living in South Korea and last week had the pleasure to tour a silk factory here. I told the owner that I was interested to procurring some silk thread to use for my jewelry and she gave me a bag of different colored silk filament. The filament are very fine and straight, completely untwisted. I am completely new to silk, and trying to figure out how I\’m going to be able to twist these filaments into a bit thicker thread to use for my braids. Any tips you could provide me would be very gratefully followed!!!
Alexandra
Alexandra, I made some notes on my throwing process here: http://www.wormspit.com/2011/02/07/how-i-throw/