Chris woke me up out of a sound sleep this morning. I wasn’t even sure he was real, and not a dream.
“Do you have any moths hanging outside?” he asked. Muzzy with sleep, I said, “Mph? Hmm?”
“Greysie brought in a great big moth,” he said.
I have new photos and more life-cycle information on the Polyphemus caterpillars up now – rather than copy the whole thing, I’m just going to link to it.
Antherea polyphemus is closely related
to the tussah silkmoth, Antherea mylitta. It produces a very similar
silk, tan in color and very shiny and strong. I spun the silk on a tahkli spindle
into a fairly fine yarn, to make the small amount of silk go as far as possible.
“Silk Season,” the tablet-woven ribbon with reeled silk skeins that I entered into the Dallas Handweavers and Spinners Guild’s show, won the Handweavers Guild of America award! Now, I just need to get somebody to take slides of it, so I can send it in to Shuttle, Spindle, & Dyepot!
It’s spinning time!
Someone requested some larger format image files – these are pictures that I’ve posted here recently of Antherea polyphemus and Samia ricini, just in larger formats.
These are Polyphemus cocoons, Antherea polyphemus. I started with nine of them, which I got from a nice guy named Dan in Ohio. I found another one locally here in the Dallas area, on an oak tree at a park. Note: park rangers don’t appreciate people walking around with tree loppers. He didn’t say anything, but I got That Look.
And anybody who’s been following this journal, knows what big cocoons turn into… BIG MOTHS
The silkworms are changing skins again!
Waiting for the skin to split…
more photos, and the Worms Go Vertical!
These are the skeins that go with my ribbon entry. This allows it to qualify in both the “Handwoven” and “Handspun” categories – the stone disc beads are to keep the tiny things from getting lost or blown off the table! Each skein is three to six yards of 110-cocoon reeled filament silk. My favorite is the ecru, for the way it shines.
