From the fold
Tuesday, August 16th, 2005I’ve been spinning. On Sunday, I refused to go into the office and instead spent a couple hours outside in the backyard spinning up some silk that I bought in Salt Spring Island. I bought a number of different fibres during the SSI Fibre Fest (angora, alpaca, soy silk, ingeo, bamboo, mohair, bombyx silk, tussah silk, Border Leicester, and more…) and thought, why am I spinning yucky felted stuff when I have some nice fibre lying around? What am I saving it for? And like June said, “Life’s too short to spin stuff you don’t enjoy!” So, here’s what I’m working on:
It’s tussah silk, hand-painted by my festival classmate, Cheryl, from Treenway Silks. After a bit of experimentation, I found that spinning this stuff from the fold works best. During particularly brilliant moments I can just spin from my left index finger — it’s nearly effortless! I had tried spinning from the fold with some wool fibre before and it didn’t flow as nicely. Spinning like this with silk gives a beautifully fine and shiny thread.
I only bought 2 oz of this stuff but I’m trying to spin it up for the Fiddlesticks’ Lotus Blossom Shawl. Lotus Blossom is knit with one skein or 800 yards of “Country Silk” which is slightly heavier than laceweight but lighter than fingering. So my current plan is to dye and spin up an equal amount of merino that I have stashed and ply it together, hopefully ending up with at least 800 yards. Spin girl, spin!
Edited: Oops, Laura and Erin are right about the weight of Country Silk. It’s heavier than fingering and is actually classified as “sportweight”, 25 sts / 4″. My bad.
