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Skytten går.

Med en islætstæthed på ca 8 tråde pr cm går vævningen pænt hurtigt fremad. Jeg er nu mere end halvt færdig med det fjerde og sidste tørklæde.

Tørklæde #1. Islæt: håndspundet BFL/silke / Scarf #1. Woven with handspun BFL/silk
Tørklæde #1. Islæt: håndspundet BFL/silke / Scarf #1. Woven with handspun BFL/silk
IMG_6648
Garn til #3. Håndspundet uld. Yarn for #3. Handspun wool singles
IMG_6691
#3 væves / #3 in progress.

Alle fire tørklæder væves med håndspundet 1-trådet garn. Til #4 spandt jeg uld/silke-garn på min nyeste Bosworth, en mini i træsorten Lignum Vitae. Så smuk med et grønligt skær ..

Uld/silke fiber og min Lignum Vitae-Bossie / Wool/silk fiber and my Lignum Vitae Bossie
Uld/silke fiber og min Lignum Vitae-Bossie / Wool/silk fiber and my Lignum Vitae Bossie

Nu glæder jeg mig til at blive helt færdig, få klippet ned og ordnet kanter, frynser, vasket og færdiggjort tørklæderne. Derefter kommer de til salg i webshoppen.
Nye planer for væven er ved at tage form i mit hoved ..

English summary:
The four scarfs on alpaca warp are almost done. Less than half a scarf remains to be woven, and then it’s cut-off party, fixing fringes, washing and finishing. The scarfs will be listed in the webshop when ready.

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Spinning Silk Hankies

Silk Hankies are so easy to spin, and makes a beautiful, textured yarn.
I would like to show you how I go about spinning the hankies (after I dye them, of course – no fun spinning white stuff.. 😉 . The silk hankies shown here are dyed in my “Juneberries” colorway.)

I will show the spinning done on a drop spindle, but a spinning wheel works equally fine.
Silk Hankies are fiber squares (about the size of a hankerchief, hence the name) made up of many very thin layers of silk. The silk from the cocoon is stretched over a frame to dry, layer by layer until it has a certain thickness. A typical Silk Hankie weighs about 5 – 10 grams.

Use some handlotion to soften your hands before you begin working with the hankies, otherwise the fiber will stick to your hands and be difficult to control..
Peel off a very thin layer from the hankie. It’s like a spiders web.

Poke a hole in the center of the thin layer. That turns it into a ring of fiber. Pull the ring gradually to thin down the fiber thickness.

“Snap” the fibers a bit if they are difficult to draft, and make sure your hands are wide enough apart. The silk fibers are very long and does not draft easily. You decide how thin you want the strip to be – it should correspond with the desired thickness of your thread.

Then pull the ring apart and wrap the silk strip around your fiberholding hand (or make a small nest and set it aside).

Now to spin it: Make sure you have a generous overlapping area. Minimum 10 cm (4 inches). While spinning there’s not much, if any, fiber drafting to do. Just add twist and maybe use your fingers to even out the irregular spots that, because of the textured nature of the fiber, will show up here and there.

When I use the drop spindle I usually prepare and then spin 1 thin layer at the time. When using the spinning wheel it could be more practical to prepare several “nests” of fibers so you have a supply handy when you sit down to spin.
After spinning you can ply the thread, with itself or with something else. I’s also great as singles yarn. The long silk fibers doesn’t require much twist (or any twist for that matter) to hold together, and that makes it perfect for single ply yarns.
I’m plying my silk, however. I’m using it for a modular knitted vest, that has been in my project bag for ages.. I’ll post pics of that some other time, so stay tuned for more!

Silk Hankies are a joy to work with and the resulting yarn is beautiful, both shiny and textured at the same time.
This shows my way of handling them  – how do you spin yours?