Fiber Musings – Page 30 – Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast – mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Silk!

On 6 Nov, 2013

It only took me two years, but I finally finished spinning the singles from this half silk brick from Northeast Fiber Arts Center. I bought the half silk brick at SOAR in 2011. At that SOAR, I also purchased a Golding Micro Spindle. I immediately started to spin it.

As happens to all travel projects, they get very little love when you aren’t traveling. I brought it along to SOAR this year. I didn’t bring a spinning wheel this time so the spindle is what I had. I finally finished spinning the singles at the Spin-In on the last evening.

Over the weekend, I finished plying the singles on my Matchless. After a long soak in hot tap water, per John’s instructions, I hung it up to dry. I squeezed out excess water with my hands and snapped the skein a bit to straighten it out. I then let the weight of the wet silk keep the silk “weighted” until it dried.

And, yes! After plying, what you see on the paper quill is all that remains of the singles. There’s probably a couple of yards left. I couldn’t be happier!

The color is really subtle. The overall color is a dark grey but there are bits of white and green in there. It looks a bit like a black beetle that shimmers in the sun.

I’ve since started the other half brick I purchased to go with this. This one is sort of bronze with greens and reds. I hope it doesn’t take 2 more years before the singles are spun. I have plans for these two silks!

Specs:

Half Bombyx Silk Brick from Northeast Fiber Arts Center
Spindle spun; Â plied on Matchless with 22:1 flyer
2-ply
55 grams
1,004 yards
8,280 ypp

Creativity Happens

By Ann

On 5 Nov, 2013

In General

Felted Beads Bracelet

So much of SOAR happens outside of the official activities. So much is shared over a cup of coffee, tea, glass of wine or meal.

Above bracelet is an example. As we were enjoying our cup of tea after lunch, I noticed the bracelet on Loyce’s wrist. Next thing I knew, we had an impromptu mini session scheduled for that evening. Someone ran out to buy some paper clips. (Yes! Paper clips!) We reconvened with little bits of fluff we had around, some soap and warm water. That’s it. With some instruction from Loyce, we were chatting, chaining paper clips, and rubbing wool in soapy water.

More ideas came out of this bracelet tutorial — fat round beads, smaller/bigger paper clips, use of findings for closures, necklaces, earrings. Quick and easy stocking stuffers! Finally, a use for all those scrappy fits of fiber waste from spinning.

SOAR Workshop

By Ann

On 4 Nov, 2013

In Spin, Weave

Spun Silk on Bobbins

SOAR was fabulous as usual. It’s always wonderful to spend time with people with the similar passions. The creative energy is so strong that it is almost tangible.

My 3 day workshop this year is with John Mullarkey on Tablet Weaving for Spinners. I’ve taken several tablet weaving workshops in the past, even one with John. I’ve taken silk spinning classes before. But this time, the workshop combined the two — spinning silk specifically for tablet weaving.

Tablet Loom

I have woven bands with my own hand spun silk in the past, but they were inkle bands. The threads had fuzzed up during the weaving process. With tablets, I expect even more abrasion. So I wanted to see how John spins the silk to withstand the abuse.

We spent a bit of time on the basics with some 10/2 cotton warp he had set up before we started spinning.

The orange and the purple threads in the above right photo were spun on the wheel. The green/yellow and turquoise were spun on my Golding drop spindle. I have found that I get better twist and ply consistency with my spindle spun than on the wheel. I’m not a treadle counter but more of a tactile spinner. With the drop spindle, I spend a bit more time touching the threads before winding on.

Spinning these threads on a drop spindle takes a bit longer but it is also more portable. Besides, tablet weaving requires very little yardage. (I found out that I’m really bad at estimating yardage. As in, I spun about 3x more than what I needed.)

Band on the Loom

My default silk spinning is pretty fine. I didn’t want to mess with it because I was in the midst of spinning silk for a different project. I was afraid that if I changed the grist for the class, I might have problems with the other project.

The band at right used 12 cards. My woven band was about 1/4″ wide. The other bands in the class ranged from 1/2″ to 1″. Yeah, I’m glutton for punishment.

The colors I chose didn’t have enough color and shade contrast to show up well with the fine threads. You have to look close under good light but it was enough to keep me going.

We all wove the same draft. It was amazing how different everyone’s bands looked based on color and thread size. More experiments!

Of course, I couldn’t just turn cards the same way the entire time. I played around a bit on the same warp: fish going in one direction, then the other with a pair of kissing fish where they met;Â crosses; ovals; andÂ arrows.

Tablet Woven Silk Band