Day 3: dyed silk

So, yesterday my eBay-won natural dyed silk arrived. It’s 3 ounces of natural dyed and undyed Tussah silk. One ounce of undyed Tussah, one ounce of cochineal dyed, and one ounce of madder dyed. It’s really gorgeous, especially when spun. The undyed is softer and more slippery than the dyed stuff. The dyed stuff practically […]

Day Two: Soy vs. Worms

So, I spun more soy silk today. A lesson in extreme frustration. Every time I stopped, the single would completely fall apart. I thought maybe the tension was off, or perhaps it was just difficult to find the “sweet spot” in it, but it happened no matter what I tried to do. Finally, I stopped, […]

Day 1: I started.

I started the Tour de Fleece late last night while watching The Simpsons and Men in Black. I spun some of mt old familiar wool, then took the whole flyer off and replaced it with my fast flyer (ratios 12,15,17:1). I also have a very fast flyer and head (26, 30, 36, 44:1), but chose […]

Tour de Fleece, Day 1

Today is Day 1 of the Tour de Fleece, which I’m participating in from July 1 through 23. My challenge for this was pretty simple: spin silk for the first time. However, I’ve decided to be very deliberate about it. For instance, I recently read a slim volume published in the 1930’s about raising silkworms […]