Silk and Coopworth Yarn

I finished plying all the silk I had from the silk bell with the Coopworth last night.  The total yardage is about 265, to four ounces in two skeins.  There was a little silk left over when I filled the bobbin again, so I have a 25 yard length that I'm planning to knit as a sample.  When I went through my stash the other day (the part I could get to) I found lots more little skeins I've spun up over the years.  I started spinning silk with a supported spindle before I bought the Reeves wheel.  Great-grandma's wheel has no affinity for fine fibers!

The next spinning project will be a purple and black variegated silk single plied with the white Coopworth.  I have a lot of this silk; the bell it came from was much larger than the silk bell I recently spun up. 

Silk and Coopworth

I'm looking forward to knitting a bit of this as a sample, after I wash it to set the twist.  At least now I can knit a swatch now.  There are many more knitting yarn buyers than crocheters out there, and that was one of the reasons I wanted to learn how to knit.  It's hard to answer questions about yarn for knitting if you don't know a thing about the art.  I've made up a chart to show needle sizes and comparative weights for my yarns, but it will be better to be able to show samples made from the yarns I create.

Today my sister-in-law is coming over for us to work on her web page.  Then this weekend I'm hoping to get back on track with my own web pages and the bunnies.  Cold weather is supposed to be moving in by Monday.  I haven't sold anything from the web site lately; need to jazz it up a little, I guess.  Two nice book orders came in to Biblio.com this week, but both customers chose Paypal for payment and neither of them have paid.  Paypal is great but unfortunately the way Biblio handles a Paypal transaction leaves room for second thoughts!  I give the customers ten days to pay and then I have to put the book back up for sale.  It takes time to relist a book on two separate web sites. 

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Posted by Sisiggy

Wow! I like that. Can't wait to see how it knits up!

Bummer about the book orders. I have to go back and peruse since I saw some interesting stuff there and I'm pretty decisive once I click my choice...

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Posted by haras

what you're talking about with the knitting, but it sounds very interesting!

Sarah

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Posted by Anonymous

That yarn is beautiful. It's amazing to think of doing that! How long does it take I wonder? What does a "bell" of silk look like? I used to crochet, but my hands can't handle it now. I am going to teach my daughters how to do it, but I can't do it like I used to. I have only done a little knitting; maybe I should try my hands at that. Thanks for showing us your yarn.
Jenette.

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Posted by jinyeah3

By the way, you have great links!
Jenette.

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Posted by Greenberry

Sorry, I should have explained this before. A silk bell is simply layers of silk that are stretched out, I assume on a frame. The silk comes from cocoons and the cocoons are where the layers come from. You can dye the bell, then take it back apart and stretch it out for spinning. There are also 'silk hankies' that are made of square layers of silk.

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