Spin – Page 14 – Fiber Musings

Giddy

On 22 May, 2012

CNCH Ribbons! (click to enlarge)

Look what came home with me from CNCH? A pair of blue ribbons!

Here are the judging criteria. Both of these received perfect scores. Yes, the sketch book, the one I didn’t like and wanted to re-work, received a blue ribbon. The note from the judge on my skein was that she would have given me sixes if she could (on a scale of 1-5). I am beyond tickled!

The beggar’s bag, however, did not win a ribbon. The judges disagreed on the scoring (14.5 and 25, respectively, out of 26 points). According to the notes, what aspect liked by one was the very thing that the other judge didn’t like. Ah, well. I was told to expect that. In any case, I still like the bag. And 2 ribbons out of 3 submissions isn’t bad, especially since this is my first juried show.

Now, I just need to figure out what to weave with my skein.

Spinning Silks

By Ann

On 1 Apr, 2012

In Spin

Clockwise from top: silk hankies, tussah silk, and bombyx silk brick.

I’ve been spinning different types of silks on my drop spindles for the past few weeks. I spin silk a lot, but normally, I stay pretty monogamous with my silk spinning projects. But this time, due to spinning for several different projects, I had been mixing it up. Sometimes in the same evening.

All I can say is, wow. What a difference.

With silk hankies, it’s a bit like ripping fabric as you spin. You get lumps and bumps as you go. If you want perfectly smooth yarn, this is not for you. If you want a bit of texture like in a raw silk fabric, then this is for you. And it is just darned fun ripping into the silk hankie.

Tussah silk has a bit of a tooth to it. It’s a bit easier for new spinners because it isn’t too slippery. It’s not as shiny as the hankies or the bombyx. Natural tussah is typically honey colored so the dyed fiber has a bit of depth to it. This is because

Bombyx? It’s very very slippery but oh-so very lovely to spin. I find that bombyx needs a bit more twist in the singles than tussah requires.

You can read more about silk at Silk is the Bomb(yx) in Knitty by Michael Cook.

Still Here

By Ann

On 31 Mar, 2012

In Spin

Working like mad on the first of my gallery submissions for the the CNCH Galleries. I’ll mail off the entry form today, but there’s still a lot of hand finishing work to be done. The photo above are mini skeins of spindle spun silk that will be transformed into a handwoven piping. I’ll be pulling out the Gilmore Wave loom for this.

Why not use an inkle loom? I want to wind on a warp that is slightly longer than the longest warp I can put on my Schacht inkle loom.

Random thoughts of a fiber enthusiast - mostly fiber related, sometimes coherent

Category: Spin Page 14 of 69

Giddy

Spinning Silks

Still Here