Stuck on silk, literally

Last night's spinning class was all about silk. Lesson learned: spinning silk is tricky. Silk sticks to everything! Dry skin on your hands, your pants, shirt, air . . . We played with several types of silk, some I was more successful with than others.

Here is a bit of yarn I made from a silk hankie:



Hankies are square layers of silk made by stretching out the silk worm cocoon. Pulling apart the layers is about as easy as separating layers of wet toilet paper. Oh, and did I mention it sticks to everything? But the yarn turns out so lovely - smooth with such a sheen.

This next one is recycled sari silk:



Basically a sari is ripped up and the silk strands reused. They tangle up into a rat's nest that needs to be pulled apart while you're spinning. Although, once again, the struggle is worth it.

We also tried tussah silk, which is from wild silk worms and a brilliant white. It's tough to spin without practice because it just slips through your hands.

We had a temporary distraction from the frustration when a girl in the class brought in one of her angora rabbits. They are beyond belief - a giant fluff ball with a twitching nose. And the softest thing I've ever touched. Luckily I turned out to be much less allergic to the rabbit, than spinning with its fur. We all couldn't stop petting the little guy - well, little under the ridiculously immense mound of fur!

Curly locks

Here's a sampling from my spinning class this week. We played with a bunch more fibres, including these super lovely mohair locks. They spin up so wonderfully and have a beautiful shine. I have a whole box of teal locks that I can't wait to spin. But first, more practice.

My poor little digital camera was making some weird noises when I was taking pictures of the fibre. I guess that's not suprising after dropping it on my vacation - in the bathroom of a Communist statue park, of all places.

So lazy and surly

I'm not quite sure where last week went, but I am going to blame a post-holiday stupor for forgetting about my little blog. I even made something last week! Thursday was the first night in my Spinning 2 class. We played with several different fibres to get a feel for them, and try different techniques. I discovered I am very rusty. And I know so very little about spinning. (How is it that the less you know, the more confident you feel?) Tonight I must get back behind the wheel and do my homework.