Silk

Silk plays well with Cotswold!  Both are long stapled, strong, lustrous fibers with very little elasticity.  Whether blending thoroughly on a drum carder, adding streaks of silk on a blending board or plying one strand of each together, silk and Cotswold will work well together.  Both fibers take dye beautifully, too, but the shading will be slightly different which will give a blend a lovely heathered effect with depth.  We offer silk in several different forms for all your spinning and felting projects.

Silk Top - Fibers in a prepared top are perfectly aligned in parallel to each other which allows for fine spinning or smooth felting.  We offer mulberry silk in both natural white (mulberry silk is the whitest of the silks) and dyed shades.  Dyed top will have slightly uneven color penetration which gives interesting shading instead of a completely solid color.  Our colors are not reproducible although I dye several ounces at once.  All of our dyed top is packaged in half ounce quantities unless stated otherwise.  If you see a color you love be sure to buy enough as future matches are unlikely. 

Eri Peace Silk - This special category of combed silk top features NATURAL COLORS of silk.  Eri silk , or Ahishma silk, comes from wild silk worms who dine exclusively on Cator plants. Eri silk is often called "peace silk" because the moth is allowed to make a hole and escape the cocoon before it is degummed. Their enzyme does not destroy the silk as does mulberry silk worms.  The Red Eri has a natural light rusty red tone. The Yellow Eri is naturally a soft butter yellow.  

Silk Hankies/Caps - Each silk hankie is drawn from one silk worm cocoon which is one continuous thread of pure silk. Hankies are formed by stretching the pulled silk onto a square frame. (There are also silk caps which are made by stretching the pulled silk over a dome shape instead of a square frame and the resultant layered silk looks like a cap or bell. They can be used in the same way as a hankie). There are about 18 to 20 thin hankies per ounce which one peels apart like phyllo dough layers to work with.  They dye beautifully with acid dyes. They are great to kettle dye or hand paint and then steam. You can "pull" a roving from a hankie and knit directly from the roving - no spinning required! Here is a fun tutorial from Spin Off magazine. We offer both dyed and natural white hankies. Like our dyed silk top, the colors aren't reproducible so if you see a package that speaks to you, grab it!  All silk hankies/caps packaged in 1/2 oz. bags unless stated otherwise.

Silk Lap - Silk laps are layers and layers and layers of silk caps stretched over a big frame. They are traditionally used for quilt batting of high end quilts.  Fiber folk dye them, spin or use them in felting projects.  They dye beautifully with acid dyes and spin with a wonderful texture.  Our laps vary in size and weight.  If you have need of smaller or larger laps please ask us!  We may be able to accommodate you.  

Sari Silk Waste - The waste silk from making saris (literally) is processed into a brilliant roving full of color and texture.  Make an art yarn by spinning it alone or use as blending fiber in your batts and roving.  The waste roving includes 'regular' silk fiber with colorful additions of short lengths of silk thread and neps and noils of silk.  This will put some zing into your projects!  All sari silk packaged in 2 oz. lots unless stated otherwise.