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Getting Started
There is a tendency for spinners
new to silk to be intimidated by it, but the unique beauty of silk does not necessarily translate into difficulty of spinning.
Bombyx silk may require a little more experience and control to achieve good results, but tussah is as easy to spin as fine
gauge wool. The reason for this is that tussah has a staple length much like wool - from three to five inches long - and the
slight 'tooth' to its surface helps it to draft easily.
Most spinning wheels will require no major changes to spin
tussah, aside from the usual adjustments of speed and tension which every spinner makes when trying out a new fiber. My wheel
is a Louet S10 which has a reputation for being difficult with fine or short fibers. I spin tussah on this wheel with no adjustments.
Tussah silk has another advantage in that it can
be spun to almost any weight that will suit the project the spinner has in mind. My taste is to spin a light sport weight
- anywhere from 900 to 1300 yards per pound - because I am a knitter and my patience doesn't allow for teeny needles. Tussah
can even be spun heavier if that's what you need. However, I have also spun a thread that is fine enough to sew with. You
make the choice and tussah will cooperate.
There are only two other pieces of 'equipment' that you will find useful
when spinning silk. One is a smooth piece of fabric to cover your lap, preferably in a color light or dark enough to contrast
with your silk. When the tops are predrafted for spinning, they can catch easily to coarse fibers like jeans or sweatshirts.
You will also find that in warm or humid weather, your palms will become damp when handling the silk and a dash of talcum
powder rubbed over them will keep the silk from sticking to your hands.
Preparation
When your dyed top arrives, it has already been
partially predrafted. When the silk emerges from its dye bath and rinse it looks like a cat that's just been pulled out of
a well. When dry, it needs to be stretched out to about three or four times its original length (the silk, not the cat) in
order to make the fibers smooth again and put air back into the top.
Before you can spin the silk top, it is necessary
to divide it in order to predraft further. For random colorways, you need only break off a piece of top at a length
which is comfortable for you to use after it is predrafted. In sequential colorways, it is nice to divide the top into strips
and spin the colorways end to end. Silk tops usually have a natural division lengthwise through the center. Sometimes there
will be several divisions, sometimes it will be hard to find even one.
 Begin by breaking off a two-foot length of top. NEVER
cut the silk! Separate your hands eight or ten inches and pull the top apart. Then split it lengthwise into two or more
strips. Gently attenuate each strip further until you have a long coil of silk less than an inch wide.
(Remember as
we go along that there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to spinning silk, any more than there are with any other fiber.
Think of the suggestions offered here as guidelines, to be changed as necessary to suit your spinning style.)
You
will be the best judge of how your wheel should be set up to spin tussah. It won't take very much experimenting to discover
what works best for you. My S10 has a very aggressive take-up, even with the lowest tension, and I let the wheel take the
silk from my hands at its own speed. My only control is the size of the drafting fan and the smoothing action of my orifice
hand. This will not work for all wheels. Plan to have an initial session at a time when you are relaxed to get your wheel
and tussah acquainted. (When you make your first purchase of Silkworker handpainted silk top, be sure to mention if you have
never spun silk before, and I'll include a sample of undyed silk for you to practice with before you begin your painted silk)
If you are working with an undyed top, you will
find that it is compacted much like commercial combed wool tops. It must be opened up by drafting or carding before you can
spin it comfortably. Predraft the top as described above or, if you have a drum carder available, card the tussah as
you would any fine gauge wool. Divide and spin the fluffy batts as you would normally do.
This top has been shaken open to reveal a number
of natural divisions. Some of them are too thin to be handled alone, but if a few were grouped together they would produce
about four spinnable strips.
At the top of the picture is the combed top. The silk
at the bottom is combed top that has been drum-carded.
Silk is often combined with other fibers to
improve the yarn's "memory". Blending with silk is a joy; it combines readily with other fibers and transforms any preparation
it joins. Even small amounts of silk can add wonderful polish to wool, camel, mohair and other fibers. When adding silk to
other fibers, such as wool, you can feed them in alternately or you can hold the silk against the drum as you turn it. Don't
try to make layers or a 'sandwich' though, since the two fibers will want to feed differently.
A few things to remember
in blending: like merino or any fine wool, silk does not like to be passed through the carder more than once. Additional passes
may cause some of the fibers to bend over and nep. Sometimes these spin out, sometimes they cause little slubs. The great
part is - who cares? It's all gorgeous.
Finally we get to the spinning!
Now that you have the silk
predrafted and your wheel set up, the spinning is going to be very easy. Because of tussah's staple length, you'll be pleasantly
surprised to find how smoothly the spinning goes.
Experiment with different techniques. Silk spins well from the fold
using a piece about five inches long. I'm most comfortable with the short draw or point-of-contact method. For this technique,
keep your hands about 4 or 5 inches apart - whatever the staple length is for the top you are using. Silk can also be
spun on a spindle.
Opinions vary on how much twist should be inserted in silk. One school says that high twist improves
shine. While this may be true of wool, I find that less twist not only shows off the luster better, but overtwisting silk
makes it kink up and difficult to ply.
I do not use singles in my work. I always use at least a two-ply yarn. A word
of caution here: trying to ply silk from a centerpull ball, even if the silk is not very tightly spun, will put you in the
nuthouse. Even if things seem to be going well in the beginning, watch out for those final few precious yards - the silk will
turn on you at the last minute. That's if it didn't come out in a big tangled lump at the very start. Using a cardboard core
at the center of the ball will help but be sure that no strands slip off the cardboard at either the top or the bottom as
you ply.
You can also Navajo-ply if you want to preserve the color sequence.
Finishing your yarn
Your top
has already been in and out of water three times - during the soak, the dye process and the rinse. Don't be afraid to dunk
it again. Silk needs to have its twist set the same way wool does - in hot water. In fact, tussah yarn has a take-up
during setting that is very similar to wool. Use a little dish detergent in this step - there may be some release of residual
dye during this wash but it will depend on the color and will not be enough to change any of the colors in the silk.
Squeeze
out the rinse water and wrap the yarn in a bath towel. Let it sit for a couple of hours and then drape it loosely over a plastic
hanger to dry. If you want to get the yarn as smooth as possible, wait until it is only half-dry and then give it a good whapping.
Hold the skein by one end and whack it hard against something solid like the edge of a table or a door jamb. After a few hard
licks, give the skein a quarter-turn and whap again. Continue to rotate the skein until each section has been treated. Then
hang the skein again to finish drying.
A word about spinning colors
My silks
can be divided into two general categories: those with large, well-defined areas of color (which I refer to as 'sequential'.....
....and those in which the colors
are distributed in small amounts throughout (which I call 'random')....
To spin the first type of color arrangement, break off
a piece of 18 inches or so and predraft it to spinnable size. This will cause the colors to spread lengthwise into large areas
of color that will follow each other single file onto the bobbin.
Another way would be to break off a piece a yard
or so long, split it three or four times and spin each section in turn. This will give you the same color sequence but the
colors will come and go much more quickly and there may even be some color blending, depending on the drafting.
(the silk
on the bobbin shown is not the same as the colorway example)
Spinning the second type of color application is only
a question of breaking off a length of top and splitting it lengthwise. Since the colors have been applied in small
areas, the spun yarn will have much more color activity as the colors change more rapidly in the draft, and there will also
be more color blending.
(the silk on the bobbin shown is not the same as the colorway example)
Using your beautiful new yarn
Silk
adapts beautifully to both weaving and knitting as well as to duplicate stitch embroidery on knitting. Spin your yarn with
a particular project in mind so that you have the right weight.
The tops when spun by themselves make beautiful
small knitted or woven items like purses and scarves. Shawls are also a popular choice - they seem to be very much in favor
these days. Silk blended with a very fine kid mohair is similar to the yarn used in the famous Orenburg shawls.
If your silk yarn is to be used in knitting, keep in mind that it is an inelastic fiber and the knitting will be drapey
and soft. For this reason I do not recommend pure silk yarn for garments like sweaters, watch caps or socks that require shape
retention and both snuggness and stretchability in the ribbings. It does work well, however, in sweaters utilizing lacey stitches
as in many patterns calling for cotton yarn or in a loosely fitting garment like a cardigan where drape, not close fit, would
be the objective. And of course it is without peer in scarves and shawls.
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