Spinning the silk for the crocheted butterfly wedding shawl on support spindles
July 12, 2006 by Noreen Crone-Findlay
Filed under Creativity, crochet, hand spinning and handspun and spinning, inspiration, lace
I have been spinning up a storm!
I have been sampling on all my spindles, seeing which ones feel the best for spinning the silk for the crocheted butterfly shawl.
I love my top whorl spindles, but am having shoulder problems, so decided to focus on support spindles.
I did some serious experimentation with beads and tiny dowels and knitting needles. I made myself a heap of different support spindles, and then test spun them, using a bunch of different little bowls.
I settled on 2 real little winners that are serious keepers. Also, I turfed the bowls, and just spin the spindle on my leg.
Here are my new fave support spindles:
In the pic above, the spindles are sitting on a silk hanky.
Silk hankies are cocoons that have been pulled and flattened into squares.
You need to peel apart the layers:
and open up the fiber so you can arrange it comfortably for spinning (aka: Draft it).
And, then, the spinning begins:
You spin the spindle clockwise, and let it twirl, balanced on your leg, and the spin passes up into a short length of the silk. You stop, and wind the spun silk onto the spindle.
You fill the spindle, and then a second spindle. You take a third spindle and you hold the two threads together, and you twirl the empty spindle counterclockwise to ply the strands together.
And……… silk thread or yarn is born!
This is PURE delight! I am LOVING spinning the silk for my daughter’s wedding shawl!
I have settled into a rhythm with it and have decided that I will be spinning a lot of silk for other projects, too, as this is just such a pleasure! Over the years, I’ve mostly spun wool and mohair, and not much silk. So, it is just a delight for me to dive into silk!
hugs all round,
Noreen
I love this post! The silk is so fluffy and delicate; and the how-to with the drop spinning is great.
I am the fortunate recipient of a spinning wheel, and an alpaca fleece, so my next project will be acquiring cards and drive bands and other such foreign words! heh.
I’ll be excited to see the finished shawl you’re working on.
Thanks so much, Deb!
Lucky you to have received the alpaca fuzzies!
Hope you have a splendiferous time spinning it, and then making something utterly sublime with it!
Hi, Noreen
How many Silk Hankies you spun up to complete your Wedding Shawl for your Daughter?
I didn’t realized you written anything about spinning silk for your Shawl before I written you a monent ago.
I enjoy working with Silk Hankies. I still have a scarf I made from the silk hankies. I only needed 1/2 oz.
How many 1/2 or 1 oz of Hankies you used to make your beautiful shawl, Noreen?
Cookie
Hi Cookie
I am still spinning away, (thin singles, then plying 2 strands) so I can’t say for sure how much I’ll need.
I’ll keep you updated, though, for sure!
big hugs
Noreen
I forgot to mention, that I am working in multiple 2 ply strands of the silk for the body, and one strand of 2 ply silk for the mesh….
hugs
Noreen
Hi, Noreen
I love surfing through your blog on the “Hankering-for-yarn” web site. I’m still still drooling over your silk butterfly shawl you made for your daughter.
Were you able to figure out how many Silk Hankies you purchased to complete your shawl? I remembered you telling me that your silk yarn was spun in a thin gauge and 2 double plied.
I’m aware that Silk Hankies come in 1/2 oz increments.
I do have a copy of the 2006 Summer Issue of Knit-1 Magazine that has your Butterfly Shawl and I’m planning on making me one. That shawl is so beautiful! The instructions in the Knit-1 Magazine you suggested a cotton yarn, but I’d rather make it from silk that I Hand Spun myself.
Hi Cookie
I used about 250-300gm of silk in total for the shawl. I used silk bricks as well as hankies. I am sooooooooo happy with it!
Silk really is the perfect thing for the butterfly shawl!
Did you see the shawl after I finished it?
http://www.hankeringforyarn.com/the-crocheted-butterfly-wedding-shawl-is-done/