Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Peacock silk bell

I just finished painting a 1 oz silk bell for my swap partner, and I'm doing some cashmere roving this afternoon. I already sent her one package of yarn with commerical stuff as well as mine, but this package is all by me :-)

3 comments:

Anne said...

what is a silk bell?

Teresa said...

It's a silk preparation, much like a hankie or a cap. Basically, it is a bunch of individual silk cocoons degummed, and layered and stretched over a form. Hankies are stretched onto a square, caps/bells are stretched onto a dome shaped form. To spin it, you remove a layer, draft and spin. Knitty had an article on hankies
http://www.knitty.com/issuewinter05/FEATsilkhankies.html
and bells/caps work much the same, only you get a LOT more silk in one than you do in a hankie. They are my favorite silk preparation to work with, and you can knit directly from the drafted fiber

Anne said...

Thank you!