Kimberlee Dills wrote:
>...differance in spinning silk from
> roving or a silk cap? How do you make a silk cap and why would you make one?
There are several silk preparations available to spinners.
Silk Caps or Bells are a preparation of silk from cocoons. They usually
use cocoons that have been already cut though by silk moth leaving the
cocoon. They are degummed, then the worker sticks a couple of fingers
in the hole and stretches it over a bell. Then the next one on that, so
that it ends up being many layers of cocoons stretched over the bell.
An alternate preparation is a "mawata" pronounced MAW-wa-ta, in which
the same cocoons are stretched over a square frame, like a picture
frame. They resemble "hankies" and are often sold as "hankies" to
spinners.
They are fun to dye and then spin. When you peel off a layer, you would
stretch it in a direction and keeping your hands 3 feet or so apart, you
can draft this mass of silk into a thinner roving. To stretch a cap,
stick both hands inside the cap and spread your hands apart, gently but
firmly until the cap is wider. At some point, punch through the top of
the cap and thin out the resulting circle even more. When a part gets
thin enough, break the circle and pre-draft the rest. You can then spin
from one end or actually knit with it unspun. The fiber length can be up
to 8 feet long in these, so very little twist is needed to hold it
together, but more twist makes a shinier yarn.
The hardest part is to decide which way you want to stretch one of these
delicious beauties to get the color blending you want.
I'd spritz the air during the dry months, put some hand cream on to
reduce the roughness of your hands from snagging the fibers. Caps and
Mawatas are an uneven preparation and when you spin them, the yarn does
not end up smooth.
Roving is a preparation of combed fibers usually about 4 - 8 inches
long. It's usually folded up into a "brick" that's about 7 oz. Or
sometimes in a huge wound bump. It's really slippery stuff. Static
makes the fibers splay out in all directions and stick to anything.
Pre-draft the roving until a tad larger than your desired yarn, then
spin it. Use much more twist than you would for wool.
Barbara C - eastern Mass... digging out....
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