i've spun silk but only from roving, not from cocoons. i'd think it'd actually be easier to get yarn (as opposed to ultra smooth ultra fine thread) if the fibers were a bit shorter and broken up more.
That’s interesting, and kinda helpful, because all the sources I’ve been wandering through have been talking about the staple length of silk like it’s the Holy Grail, which makes me worried about Oh No Ruining It with all this experimentation, instead of just enjoying the material. (Which I am. So much fun to pull apart, yey!)
Extremely long staple length is good for making super fine, super strong silk thread! It's not at all important for a knitting yarn :) And it is much, much easier to learn to spin with more medium staple lengths, at least in my experience.
Basically, in spinning in general, with all sorts of fibers, long staple lengths are much more difficult and laborious to achieve, so long-staple fibers gain a sort of quasi mythical air to them. They're very amazing for what they're good for! But they're not at all necessary for good yarn in the end.
I tried the thing where you pull the yarn directly from the cocoon, as demonstrated here. Results are very rough; I had some trouble getting the twist to stay in, and have yet to get the hang of splicing ends together when the yarn breaks. I did some of the cocoons wet, and some of them after they dried. Here’s the result: Spoiler: lorge Wet yarn on the left, dry on the right. The yarn I pulled from wet cocoons came out longer, and is stronger and more cohesive than the dry yarn, but the dry is much softer and fluffier. The wet yarn also has a more visible luster to it, but it’s almost papery to the touch. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, I guess? Maybe I’ll try mooshing both types together or sthg. (I was like >< this close to improving a drop spindle out of a chop stick, a paper clip, and a potato.)
Behold my masterpiece of stone-age technology! (I couldn’t find a paper clip, so I had to use some iron-age technology in the form of a kitchen knife to whittle out a notch in the chopstick.) Results so far: Fluffy! This is the first time so far that I really got a sense that, yep, this sure is some yarn that I’m making. I was going to simmer another batch of cocoons today, but the simmering pot got co-opted for chicken soup production and is still in the wash. (Washing the dishes is still in my task queue, right after reading some fanfic and gazing vacantly at the wall.)
Potato drop-spindle/wet-cocoon pulled yarn combo! (Unreeled it and left it overnight to let it dry out.) ... We also have some bright red geraniums that leave dark purple stains on your fingers if you crush the petals. I’m thinking of looking up how to do a thing to stuff with them.
i've been (re??)learning how to crochet! i made an amigurumi in school like 10 years ago and haven't touched a crocheting needle (hook? needle? hook???) since BUT NOW I AM READY TO RELEARN aka last year i got so stressed from work i needed Something to do when i came home so i grabbed some leftover yarn from my roommate's knitting project, a crocheting needle she'd never used herself, & (painstakingly, over more than an hour) made this Spoiler: pic probs huge sorry (from this ravelry pattern https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/which-way-filet-blanket ) which, in a month or so turned into this so, having made this moderately big thing that i had absolutely no use for (& that my father dubbed "so 70s that even the 70s would think it outdated") i... mostly just messed around for a bit. got a whole bunch of yarn from my grandma (who is very good at crocheting AND knitting but we're not very close & she lives in a different city & i'm using patterns in english while she only knows the swedish terms so alas, can't ask for too much advice there) & some of it was SUPER thin so i was like oh!!! a Challenge and then i did teensy tinesy crocheting until i got sick of it. made 2 mini scarves for my siblings ball jointed dolls. yay xmas gifts. then i didn't make anything for a month bc i wanted my next project to be a gift for a friend and i had such a hard time choosing yarn for that project (i felt i had to buy smth new For Her, yknow?) that i ended up not choosing anything at all until i once again got so stressed i grabbed a random yarn from grandma's donated stash and started following this pattern https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/klaziena-shawl and now i need OPINIONS Spoiler: more pictures. god so many pictures SO the yarn i started out with is 100% cotton, i think - it's a p deep solid purple (which is good bc coincidentally that's my friend's favourite colour!) and i have... a Lot of it. Dunno how much because it's all in very many balls of yarn. grandma has more, should I need it. I wasn't super into the yarn at first but it's kinda grown on me ...then yesterday, I went with my roommate to the local yarn store, and ended up coming home with a lovely wool yarn that shifts between blue and purple. I adore it. It's so soft and so pretty. Here's what I had in the purple, with the new yarn next to it SO I WAS LIKE hey I can totally redo this in the wool yarn AND THEN I DID but turns out 1. wool yarn was a bit thinner so i swapped down one hook size (3,5mm to 3mm) 2. some of the scallops n stuff honestly look a bit better in a solid colour bc that makes it harder to see where one row ends and a new one begins 3. it's easier to see the pattern in general w a solid colour. and a thicker yarn 4. maybe the colour shifty thing would've looked better in a knitted project, actually. i can't knit tho like here's what i've got w the new yarn side by side comparison: so yeah basically i don't know whether to keep going with the wool yarn or swap back over to the solid purple & if i do swap over what can i do with all the blue-purple yarn i'll have left... it's like 400m yarn that's SO much! i can't knit! halp
I like the solid yarn better too Maybe the color shifty yarn for something with less pattern? (More scarf?)
@auxanges has made the klaziena shawl!! ETA: I forgot to say out loud (or over text) but my implication here was that they might have advice! from my own experience seeing a bunch of them—variegated yarn can be dope in them, but you do want to intersperse it with solids and also pick carefully what sections get which color! rule of thumb from working in a yarn shop: if it makes you happy, you're doing great
my major suggestion would be to hit up this tab: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/klaziena-shawl/people and see what people did that you liked a lot, and what does Not float your boat and might in fact sink your submarine if you had to crochet it
ooo. thank you! I love the gradients, is the thing? A short while after I'd concluded I actually really liked the Klaizena pattern I very nearly went ahead and got one of the Sheepjes Whirls the creator used, but ended up... not doing that... bc I'm a bit hesitant to buy yarn online, cause I can be a bit particular with textures and I don't actually know what'll get on my nerves and not and I did have yarn at home... thus: purble And now that I have bought a different yarn I feel like I'm not Allowed to buy any other yarns for a while, especially when I haven't decided what to do with the yarn that I do have... I like the striped projects a lot too but I wouldn't be able to find the same yarn that I have bc grandma's old stash and all that, haha So I guess my options are 1. Make in solid colour 2. Visit yarn store, show purple yarn, ask what their closest match is, cross fingers and hope they can help 3. give in and buy a gradient yarn as I technically kind of really want to (but the wait time on it getting delivered! but what do i do until then oh god I have so much free time this week! but then i'll have done the first 20 rows 3 times and that's kinda overdoing it a bit cause I don't actually enjoy the first 8 or so of them! but i'm supposed to be saving money and am not allowed more nice things rn--- and then I keep going down the 'but have you considered' spiral & can't make a choice at all :/ ) maybe I should just find a project I'd love to use the blue-purple yarn for and then I'd feel better about maybe buying more yarn for the klaizena
So i DID end up buying a gradient yarn for the klaizena shawl and have now started over and I need some help How do I keep the edge from turning upwards at the corners like that??? Why's it a bend rather than a straight line? Spoiler: pic At first I figured it'd straighten out as I kept going but while that hasn't been entirely incorrect it's still... curling... I'm a bit scared it's gonna end up making a full circle or something sdhbsk I'm pretty sure I'm inserting the final stitch of each row in the right place and entirely certain I'm following the pattern wrt how many stiches goes in that final stitch Obviously if I grab both corners and pull I can get it to straighten out but that side is the one that's not elastic so if I do, the rest of the shawl gets all buckly/ruffled. Is it supposed to be like that or have I fucked up somewhere?? How do I keep from fucking it up further???
I had this issue too! a little curling is p normal but it its getting to be too much for your liking i recommend going up a hook size. i crochet tight naturally so i usually go up one or two hook sizes to start with when youre all done you can block the long side and it will help as well, but as youre going a bigger hook might help it from curling as you go! (sorry for not replying earlier, i hadnt checked kintsugi in a while ghdksfjsd but this was my first shawl pattern and still a big fave)
(first shawl pattern high five) oh okay whew! That does make me a lot less stressed about it - if it's a tightness issue then I think I'll just take care to crochet a bit looser when I do get to that edge Thank you!!! :D
