Exploring the world of fiber, one draft at a time

My posting can be as frequent or infrequent as my spinning, so be as patient as that fiber, sitting in my stash.

Saturday, January 03, 2004

Here is the picture of the scarf I made my daughter out of recycled silk yarn.

http://f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/lusi222/album?.dir=/recycled+silk+scarf

It takes a minute to load, but once it is completely loaded you can really see the shine from the silk yarn. This yarn is made by a company called Mango Moon and the color is listed as Jewel-Earth. The tag says the yarn supports the women of Nepal with better living conditions, education, and health care. Their web site is listed as www.mangomoonknits.com. Supposedly they use the loom waste from weaving silk saris.

As far as current projects, I am working on knitting toe up socks for a friend out of handspun CVM wool. I made the sock part a natural color, and have spun a yarn from the same roving dyed teal. I washed that yarn last night, and the color was still running from the yarn. I was surprised because I did not get color on my hands while I was spinning. So the yarn had to get several washes and many rinses, and it finally seemed rinsed of the extra dye.

I tried something else I had read with this yarn. After I finished with the rinses, I wrapped the yarn in saran wrap, and microwaved it for a minute. The idea is that this heat will set the twist better than just hot water wash. I am hoping too that the last blast of heat will set the color better.

So when that yarn dries I will start on the cuff of the sock.

I have been knitting with the bamboo doubled pointed needles for these socks, and now I know why everyone likes them. It has been a very pleasant experience to knit with them. I am using size fives because this handspun yarn is bulkier than regular sock yarn, it is more like worsted weight. But the sock is coming out nice and plump and will be the wear around the house and keep her feet warm type of sock I wanted for my friend.

CW

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