06.25.06

Spin x 2

Posted in NYC, Spinning, Yarn at 6:13 pm by delipics

Spin On Spin In Spin Out!
Yup, I made it to the event. I braved the downpour. My sneakers and socks were drenched. The humidity was unbearable - but - once I removed my wet shoes and socks, draped my raincoat over the back of my chair, and pulled out my spinning, everything was fine again.

We could not hang-out in Central Park that day but fortunately the organizers were able to move the event indoors at the East 54th Street Recreation Center. We spinners took up half of the gym - on the other end people were shooting hoops. (I wish I had taken photos of the interior. It was actually quite a beautiful building.) There was free swag - I grabbed a pin, a free issue of Spin Off, and got a mini-skein of Spritely Goods. People came with their spinning wheels, others had their spindles, and a group of women were learning to spin on CD spindles. There was some knitting; coincidentally, I think everyone who did bring knitting were knitting socks.

Maria was there spinning away on her new Ashford Joy. I met Ina, the Jersey Knitter, and Jill Ann. Caroline showed up for the last hour. Jill Ann helped me out with my plying, and I fell in love with her beautiful, little spindle. We all got to learn our spinning stories, ask questions, and help each other out. It all went too fast. We only had the place until 3:30. Waaah - I didn’t want to leave! JA helped me pull off my Andean plying bracelet, another woman let me have her paper roll so I could preserve my bundle of yarn and not get it tangled, and then it was time to go home.

Thank you Cara for organizing this — you made it happen despite all the rain. It was a really great event!

Now about those silk cocoons . . .

Here they are about to be boiled. They were boiled for about 20 minutes or so (oh the smell! ick!) until they are soft. Once they are ready, a stiff brush was used to draw out the silk threads. What happens is the threads, that are thinner than hair, are pulled out and drawn into one thicker thread (not that thick, just a tad thicker than hair). Then we wound the silk threads around this tool (the name of which I forgot).

When you cut open a cocoon, you see the little worm:

Afterwards, we learned how to spin silk hankies. Below is the hanky, just as it is about to be pulled apart, and to the right is my mini-skein of silk, spun from one and a half hankies. Next class — Kool-Aid dying!.