topsy turvy

spinning away on my drop spindle; this time tussah noil. it's drafting thinner than the bombyx noil, so the singles are finer. i've decided to play it safe and to divide up the fiber into two balls to ply together, rather than risk a center pull ball tangling. it should be interesting and nubby when plied, hopefully tomorrow. tour de fleece is over on the 22nd, so i should concentrate on finishing this up. fingers crossed!

challenging silk

as i've been doing a bit of spinning lately, i thought it would be fun to join the tour de fleece on ravelry this year. there's a wildcard team for jenkin's turkish spindlers; and as it's my spindle of choice, i joined them.

focusing on silk and different preparations of it, i've spun up some dyed bombyx brick, 25g of dyed tussah roving, and now some silk noil. the silk noil is the really interesting one, as it's spun similarly to short staple cotton. popcorn garlands come to mind when i look at it. i think i'll keep it as a singles. i have another bag of tussah silk noils which is smoother, no vegetable matter, and looks to be a longer staple length. which i plan on spinning up after this noil.

i love drop spinning; it helps me focus, work through my emotions/thoughts, and forms a kind of meditation practice for me. now if only it burned a significant amount of calories...