Utterly fascinated with Eri silk cocoon cakes, they are so easy to fluff up into a generous handful of spinnable fiber, or can be pulled into a circle shape, broke through the center and stretched into a hoop of continual strands to be spun from or cut into lengths (I learned this from some instructional Longthread Media spinning videos using silk hankies). Even more I love how the cocoons are harvested after the moth emerges, therefore known as Ahimsa Silk, also as Peace Silk. One thing I want to note; the processed silk roving is radically different than spinning the silk strands from cocoons. The silk cocoons have the strands all wound around and hold together, even “stick” together in spinning far more than the silk that is processed into roving, as well as shorter fibers. It is raw silk which is not as smooth and has little slubs, the finished spinning has a more matte finish, and therefore in blending adds much more texture than the processed silk roving would.

As combed cotton roving is something I just do not feel committed to learn to spin by itself, because it takes specialized skill, if not equipment, but mostly because pure cotton handspun yarn is not something I knit with, and I can’t imagine weaving with it, yet like silk, I am learning the benefits of adding it to blends.

Of course, downy soft alpaca, one of my favorites, giving a fuzzy soft halo to the finished yarn, and exquisite warmth, and added to the others for a more complex blend in this sample checks all the boxes for me.

♣ Blending Notes ♣ 

• Alpaca: Alpaca roving, in color fawn, approx 1/3.
• Silk: Eri Silk cocoon cakes, approx 1/3.
• Cotton: Combed cotton roving, in color mauve, approx 1/3.