daring to use handspun

There’s a little skein of silk that has been in my stash for three or four years, because it is so small that I couldn’t think how to use it — and it is in my favourite deep berry colours so I didn’t want to make a bad decision.  I spun it from a painted tussah silk roving and in order to maintain the distinct colours as much as possible I had navajo plied it.  Now I am daring to use it as a little part of this berry red warp.

You can see from this photo, where it is sharing the swift with one of these ruby skeins, that it is quite soft and fluffy at the edges compared with the commercial yarn, so I am a bit concerned about the possible effects of friction on its delicate exterior.  However, it is three strands of silk and a pretty tough yarn overall — I have to use the scissors on this one.

I have so little of it that I daren’t use very much in this sample warp, and for the ‘real thing’ I think I would be inclined to use a dummy warp to eke it out.  That’s something to look forward to since I haven’t done it before.

Anyway, I have wound, beamed, threaded, sleyed and tied on, so you can tell that my neck is feeling a lot better today.  I’ve forced myself to stop now and take a rest.  It is still rather tricky to look to the right so please don’t sneak up on me…

“daring to use handspun” was posted by Cally on 8 Nov 2008 at http://callybooker.wordpress.com