Yesterday I made a 3-ply sample skein of my sari silk, and swatched it. I really thought it was about a worsted weight, but I was wrong. It got about 7-8 WPI, which is Aran verging on chunky, and it demanded a size 10 needle. Even with that, it STILL made a thick, dense fabric. The texture is also very interesting – not really “silky” as I have gotten with raw silk fibers. But it does drape well.
So today, for contrast, I spun another sample and plied it as a 2-ply. It’s drying now, I’ll swatch it when it’s done.
Then I thought, hmmm: wonder what would happen if I used my hand cards to blend some plain white wool with some of the sari silk, and spun that? So of course, I had to try it. I made 6 rolags, and spun them worsted method instead of woolen. Partly because I didn’t want to confuse checking out the fiber blend with using a still-unfamiliar technique, and partly because I wanted to see how rolags do when you spin them using the worsted method. It came out really nice, so I’m excited. It’s a big enough sample that I’ll be able to guesstimate what kinds of quantities might be required to make, say, a scarf.
Until next time.
3-ply Sari Silk swatch
Sari silk & Targhee blend, spun from rolags