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#wonder if i can blend the milkweed tow with some silk ?
milkweedman · 9 months
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This little sample is 100% milkweed silk. I'm using a very small--albeit not very light--supported spindle. I just wanted to try out this tiny art spindle I carved like months ago. It's a little shorter than a sharpie, works great, probably will work even better when the tips of my thumbs aren't super bruised from the whittling (has been long enough the callouses were gone). Might also try with my wheel at some point although it sounds like a nightmare to me. I don't have any cotton spinning tools, so supported spindles are probably the best for now.
Problem mostly is that it's very similar to spinning cotton, because ive never been any good at spinning cotton. So I might need to practice cotton instead, as I have more of it.
But this is a small sample of two ply (with a wool single as a leader). I tried spinning it with variable amounts of twist--it didn't tolerate a ton before snapping, but held together fine at a medium twist. I don't know about strength yet. But it's so soft and glittery and warm--just holding it in the fingertips makes it hot. It's pretty fantastic at the moment. We'll see how it ages.
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