Friday, February 26, 2010

How to make recycled silk yarn











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I am offering half pound bags of assorted recycled 100% silk scraps. I collect the silk to use for making recycled silk yarn and silk quilts, pillows, purses, frames, cards and other cute fiber crafts. Pieces are odd sizes, big and little, and a variety of colors. Bags are $10 for half a pound, plus $5.50 for shipping to US locations. If you need more than half a pound, just email me with your zip code, or country, and the amount you need, and I will look up the best shipping rate to your area, and can invoice you through paypal, if desired.

I make recycled silk yarn in several different ways. One way to make recycled silk yarn is to cut very thin strips of silk and then spin it, when you get to the end of a strip of recycled silk, you can splice it, loop it, and spin it to the next piece. Another way I spin it is to take a piece of tussah silk roving and a lot of very thin strips of recycled silk, and spin them together for a textured, colorful yarn.



Recycled silk yarn can also be made by using other fibers--wool, angora, etc--just chop or shred your silk and put spritzes of it in as you ply or spin your roving or batt. Of course, this is a silk blend yarn, but can be really lovely.




Sometimes I use my rotary cutter to shred or make thin strips of silk. You can make some great recycled silk yarns if you use your imagination and some silk scrap. Recycled silk yarn works especially well if you use a table loom to make runners, scarves and mats. I usually make a stack of scarves out of recycled silk during the winter, both woven and knitted, and sell them once the crafts festival season begins. The nice part is that they are about the easiest and fastest thing you can make that still has a sophisticated, retro-artsy look. The young people like them, because they go quite well with the torn and distressed jeans they are so fond of wearing. The scarves are good sellers, and usually all of them sell. I should probably make nothing but these. However, I like to make other types of yarn too, as you can see by scrolling through this blog, and my Yarn_store blog.



If you just want some recycled silk yarn, without making it yourself, I will make some for you at $10 per 50 yds, plus shipping. It will be spun with some colorful wool and will be a bulky weight yarn. It will be a multi-color yarn.