This fiber is the first silk extruded by the silkworm and looks like slightly disorganised puffs of carded fibre. It produces a fairly smooth yarn with a matte appearance.  There is some sericin in this product.

It can be spun as is with a slight teasing or carded before spinning. Use cotton cards (which are finer than wool cards) because they give better results.

The fibres will slip past each other more easily if the rolag is airy and not compacted. If you spin without carding, tease the fibres slightly between your fingers – it will help the fibres draft a little more readily while spinning.

These fibres spin nicely with both a long draw (drafting hand moves away from the orifice as the twist enters the fibres) and with a worsted method (draw forward, slide back).

If you degum before spinning (click here for degumming recipe--go to bottom of the page), you may lose about half the weight of your fiber, so plan according.

Remember that silk needs to be handled while drying, or you can "whack it" a few times after it's dry to soften it.  otherwise your silk will be "hard." Spinner Liza shared "I had to get over my “fear” of messing it up. It’s a strong fiber and responded to a bit of coaxing to get it to open up."

Spinner Liza carded Bombyx sliver and cocoon strippings she had degummed, making light airy rolags.  "I like the strength and stability that the longer fibers give to the “textured” part of the cocoon strippings"

100% Bombyx Silk

200 Gram (7oz) package

Color:  natural

Purchase $150 of 'bulk' undyed yarns or fibers and receive a 10% discount on those items. The discount will be applied manually (by a human-that's me!) before finalizing your pending credit card charge. A reminder is always appreciated—you can do that in “comments” in the final screen when checking out (step 5)