# Spinning--silk full of little nubs



## amoamarone (Feb 21, 2015)

I pulled this silk out and found out it has a bunch of little nubs--little balls of silk floating amongst the cloud. I put some on my drum carder but that didn't really help. I don't have combs (yet--they are coming) but don't know if that would have helped anyway. So I decided it would be art yarn, nubs and all, deliberately spun thick and thin. Sometimes the easiest approach works. 

Still, I would like to know how you would have prepared this fiber. Thanks and Happy New Year!


----------



## deemail (Jan 25, 2011)

It was probably Indian silk...the Chinese boil the cocoons and unwind them into one long strand, either wound or pressed into a 'hanky' for spinning. But the Indians are Hindu and do not believe in killing any living thing, so they wait till the moths cut themselves out of the cocoons, which leaves hundreds of short pcs, which they card and spin into a nubby yarn...it's that wonderful nubby fabric found in so many suits and dresses...great texture in addition to sheen and smoothness of silk...treasure it...was this pressed into a hanky when you got it?


----------



## amoamarone (Feb 21, 2015)

deemail said:


> It was probably Indian silk...the Chinese boil the cocoons and unwind them into one long strand, either wound or pressed into a 'hanky' for spinning. But the Indians are Hindu and do not believe in killing any living thing, so they wait till the moths cut themselves out of the cocoons, which leaves hundreds of short pcs, which they card and spin into a nubby yarn...it's that wonderful nubby fabric found in so many suits and dresses...great texture in addition to sheen and smoothness of silk...treasure it...was this pressed into a hanky when you got it?


No, it came as loose fiber. It is https://www.paradisefibers.com/products/camaj-hand-dyed-mulberry-silk-cloud-soffsilk. From the description, I would not have expected all the little nubs (like from friction) but it is working out fine.


----------



## dtjacobson (Mar 25, 2012)

The "little nubs" are noils, so what you have is usually called "noil silk." It tends to be a bit less spendy than silk sliver, caps, bells, or hankies, but can be a lot of fun to spin. It looks like you've found a way to turn it into yarn. As a variation, you can also blend it with a very fine wool (such as merino): pick a wool with a staple the same length as most of the silk fibers. Blending it with a nice wool will reduce the proportion of noils to fiber. Blending is also a way to stretch a little bit of fiber to have enough yarn to actually make something: 50g of noil silk, in the right hands (yours!) can be turned into 100g of 50/50 silk/wool.


----------



## desireeross (Jun 2, 2013)

amoamarone said:


> No, it came as loose fiber. It is https://www.paradisefibers.com/products/camaj-hand-dyed-mulberry-silk-cloud-soffsilk. From the description, I would not have expected all the little nubs (like from friction) but it is working out fine.


I've used her sofsilk. I painted mine onto the drum. I felt that worked better than feeding it through


----------



## sockyarn (Jan 26, 2011)

They do tell you it is a short staple.


----------



## amoamarone (Feb 21, 2015)

sockyarn said:


> They do tell you it is a short staple.


True, but I didn't realize it would have the little 1/4 inch balls -- I called them nubs but I don't know if that is the right term.

No problem. I have worked it out.


----------



## wordancer (May 4, 2011)

I too would have spun it, looks nice.


----------



## Cdambro (Dec 30, 2013)

I think what you spun is just beautiful. I like the colors and it has such a nice sheen.


----------



## Reba1 (Feb 5, 2012)

I love the single you ended up with, I think that fiber was begging for you to turn it into art yarn.


----------



## amoamarone (Feb 21, 2015)

Reba1 said:


> I love the single you ended up with, I think that fiber was begging for you to turn it into art yarn.


Always good to be open to the possibilities instead of only allowing yourself to be disappointed.


----------



## IndigoSpinner (Jul 9, 2011)

Noils are short staple. But when they work their way into those little tweedy things, they're called neps.

Neps are very characteristic of spun silk, and when I see them, I know that there's silk at least blended into whatever fiber there might be.

It looks rich to me because they're visual proof that it's silk.


----------



## amoamarone (Feb 21, 2015)

IndigoSpinner said:


> Noils are short staple. But when they work their way into those little tweedy things, they're called neps.
> 
> Neps are very characteristic of spun silk, and when I see them, I know that there's silk at least blended into whatever fiber there might be.
> 
> It looks rich to me because they're visual proof that it's silk.


Thank you for the explanation. So much to lean!


----------



## IndigoSpinner (Jul 9, 2011)

amoamarone said:


> Thank you for the explanation. So much to lean!


The other thing that makes fabric with neps seem rich to me is the feel.

My ex-husband used to invariably think that a nice, shiny polyester was silk. But real silk feels very much like cotton, but better. It's hard to describe, but it feels really good to me.


----------

