The Silkworms are Spinning!

The silkworms are finally spinning.
I would like to thank my husband for my new silkworm condos. I ran out of egg cartons and he saved the day by making me condos. What a guy!
Every flat surface in our home is currently occupied by boxes of silkworms, I am hopeful that by Monday all of the little guys will have spun beautiful little beds.

I have been trying to capture the spinning process from beginning to end. So far I have not been successful, I seem to miss a few steps. But here is my first attempt. This little guy started spinning first thing in the morning.

This picture was taken about noon.

This pic was shot around 4 pm.

Here are my first 23 cocoons of the year. I like to carefully string the cocoons together and hang them up, the first cocoons will become a living sculpture. All of my silkworms are given the opportunity to hatch and live out their lives as moths. I will post pictures as the moths start emerging from their cocoons.

Today I am mailing out the rest of the Daffodil inspired roving. I will also be carding a new color roving, I am thinking maybe purple and green. I will have to raid my stash. More soon.
Happy Spinning!
Loretta

Silkworms are taking over my Life!

What a cutie!
I just love my little friends.

Ok, I will admit 500 silkworms are too much for me to handle at one time. To start out they are so small, just a spec really. Now they are between 1-4 inches long and they are taking over. It only takes about 30 min a day to clean and feed, but I am now making food for them to eat every day. They are also taking over every flat surface in my living room. I am so thankful my family understands and makes room for them.

This little guy and several of his friends have graduated to the spinning boxes. They are close to 4 inches long and should start spinning soon. This is the most fragile state of their little lives many will die before spinning cocoons. So I wait and worry.

Today I cooked up an experimental batch of chow for my little friends. Last summer my mother-in-law dehydrated mulberry leaves for me. I have kept them in the freezer all winter waiting for the right time to use them. Silkworms spin best when they have fresh leaves to eat, but as I am in Iowa we will not have leaves for at least another month. So today I added 5 grams of dehydrated leaves to 2.7 ounces of powdered commercial chow and 1 cup of water, then I steamed the chow for 30 minutes. I am hoping that the leaves will trigger the silkworms to spin. We shall see.

This is a group of silkworms that are 3-4 inches long, they are eating commercial food with blue cake dye added. I was hoping to replicate an experiment that was done last summer in China. So far none of the silkworms have changed color.
More soon. Happy Spinning!

Growing Silk Worms

I Love Wednesdays and Fridays. They are the days that I don't have to run around, so I can stay home and work on my projects.
Today I am going to work on finishing a ball of roving I started spinning over the weekend.
And I have spindles that want turning.
But First are my babies!

These two shots are of the silkworms on Monday. I think I have an overcrowding problem because I have several different size worms. Most are the two larger sizes but I do have a few really little ones.

This is a picture I took this morning ( Wednesday). I have to separate the silk worms again today because they have grown so much! I now have to cook chow everyday and I will soon have to make 2 batches every day. I use my rice steamer to cook the chow, it works much better than cooking it on the stove or in the Microwave.

This is a 2.5 ounce 2 ply skein I did over the weekend. Kim dyed the Soy/Merino roving for me last spring. I don't remember how she dyed it but it was really stiff. I recently re-washed the roving and it was still really stiff so I carded it. It was such a joy to work with. now what to do with it.

Ok, I am a yarnaholic my stash probably is larger than my life expectancy. I have been trying really hard not to add to my stash but I added 6 skeins in March and Teusday I added 4 skeins of this metallic eyelash. I really need to stay out of Hobby Lobby. I have enough of my handspun to keep me busy for years. I better go I hear the silkworms calling.
Happy Spinning!