Silkworms spinning!

A little bit disappointed yesterday, went to Dixon Lambtown and a lot of the vendors I'd been looking forward to seeing weren't there. Was hoping to find some nice kid mohair fleeces...last year there was a great colored angora goat farm. No such luck this year. The only raw mohair fleeces were ridiculously dirty--super cheap at $4-5/lb--but not worth the work though some of them were soft enough they'd probably end up looking fine. So oily though, which was weird. Not too many raw fleeces in general. There were some nice hand-dyed fibers and yarn, both acid and natural dyed. My favorite booth was The Loom Room/Fanfare Farms out of Vacaville. The mother raises alpacas, the daughter raises angora rabbits and sheep as well as spins/dyes/weaves. I couldn't resist some beautiful pale grey fiber from Elvis, an English Angora, and some mildly variegated medium grey alpaca fiber. Can't wait to get through my rough alpaca for the knitted nudes and start spinning the soft stuff.

Meanwhile, in other excitement, the silkworms started spinning yesterday. After wondering and worrying exactly how you tell when they're ready to spin and how much coddling they need, I discovered they really do change...Here's a blurry pic of two, the yellowish translucent one is smaller and ready to spin.


These guys are starting to spin. It can take them 2-3 days to finish their cocoons.




I was hoping that the silkworms would be interested in spinning on some of my glass sculptures. Not too interested so far.


Most of the silkworms are still eating. Munch munch munch. Here they are in their plastic bin plus lots of close-ups.