Pretty things

In lieu of a proper post with words, I give you a post of pretty pictures of pretty stuff. ;)  Just click on the arrows on the sides, you'll see all the pretty scarves I recently made!

~Kara

found it friday - Spider Moths

Spider Moth, Spider Moth, does whatever a Spider Moth does. Spin a cocoon, just his size.  Makes flame retardant underpants, for the good guys. Spider Moth, Spider Moth, look out! here come's the Spider Moth....

Anyway..... So. This one's interesting.  Apparently there is a laboratory in Michigan - the Kraig Biocraft Laboratories, to be exact- that is genetically modifying moth DNA at the egg and sperm stage so that the resultant moths will make spider silk, instead of moth silk. They've named them Monster Moths.

Now moth silk, as we know it is pretty awesome.  Light weight, cool, but warm, moisture wicking and it does have it's own level of flame retardance.  But spider silk is all that and more.  It's incredibly  more strong, for one, and really hard to harvest for another.  Stronger silk equals tougher clothing, clothing they think will have military purposes, as well as civilian purposes. Monster Moth silk ties, anyone?  To match your military issue Monster Moth silk under pants?  So, I suppose that's why these amazing scientists are making GMO moths. It's all for the money! But what isn't all for the money these day's?

Now, I'm not a really big fan of the whole GMO thing, but I found this pretty cool.

Please check out the site I originally found this on! There's more info there. And a picture. They have pinkish red little eyes and 4 wings...

~Kara

The making of Mawata

This is another post that comes with a warning! But it's not for the same reason as the other post with a warning. Not even close!  This warning is for vegans. You may find the following content offensive. And the last picture is gross. Now you know. And here I go.

Yesterday was the last craft sale I had lined up this year.  This morning I woke up with a really intense drive to get at my level 3 homework. I'm so very close to being finished the silk module.  I've got some stitching to finish, and a mini woven piece to take off my makeshift loom, and about 6 stitches to cast off on my silk knitting to cast off (geeeee, when I write it out like that... Honestly. I don't even want to think of how chaotic that seems/is)  I've got my labels on the skeins, and they are ready for me to determine TPI, WPI, and counts and what not. But there's one more part of the module that I had to get done.  I started it this morning.  This morning, I made silk mawata, otherwise known as silk hankies.  Here's the photo journal of that process, with the odd little comment.   I did live tweet as I was going, but I'm posting here too. And it will be on Craftster.org too.

Let it begin!! Hubby had a handy dandy thermometer for me to borrow, so that i could make sure my pot never got above 65'c.

Into the pot! Silk cocoons float, so I grabbed a broken strainer, thinking it would keep them under the water. Apparently they are buoyant enough to lift it....

So I grabbed another small pot and laid it atop to strainer.

I kept having to tweak the temperature on the stove to keep it from getting to hot or to cold.  What a fussy process!!

After 40 minutes of cooking these bad boys, I decided they were done.  They say until they become transparent, but they were super soft, so I didn't wait any longer.

First 3 or 4 onto the frame my Dad made for me (Thanks again, Dad!!)

The full frame.  So much silk! wooohooo!

And here's the last one, and the photo I feel like I need to share, as it tells the whole story. Truth of it is that silk comes from silk worms. More often then not these creatures need to have their lives taken in order to harvest the silk.  It's an unfortunate part of the silk industry. This is what comes out of the cocoons, dead bugs and bug poop. Yes. Poop.  they did just eat so many more times their weight in mulberry leaves, after all. 

In hind sight, I half wonder if I could have sliced the cocoons open, removed the yucky stuffs and then boiled the cocoons.  You can see I didn't open/use the ones that were super gross on the inside, poor little guys died for nothing.

But there you have it! it was about 2 hours of work, from gathering supplies to the final vinegar rinse.  Worth it, as I'll be able to finish up that module by the end of this week!! 

~Kara

Found it friday- Turn baking soda into washing soda!

Right this minute, my oven is pre heating to 400'F  so that I can turn my baking soda into washing soda.  Now, some of you may be wondering why one would want to do this, and just how does it relate to spinning?  Well,  washing soda is good for making laundry detergent, and general other cleaning things. But the very specific reason I want to do this is because in order to degum your silk cocoons, you need washing soda! And you need to degum your cocoons to make muwata (aka silk hankies)  It's sometimes hard to come by, and I'm thinking it's a bit more expensive per ounce then baking soda.  Don't quote me on that though. I haven't been on a big search for washing soda, and I have lots of baking soda kicking around.  So this is the easier solution.

But wait! It's found it friday!  Where did you find the recipe for this magical transformation???  I found this lovely post on Nature's Nurture, via a friend on Facebook.  Sarah (of Natures Nurture) links to her original source as well on her blog post.

I'll give you the basic outline of the process you need to undergo to do this bit of chemistry/magic.

1. Pre heat your oven to 400'F
2. pour your baking soda on a cookie sheet.  I lined mine with parchment paper so that removing it from the pan will be easier.
3. Bake your baking soda for 30 minutes, or until it looks grainy, more then powdery, isn't shiny anymore, and wont clump.

That's it. Simple! Now use in your silk cocoon degumming solution!   And spin those muwata you just made with the help of chemistry/magic.

~ Kara

Master Spinner Level 2 Final Project

So, I left you all hanging.  It's like a really juicy season finale and you had to wait far to long to find out  just what happened!  Suspense!  Mystery! Did she or didn't she? dun dun dunnnnnnnn.....

I frogged it.  I frogged that damn scarf. It was surprisingly satisfying. In a way.  And then that tiny little ball of yarn sat for a while, lonely and beckoning.  I started carding rolags from some lovely merino fleece from Natchwoolie to distract me from my lingering frustration.  And I spun up 2 of the 3 bobbins of the merino, but something stopped me from spinning the 3rd.... It was likely the date, the fact that Fibre Week was only 3 weeks away and my husband was about to go on a week long fishing trip.  Or the thought:  "You know, you went through all that effort on that shetland silk blend.  And you are pretty proud of it.  Just use it. Make that little scarf.  DO IT".
So I did. I used a crochet cast on as the provisional cast on. I knit twisted stitches, I yarned over, I purled and knit two together. I bound off to "top' part, picked up the provisional cast on with ease and bound that baby off.  I cut through my knitting at the appropriate place ( talk about scary! cutting my haandspun in the middle of a project!!) I blocked that scarf, and when it was dry I held it up and smilled.  The yarn I lovingly spun from junk wool and silk, knit and frogged, and knit again, held up sooooo well to that abused. So well. I was happy to turn it in as my final project.

And because this post is nothing without a picture....  TaDa! pretty scarf!

It's been through the scrutiny of my wonderful teacher, and got a pretty good mark.  But the mark isn't the big thing with this one, in the end.  I'm proud of this dinky little scarf.  It's soft, it drapes nicely, it's light and airy. And I'll actually wear it. 

~Kara

The Give Away!!

I'm done spinning nearly all my samples for the course!!  3 more 10 yard samples to go, then my final project, which is either moon socks or chimera mittens.  I'll make both and see which I like better.  I also have to put all the paper work together, and put it in my accordion folder, but I'm sooo close.  Not on my goal of March 1st at all,  but I'll be done by the end of March, which is great!  So what does this mean for you?

It's here, it's here, it's here!!  The give away is here!!  Yay free stuff!!

22g of beautiful silk Muwata, dyed by myself, inspired by my shells pin on pinterest.

How to enter:

Step 1:  Become a follower! If you follow already, yay!  And thanks!

Step 2:  Leave a comment!

Step 3: 1 extra entry for each: tweet and facebook share.  Please come back and comment that you did so!

This will give you 3 chances at these Muwata!  

Knitters & Crocheters!  This isn't just for spinners!  Check out how you can knit with these here:  http://youtu.be/stSgvbrcygA

This contest runs from February 24th- March 2nd at 6pm cst.  The Random number generator will choose a comment!  Good Luck!

~Kara

GIVE AWAY CLOSED!  THE WINNER IS JENNIFER BEAMER!  Check out the action here.