WASHING FLEECE
1. Turn water heater up as high as it will go (mine only goes to 150 degrees Fahrenheit and make sure noone else uses the hot water during the time that the water heater is turned up). Fill tub with hot water. Pour a couple of glugs of Fiber Wash from Unicorn or a few good squirts of Dawn dish soap into the water. Using rubber gloves (you must or you will burn your skin), stir the water to spread out the soap and place fleece in tub* and gently press down so the water soaks into the fleece thoroughly. Let sit for 20 minutes or more.
*It is best to put the fleece in a mesh bag before putting it in the water so that the tub drain doesn’t become clogged.
2. Remove fleece from tub. Drain tub water and lay the fleece on towels and then roll it all up to soak up as much water as possible.
3. Fill tub with hot water. Using rubber gloves, place fleece back in water to rinse. Let the fleece sit for 20 minutes or more.
4. Repeat as many times as necessary until the fleece is clean.
5. Lay fleece out to dry on mesh sweater drying racks.
6. Turn water heater back down to it’s normal setting!
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PREPARING SILK CAPS FOR KNITTING
Each silk cap is made up of many layers of stretched out silk cocoons. You can use them for spinning, but it’s really fun to hand draft them into a yarn and knit with them. They do make beautiful scarves.
First things first, lotion is your friend. Silk caps will want to catch on dry skin.
To prepare a silk cap for knitting, the layers must be separated and then drafted. To do this, simply hold the cap at the top middle with one hand and and place your other hand inside the cap and grab what will feel like threads (this is a layer). Gently pull on this layer by moving your hands away from each other. (Note: The layers are much thinner than you might expect and it is easy to pull more than one layer out.)
Now you will be working with the one layer of silk. This layer should still resemble a cap. (If you’ve pulled out more than one layer, you can repeat the above process to get to one layer.) Place both hands in the cap and pull your hands away from each other stretching out the silk cap as far apart as your hands will go. The next step is to poke a hole in the center and then pull again until the circle you have just made breaks.
You now have a length of silk that is thicker than others in spots and we need to make it as uniform as possible by drafting. To do this, start at one end with your hands about 6 inches apart and pull the roving until the length between your hands is about 1/8 in diameter or whatever you choose.
Repeat this for all layers and knit!
Susan Matheson ©2008
