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Wednesday 13 July 2011

Wool 'n' Worms

Couldn't wait to spin the two batts I bought at the wool festival, and finished them last night.  There's about 100g here.  I've spun it as a single, thick and thin.  Not sure what it's going to be yet.


The first cocoon is substantially thicker, and another day should see it finished.  It then has to sit for a week before it can be processed further.


Another worm started to spin last night in one of the toilet roll inners I put around the edge of their plastic box.  I split the cardboard tubes lengthwise and pulled them apart a little bit so the silkworms could crawl in by themselves.  I don't know if you can see, but it's just starting to shape the cocoon around itself.


The biggest surprise though, was the worm in the "sick bay" which I thought was on it's way out.  Last night it, too, started to spin.  It's drawn a leaf around itself and is spinning inside.


Today I made a sort of open-weave framework of mulberry twigs and put it in their box for them to spin amongst, mainly because I knew I didn't have enough toilet roll inners for 70 (ish) worms.  Within a few minutes, three silkworms had climbed up onto it, so maybe that's the best option.

2 comments:

  1. Brilliant! Glad the sick worm seems to be on the mend! Seems like you did the right thing putting the twigs in for them, its probably nicer/more natural for the worms to spin there than in toilet roll tubes anyway. Your yarns from the lovely batts are looking good! I can never wait to get stuck into new batts either! :)

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  2. Still only have 3 spinning - I keep finding dead ones each day. I think they must just have a high mortality rate. I'm probably down to about 60 now, but hopefully will get enough to mate and lay eggs, and some to spin.

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