Making the pure silk thread for spinning |
| reeling silk |
| How to make pure silk thread for spinning. The luster and strength of silk is beautiful. Pure silk garments are lightweight and soothing to the skin. |
| When a silkworm or larvae is ready to become a moth, it creates a cocoon from a single fine filament about 610 meter (2000 feet) long. The cocoons are collected and placed in hot water that kills the worms and loosens the filaments and to remove the Sericin which frees the silk filament ends for reeling or filature. The filaments from 10-12 cocoons are drawn from cocoons in water bowls and combined to form a single thread. These raw fibers contain a waxy substance called seracin that gives them irregularity which creates a beautiful natural character. |
| The yarn is now raw silk. Next the raw silk is twisted into a strand sufficiently strong for weaving or knitting. This procedure is called throwing. Different methods of twisting the threads are used for different fabrics and a single thread is used for sheer fabrics. |
| spun silk |
| Low grade silk is made from damaged cocoons which were spoiled by emerging worms and any loose filaments on the outside of the cocoon and left over portions after reeling the raw silk. The silk is brushed and spun like wool. This is processed into yarn as spun silk which is much cheaper than reeled silk. |
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