Local women share uncommon thread in silk harvesting

When they decided to spin their own silk, three area spinners and weavers went right to the source.

That would be tiny silkworm eggs, which are the size of and a few shades lighter gray than poppy seeds.

Esther Peregrine, Sue Cutter and Kelli Miner raised more than 1,500 of them altogether, seeing them through from the egg to moth stages. And then they spent six hours recently in the somewhat painstaking process of extracting silk filaments from the cocoons.

From the teensy-tiny seeds, the three members of the Champaign-Urbana Spinners and Weavers Guild ended up with skeins of silk thread or yarn they can use in countless crafts items: scarves, sweaters, hats, gourd covers and votive-candle holders.

"It's uniquely yours," Cutter said. "There's something very rewarding about starting from the ground up."

And there was something fascinating about watching the women process the cocoons, which resemble small, white-fiber candy Easter eggs.

The three gathered earlier this month for "Silk Play Day," or Silkfest, at Cutter's farmhouse south of Sidney. There they transformed her well-lit kitchen into a mini silk factory. At the same time they were on a quest for themselves and the Spinners and Weavers Guild – to learn more about techniques and strategies for silk production.

Peregrine will deliver at the guild's Nov. 10 meeting a talk on that topic and a report on "Silkfest." And at the guild's annual show and sale in early November, she will demonstrate reeling silk thread. (See "If you go," at right.)

The most knowledgeable of the trio, Peregrine has been harvesting silk from bombyx mori eggs for three years. Most commercial silk is made from the domesticated bombyx mori silkworm moth.

For Silk Play Day, Peregrine had ordered, via the Internet, 1,000 eggs, paying $20 for all of them. She actually received 2,000; she kept 1,500 and gave away the rest of them.

Once the women received the eggs, they refrigerated them in small containers until spring, when mulberry trees leaf out. Silkworms eat mulberry leaves or prepared mulberry-leaf "chow."

Then the eggs and leaves are left at room temperature. It takes about a week for the eggs to hatch into silkworms, or caterpillars.

The worms then munch on the mulberry leaves. When they are larger, you can hear the worms eating if you listen closely.

"Some say it's like rain falling on the leaves – it's a lovely sound," Cutter said.

Eventually the satiated worms secrete a chemical that allows them to break through or wiggle out of their skin, like taking off pants, to become white moths. This moulting stage happens five times over at least a month.

The moths – they're lazy and don't move around much, Peregrine said – leave behind the egg-shaped cocoons from which the silk is harvested. Two methods were demonstrated at Silk Play Day.

In one, Cutter, Peregrine and Miner dropped the cocoons into hot but not boiling water that contained sodium bicarbonate and dishwashing detergent. Those ingredients and the warm water break down the sericin, or glue, that binds the cocoons.

As they soften, the cocoons begin to separate into individual filaments. The women removed the pupae from the softened cocoons, took the cocoons, one by one, out of the water and stretched it between their hands. They then fitted each over the rounded handles of wicker baskets and allowed them to dry. The cocoon layers tend to stick to each other but when dry can be pulled apart without too much trouble.

Twenty-five to 50 layers of cocoons make what the women called a "cap," which resembles nearly translucent gauze. The caps eventually are spun into yarn.

"It can be really fine yarn or thread, but the reeled silk makes the highest quality thread," Cutter said.

Demonstrating the reeling method, Peregrine put 30 cocoons into the warm-water solution in a slow-cooker. Once the cocoons softened, she gently stirred them together until she found the end of a filament.

Taking turns, the three women, paying Zen-like attention to their task, reeled the filament onto a plastic reel that Peregrine had built from PVC pipes. They took care not to overlap the filament as they turned the reel. Peregrine harvested a skein of silk thread that day.

Once the caps were dry, Cutter, Miner and Peregrine took those to their spinning wheels to engage in the ancient practice of spinning, in this case, silk thread or yarn.

"You get a handmade quality that you can't purchase," Miner said.

"And you get the satisfaction of doing it yourself, too, and you won't find that in a store," Cutter said.

If you go

What: Champaign-Urbana Spinners & Weavers Guild Show & Sale, featuring hand-spun yarns; hand-woven fabrics; knitted and handwoven garments; accessories such as scarves, gloves and socks; tatted lace; and home decor and holiday decorations

When: 4 to 9 p.m. Nov. 6 and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Nov. 7

Where: Hessel Park Christian Reformed Church, 700 W. Kirby Ave., C

Admission: Free

Information: www.centralillinoisfiberguild.org or CUspinweave@gmail.com.

Next Guild meeting: 7 p.m. Nov. 10, Hessel Park Christian Reform Church. At 7:30 p.m., Esther Peregrine will give the program, "Techniques and Strategies for Silk Production: A Report From Silkfest."

Interesting silkworm facts

— During its growth phase, a silkworm expands from an eighth of an inch to 3 inches long.

— At full size, a silkworm weighs 10,000 times what it weighed at the time it hatched.

— Each silkworm cocoon – some are thicker than others – can make a filament up to a mile long.

— The silk filament is 10 times stronger than a steel filament of the same size.

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