In amongst the fibres, there are some of the innermost layer of the cocoons still visible. These don't always degum very well, they feel very papery. I usually take the larger bits out during the process of carding - here are the fibres ready to card.
And here is what they look like after carding.
There are some nice long, silky fibres combed out, but lots of bits too - if I had more of the fibre, I could pull out the smoother, silky pieces and spin them up separately to produce a finer and more even yarn, but there's not that much fibre, so I don't want to waste it. I'm going to spin the lot, so it will be a bit uneven and slubby. That's what we call a textured yarn! I decided to spin it on the hand spinner as there is only a small amount. Here is the completed spun thread.
The next step is to ply it - I did this by cutting the thread in half and twisting the two strands together, Plying makes the yarn stronger and evens it out a bit too. So here is my finished yarn. Its turned out a nice ivory colour, but silk takes up dyes really well so I'm not sure yet what this will end up as. Its not a huge amount, but its not bad from just 14 cocoons.
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