How Do You Spin Silk On A Top Whorl Spindle?
In the fairy tale “Rumpelstiltskin,” a young woman must spin straw into gold. Spinning silk is not that hard, but the results are equally fabulous. Silk fiber is available in many forms, but the procedure here describes using silk hankies, which are layers of silk cocoons stretched into squares. The advantage of using hankies is that you can draft the fibers before starting to spin. Peel one layer off of the silk hankie. It should be translucent. If you can’t see light through it, you have more than one layer. The layers will have thick and thin spots, but most are thicker at the edges. Push your fingers through the fiber in the center of the square, and with both hands, gently pull the center fibers to the edge. You will have a ring of fiber. Hold the fiber taut between your hands, palms facing each other. Gently, but firmly, widen the gap between your hands. As you pull, the fibers will slide against each other, and the fiber will get thinner–think of stretching a rubber band. This
