Gorgeous fibre samples

A few weeks ago, Karen sent me some gorgeous fibres. A few days ago I found time to make a few samples trying some of them out.

This is a sample using the sari silk ribbon, I untied a couple of pieces from the ends to test how it felted.

When I was looking at the sari silk ribbon, I noticed there were lots of stray threads tangled round the ribbons, so I pulled them off. I never throw any fibres away, even threads from the edges of frayed silk, because you can use them to make something like this:

The photos don't do it justice, the threads are shiny like tiny strips of coloured foil

Another gorgeous fibre that Karen sent me was dyed mulberry silks in really lovely colours. I made a sample of these in simple rows:

Aren't they gorgeous fibres? :)

Gorgeous Fibres

I had a surprise package from Karen yesterday. She had sent me the latest Felt magazine and some gorgeous fibres. There was some lovely Tissue Silk; which has an unusual texture similar to silk chiffon, some very shiny Mulberry Silk in gorgeous colours; some purple and red organza yarn, which I'd never heard of; some beautiful sari silk ribbon; hemp; and the softest Merino ever, Optim Merino, which is 18.5 micron merino stretched to make it 15 micron. Thanks, Kaz!

I'm really looking forward to trying it all, especially the hemp and merino. I recently made a scarf from 18.5 micron merino and that was unbelievably soft, and I'm really curious about whether the hemp is similar to flax, that looks a lot like dried grass, but is soft, shiny and a kind of platignum colour after felting.