I am pleased to say that, after six years of searching, I have found a source for hand-reeled silk yarn from Laos! I’m ordering direct from a co-operative in Laos, and have ordered 5 kg (mustn’t get greedier than that…mustn’t get greedier…finite space…finite space…) of it in white. It also comes in naturally dyed colors. And they are only charging me wholesale prices…$35/kg plus shipping from Laos!! That’s only about $16/lb, or what I’d pay for cotton, here!
At least I hope that’s what I’m buying. There’s the language barrier, of course, and there was some momentary confusion about whether I was buying cocoons or yarn, or what kind of yarn I wanted, and it took me nearly two weeks to worm a price out of them…and I still don’t know the grist (weight per pound) of the stuff they’re sending me…so I am not exactly sure whether the yarn I’m buying is the yarn I want. That’s the hazard of ordering from a non English speaking country! But on their website, the yarn they’re using is the same as the yarn I saw whilst traveling in Laos, so I feel it’s a fairly good shot, and at $16/lb I can afford some risk. If this order goes well, next time I’m going to order a big pile of their naturally dyed silk – the colors are gorgeous.
If at this point you are wondering, “What is Lao hand-reeled silk?”, it’s a loosely twisted, incredibly lustrous, hand-reeled silk of weight between 30/2 and 60/2 silk. They use it to weave their gorgeous tapestries. You can see photos on my Laos textile webpage from my travels. OMG the stuff is beautiful. It was so beautiful that I bought several pounds when I traveled through Laos, despite not being a weaver! Since then I have been carefully hoarding it, feeling that my skills were not yet up to doing the yarn justice.
At any rate, I am extremely happy to be getting my hands on more, and am hoping that everything works out as planned on my order!
In creative news, I have a pile of chocolate boxes, trays, molds, etc. to wash on the living room table. It’s literally three feet high (or would be if I stacked everything). I’ve mostly been working my way through that, and catching up on sleep, but I’ve also done some technical investigation on Weavolution. I hope to get back to weaving soon, though Weavolution will continue to occupy a good chunk of my time.
You will share, yes? Is this weft or warp yarn? If it’s what I think it is, it should be easily doubled (or more) to make a more respectable size. Many years ago someone told me she stopped weaving with silk because it’s hard to thread yarn you can’t see. I’m starting to understand this comment more and more.
Oh and I do still having something for you and no I’m not holding it hostage for chocolate, honest.
It’s primarily weft yarn, but I want to see if it will work as warp as well. And it should be just fine for me – I’m currently working with 30/2 silk but want to try working with 60/2 (and possibly even finer) while I still have the eyes to see it with!
And yes, if this purchase works out you can have some…after all, I can always order more!!