A long silence!

Well, a long silence indeed! The caterpillar season is nearly over - should be well over - but I have 6 cats that are persistantly refusing to spin. They look about fit to burst and really need to get going because the oak trees are really beginning to shut down for the winter. I dread to think what will happen if we exhaust the leaf supply before they have cocooned.

Today I added to my collection of wheels - I need another one like a hole in the head - but this is special. It is an 1840s (approx) double flyer flax wheel. My good friends Amanda and Welmoed already have double flyer wheels, so we are going to try and crack the mystery of how they work - well, no mystery, but requires a good deal of technical skill. Spinning with one flyer, this little beauty goes like a bomb. A picture will go up in due course. The long dark evenings aren't conducive to photography.

I have a list of things to do that grows hourly but I must have big mordant session, followed by a series of dye sessions, really soon.I have design work to do , three commissions to weave, spinning to do, workshops to teach.....

Better go and do some, instead of sitting looking at the computer screen!

Two cats, and you can see the silk on the left under the back feet of one chap

Well, what a few weeks I've had! I've been very busy getting the coursework for the new term's classes running (dyeing starts on 24th September, 13.00-16.00, at The Duchy Square Centre for Creativity: http://www.duchysquare.org/). Spinning, weaving and textile design will be along in the next couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, the caterpillars are spinning up with a vengence. My silkworms and moths are going to be the subject of a book that is being written by Elizabeth Bailey, and bound in a handmade cover. Elizabeth came for one of her regular visits yesterday and it was frustrating for me because I knew at least one of the Robin cats was thinking about spinning, but he just wouldn't settle down and get on with it whilst Elizabeth was here. This afternoon I got home from a course standardisation meeting (very exciting, I don't think!) and the little so and so was not only spinning, but trying to entrap one of his siblings in the cocoon. Escape was possible, so I won't be getting a dupion cocoon after all, as the trapped one is also now spinning but as an individual and not as a pair. I shall be glad when this year's cocoons are all in the fridge, as I have three weaving commissions to complete, plus work for an exhibition in the late autumn to produce.

I will post some pix of the spinner, and possibly one of the two worms entwined, but the focus is not brilliant as I was using a macro lens, and the area was a bit too big for it all to be clear.

Time marches on!

I must now go and see if I can work out why one of the lams on my loom has popped out - wondered why weaving my indigo silk scarf was suddenly such hard work!


I'm continually frustrated by being unable to capture the wonderful turquoise of these caterpillars, but this picture isn't too bad as far as colour goes.
Close up of moth pairing

Not much has appeared on here recently as I've been extrememly busy with all sorts of interesting things, including two wonderful days in my studio with designer Luiven Rivas- Sanchez (http://www.luiven.com/), dyeing fabrics with natural dyes. He had explored yarn dyeing but was interested in fabrics and we produced some gorgeous colours on silk muslin, ramie, linen and cotton velvet. He has posted about what we achieved on the blog page of his website.

Before Luiven, I had a lovely time (and this is work?!) with two Dutch ladies, Dineke and Alet, who came and did creative yarn design with me. They achieved some really excellent design work and yarns with me, did some monoprinting with David Lister, a fellow artist at Duchy Square Centre for Creativity, and we spent a relaxing and fascinating day with Lesley Prior at her farm (devonfinefibres.com) admiring her wonderful Bowmont sheep, cashmere goats, and angora goats.

Mustn't forget to mention the highly successful Fibrefest
either. Despite the weather and the very soggy floor in the marquees, it was a tremendous event and Coldharbour Mill is such a good setting for a textile event.

I have a pretty full week of teaching coming up, so thought I should update the progress of the caterpillars. The Robin babies are growing very fast now and are almost ready to spin - at least the older ones are. The a.yamanai have all eclosed and are a bit slow about mating - I have males and females, but they don't seem to want to do what comes naturally - maybe the unseasonably cold weather has had some effect? A. peryni, on the other hand, have been pairing with enthusiasm......

Blue babies

No, not those poor little souls with heart problems, but the Robin babies. They have this most gorgeous turquoise tinge to them at the moment, particularly fetching with their blue spiky bits - they are like multicoloured punks! I h ave a couple of photos that, though slightly out of focus for most of the cat, the blue is quite true to life.

I went to feed the mob the day before yesterday and was thinking that probably it would be a good idea to put the Japanese Oak Silk Moth cocoons in the fridge till spring - telepathy must have been in play because as I looked in the cage, I noticed a male has emerged, hanging hopefully onto a cocoon that I assume holds a female. She is taking her time about emerging! I think the Chinese had better all go in the fridge as I don't really want to be overrun with moths just at the moment! I have a baby of baby Chinese cats coming along nicely.

Well, time marches on and all the Japanese cats have spun, as have most of the a.pernyi - just the last two huge chaps to decide they've eaten enough.
The Robin Moths are changing daily, most have gone through their black, hairy stage and are beginning to enter the "yellow with red knobs on their head" stage!
I have passed some of the Robin babies on to a friend and I hope she will enjoy them as much as I do.
I have some Chinese Oak moth eggs that arrived in the post this morning from Worldwide Butterflies (www.wwb.co.uk), so I hope they will hatch - this will be the last lot of eggs for this year - I hope the moths that are pupating will emerge and mate and I can store some fertile eggs for next year.

I'm going to post 4 photos, one of the three stages of the Robin cats, a serendipitous opportunity as I was cleaning them today, one of the larger of the small black cats up against an almost fully grown a.pernyi cat (the Robins are usually slightly larger than these!) and a close up of the current instar of the Robin babies

Found a huge (easily 15cm ) green caterpillar trotting - well, ambling, really - across the dining room chair last night. I put him back on the oak and he seems to be fine. They have masses of food, so I don't think he was hungry, more likely looking for a quiet spot to spin.

The Robin Moth babies are getting bigger by the minute and I expect some of them to shed their first skin any time now.

The remaining H. Maia has gone into a sort of trance - I'm not sure if he is about to spin, or if he's just feeling a bit gormless. I'm fairly sure he isn't unwell, though he seems not to be eating the available food. I hope he's considering cocooning, but we shall just have to wait and see.

Thought you might like to see these two Cherry Moths that emerged from the three cocoons I had.
I am overrun with tiny little Robin Moth babies - they are chomping merrily away on the lilac.
The a. yamamai are all cocooned now, so I'm hoping for both sexes to emerge in a few weeks and give me some fertile eggs for next year.

When I have a little time - I'm not only doing masses of spinning and dyeing tuition but also upgrading my teaching qualifications - (not to mention racing up and down the hill to gather armfuls of oak branches for the caterpillars!) I'm going to do a comparison of all the silks from the varieties of saturniids I have raised over the past few years. I've got bombyx mori, the Indian and American Moon Moths, Robin Moth, Japanese Silk Moth, Chinese Silk Moth, Tree of Heaven Silk Moth, Giant Atlas Silkmoth, R. Fugex, Cherry Moth, Emperor Moth, Spanish Peacock Moth, and the Emperor Gum Moth cocoons. Most are broken cocoons, though I have one or two I could reel as the occupants have never emerged .