Time marches on...

Seems like a long time since I have added to the blog but I have not been idle. Over the past few weeks I have been weaving a throw, mohair, double width, finished size 200 x 200 (believe my arms have grown several inches!), had a delightful student for a week learning natural dyeing and gathered increasing amounts of foliage for the caterpillars.

The first photo is of one of my moths, taken through the netting of the cage. It dims the colour somewhat but she was rather agitated so did not want to open the cage and distress her further. The second photo is of a caterpillar who hasn't quite got the idea of what he is supposed to do! He has pupated without bothering to spin a cocoon first. As he is an Eri Silkmoth and his silk was destined to be part of a project, I am a bit disappointed that he has decided to skip the silk and go straight to metamorphasis. When this happens, as it does occasionally, it is usually because the caterpillars haven't had enough food, and therefore energy, to spin. All I can say to that is he and his companions had fresh food at all times and my privet is looking remarkably bare after the depredatations of feeding this batch.

I have Zara's permission to put the photos of her dyeing experiments on the blog so here are just a few of them:

Top left is woad; middle is myrobalan; far right is silk screen printed indigo

Bottom left is top to bottom : cochineal, cutch waste and annatto. Bottom right is silk screen printed red lac.

We both had a very good time, and I wish there was room here to show you the other 20 photos!

Now I must go and wind a sample warp for double weave alpaca......back soon!

Photo de jour

Well, this something I have never actually seen before - a Giant Atlas caterpillar eating his shed skin. Recycling is something I am generally in favour of, but not sure about this....At first I wasn't sure that he was actually consuming it, but he was.

I've just done today's major muck-out and the cat house now has Giant Atlas, s.ricini, a.pernyi, a.mylitta, 2 sorts of moon moth but can't remember which (will check records!), s. pavonia, one solitary little Great Peacock baby living with the s.pavonia, 2 baby Asian eyed moth cats - their siblings haven't survived, and some polyphemus. The GAs and the s.ricini are hopefully not far from cocooning, as are the s.pavonia, but the others are all first or second instar, so a busy time ahead.

I've got some solar dyes on the go again and am hoping to have a dye day soon - the woad is coming on nicely - but also have two deadlines coming up, one for some woven devore for which the samples have been disastrous, and the other for more devore and a rug, 2 cushions and a throw. Not to mention having rather a lot of fleece, as I may have mentioned before (there's more since then!). Oh, and two alpaca saddles to spin. Anyone know how to live without sleep?

Peel me a grape!

Just thought you might like to see this Giant Atlas cat, looking for all the world as though he is waiting for someone to wait on him, like a Roman Emperor!

Silk crop

Not kept up with this as I had intended, but there you go!

All but three of the a.pernyi cocoons have emerged, I've had 6 observed pairings and have been distributing eggs to friends in order to avoid a population explosion of caterpillars!

I took 17 cocoons, weighing 20g, and degummed them yesterday. I now have 7.1 g of gorgeous tussah silk that you can see in the picture, together with a gummed cocoon and a moth. The cocoon is to the upper right hand side of the moth.

The Giant Atlas babies are growing well, as are the Emporer and s.ricini, and the Great Peacock babies have hatched at last, though they are doing their best to escape! I've found them all over the place - the lid on their little box must not be a good fit, so they now have a new home, hopefully escape proof.....

Matings and babies

Well, I have now had 9 a.pernyi emerge, six males and three females, so the poor girls are having a busy time! I've got eggs from two observed pairings and another taking place so I sincerely hope some cats will result.

My s. ricini are growing quite fast now and so are the Giant Atlas and Emperor caterpillars. No movement from the Great Peacock eggs, but there's still time, and quite honestly as we get to this stage every year with caterpillars everywhere, all needing LOTS of food, I wonder why I do it...because I just love them, is why. I am supposed to rearing them because I want the silk, but actually the pleasure and fascination of watcching the egg become the cat, the cat grow from a tiny beastie to a giant, then the cocoon spinning and finally the gorgeous, gorgeous moth really makes the silk a wonderful bonus!

And speaking of spinning, in addition to the rest of the stash I now have about 30 Blue face Leicester fleeces to deal with.....

Spring has sprung

Well, after what seems like months of waiting for something moth-y to happen, I gave in and ordered some fresh cocoons and cats. Today some a.pernyi cocoons and s.ricini cats arrived in the post, all well. The cats are now happily ensconsed on some privet branches in wet Oasis foam and are chewing merrily away.

Two of the a.pernyi were emerging as I opened the package, both males and both, sadly, have not manged to pump up their wings so were destined to a merciful end in the freezer. Whilst contemplating this, a male and female emerged in the pop-up cage, so I transferred them to the mating cage into which I had put the two damaged males. I left them in peace for a bit, and having just looked at them, see that mating is already taking place but with the female and one of the badly deformed males! How he reached her from the far side of the bottom of the cage (actually a collapsible fly guard for food) to where she is at the top of the cage is one of life's mysteries. Photos later!

I await more fresh stock in a few days and am feeling very chuffed with life generally - we have a new hive of bees after the disastrous year we had last year (DH collected them last night with a fellow apiarist and they are from the world famous Buckfast Abbey apiary), I've got caterpillars and moths again, and I have just bought 45 Blue Face Leicester fleeces from a local farmer. Most of them are destined for friends to share, so it isn't quite as bad as it sounds....anyone want to know what I'll be doing for the next few months?!

Janet's Naturally Dyed, handspun, handwoven rug