"Peace" silk moths are allowed to emerge from their cocoons to live out their full life cycle. The silk is degummed and spun like other fibre, instead of being reeled. The resulting yarn is soft, fluffy, and light like a cloud. This is the best silk for warmth and therapeutic use.
Commercial silk is made by boiling the intact cocoons and unwinding the single silk strand onto reels. Only a few moths are allowed to emerge to continue the population of silkworms. The rest are killed by being boiled in their cocoons.
Eri is a type of wild silk found only in India. The cocoons are about the size of cultivated silk, and the silk is very light in colour, almost as white as bombyx (cultivated) silk. The cocoons are gathered and collected from a large area. After the moths begin to emerge, the cocoons are cut so that all the moths may come out.
The cocoons consist of several layers of silk. The outer layers are relatively soft and fluffy. The inner layers are glued together like paper. Most cocoons have a hole at one pointed end, where the moth has naturally emerged.
To process for spinning silk, I recommend separating the two main layers of fibre. Open the cocoon at the cut and peel back the outer half, (the softer and fluffy layers) from both the top and bottom. Discard any bit of dark matter inside the cocoon. This is the last skin that the caterpillar sheds before becoming a chrysalis.
This outer, softer silk can be degummed exactly like cultivated silk. For 10 cocoons, boil in ¼ cup Dr. Bronner’s or other liquid soap, in 2 cups water. After 10 or 15 minutes, when the silk is soft, strain off the soapy solution and store in the refrigerator to use on your hair as a superior shampoo-conditioner. Rinse the soft silk, and leave it to soak an hour or so in plain white vinegar. Rinse again and dry. Fluff and pull out, to spin.
For the inner, paper like layers, proceed in the same way but use 2 Tablespoons washing soda (sodium carbonate, soda ash) instead of the milder soap. (The left-over solution is probably too alkaline for shampoo, unless your hair is very oily.) Cocoons vary, so amounts suggested are approximate.
Because these cocoons are wildcrafted, they can be considered equivalent to "organically grown."
Muga is a special type of wild silk. This race of wild silkmoths lives in a small area in India. The villagers in this forested region gather the cocoons in the wild and then semi-cultivate a larger raising from the eggs of the wild moths that emerge. It is an exceptional and labour intensive process to obtain the exquisite golden fibre these wild silkworms produce. It is thought by some that this golden Muga silk is the fabled "yellow silk" that, in China, only the Emperor was permitted to wear.
This silk is one of the world treasures of textile resource. This race of silkworms lives only in this one area of India.
I am really pleased to be able to offer the experience of holding this precious "cast-off" from the life cycle of this delicate wild creature. All cocoons are just as they are gathered in the jungles of Assam. The moth has already emerged and flown away, to mate and create again for another day.
Cocoons are a cinnamon gold colour, each is about 1&1/2 inches long x ¾ wide. They are not easy to degum and spin, but they can be: use boiling water made alkali with washing soda (soda ash).
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