Degum silk cocoons and make hankies or caps - PEP BB textile.straw.spin.silkprep

Hi everybody.  I wanted to share my experiments in silk preparation.

See experiments with natural soap
Make your own Hanky Frame
Make your own Cap Frame

requirements and points have changed

Here is my submission for the Textiles - Straw - Degum Silk Cocoons & Make Hankies and Caps BB.

To document the completion of the BB, I have provided the following:
 - the silk cocoons you are starting with
 - the process you use to degum
 - making a hanky or cap
 - stack of finished hankies or caps

Enjoy the silent movie; commentary is below the video.



I purchased a 1-ounce package of silk cocoons and fortunately, there was over 100 cocoons in the package.

I did some experiments in degumming.  First, I processed 30 cocoons using only fels-naptha natural soap and made one hanky.  Check out the opening post of my experiments page for more information.  The cooking time was over 90 minutes.  Stretching silk onto hanky frame was fun and easy.

Second experiment: I processed 75 more cocoons using fels-naptha natural soap and washing soda then made two hankies and one cap.  Check out the second post of my experiments page for more information.  Cooking time was barely 20 minutes and I was surprised how easily one cocoon stretched over the cap frame - just make sure you find the hole so you are stretching one cocoon (not folded) over the frame.

I highly recommend rinsing gently after cooking and using a much smaller amount of the washing soda than I used in experiment #2.

My Permies posts sharing details for future Peppers:
How to build a Hanky Frame
How to build a Cap Frame