Silk caps are back!
It has been at least a year since I had dyed silk hankies or silk caps in my shop. Why? I’m guessing it had to do with the pandemic and the disruptions of silk coming from (India and) China, at least in terms of the movement of physical goods.
However, there is a more interesting, and upsetting, story about silk right now. First, I implore you to look into this information further since I would like to know more but I don’t have time right now to properly research the topic. This article discusses how the quantity of silk has fallen since 1986, and the outputs from China are far lower than Japan. Worryingly, and not explicitly stated in this article, this may be the result of climate change. If conducting a PhD on ancient textile production has taught me anything is that fiber production is systemic, meaning that it is related to (possibly) many other systems. Failures in one system affect others, particularly those which are directly impacted to lapses in production. If there isn’t enough silk to keep factories running, we encounter shutdowns and people out of work. The shortfall impacts the clothing industry, silk by-products (proteins used in hair conditioning, for example), and food pathways (in Korea, they often eat beondegi, which is silk pupae). There are other ramifications that I won’t enumerate here—but it’s important to be aware of their existence.
Now that has been said, I am thrilled to be dyeing silk caps again. They take the color so well and there are loads of applications: spinning, felting, knitting/crocheting/weaving, plus silk painting. There are loads of other crafting applications too! So, what are silk caps? They’re comprised of several silk cocoons that have been boiled to remove the sericin and stretched over a frame. Sometimes they’re stretched on a square frame, and are called hankies, but these are stretched over a tall wooden arch. Multiple cocoons are stretched over the frame and built up in layers, then removed to completely dry. From there, they can be stored, spun, dyed, felted, etc… The ones I have range in weight, from 15-19g per set of caps. Hankies can be split into different amounts more easily. Think of it this way: silk hankies are stacked like sheets of phyllo dough and you can pick up the number of phyllo sheets you need for your recipe; silk hankies are stacked like nestled socks (if you grew up in the Midwest, or further north, you know what it’s like to wear two pairs of socks at the same time!). In a way, I am keeping the silk cap stacks in the same form they were when they were originally made.
A bundle of silk caps.
I also wanted to offer a quick tip to anyone dyeing silk hankies/silk caps. Measure out your silk and wrap them into little bundles like you see in the photo below. This will keep them tidy during the rinsing process. To prepare them for dyeing, fill a basin with hot soapy water. Take one handful of silk (whether it is a silk cap or a stack of hankies), submerge the silk, then squeeze and release a few times. I have found this to be the best way to get the silk very wet and ready for dyeing. My earliest experience with dyeing silk amounted to dye floating in the water after adding citric acid and being perplexed why the dye wasn’t rushing into the silk. I’m not exactly sure of the main reason for this, but I suspect it has to do with air being retained by the silk. Give it a few good squeezes, let it sit for 10-15 minutes, then rinse. Now you’re ready to dye!
Stay tuned for updates in the shop. Once these newly dyed silk caps are dry, they’re going straight into the shop!
