Paradise Fibers Tussah Silk Top great for blending

I am a huge fan of this fiber for mixing in with batches of wool and alpaca when I'm dying. For one thing, while it holds dye well, it turns an almost completely different yet highly complimentary color than the two other fibers in the mix--a chestnut dye bath turned the silk top a pinky purple that looked gorgeous when spun with the rest of the chestnut batch--and the fiber itself is strong enough that it can be spun into near-string-thickness but still be strong enough for weaving projects. It's very soft and silky to the touch and adds a nice shiny finish to projects.

This silk dyed wonderfully. I am using it for Nuno and other wet felting projects for adde sheen and color. I will plan on using this silk in future felting project as soon I order more! Paradise Fibers Rocks!

This silk dyed wonderfully. I am using it for Nuno and other wet felting projects for adde sheen and color. I will plan on using this silk in future felting project as soon I order more! Paradise Fibers Rocks!

This tussah is shinier and whiter than the unbleached tussah I've gotten elsewhere. (It didn't say it was unbleached, and the photo's fairly accurate, but it is definitely shiny, and white rather than pale honey.)

It is, however, also more flyaway than the other tussah I've used, and it's generally more troublesome to card. I get a lot more neps with it, especially from the very short fibers, and it includes occasional clumps that don't seem worth carding.

If you like your batts very textured rather than smooth, you'll probably love this silk, but it isn't what I was looking for.

Ive never spun this silk by itself, but I love it for blending with other fibers like wool, alpaca, etc. It has an almost facet-like shine to it and really punches up the texture. Dyes great, but equally nice undyed.

I guess I've gotten more funky in my old age. I love this product. I dyed it yummy variegated colors, use a drop spindle to spin it. It is gorgeous and earthy. I'm used to spinning bells, so this fiber almost spins too uniformly and easily for me. I have been Navajo plying both types, top and bells for textured yarn and crocheting fun hats. Next project is to hand stitch the yarn to art quilt embroidery pieces until I find another sewing machine with a couching tool down here. BTW: I love you guys at Paradise Fibers. I usually come into the store, but I've gone south for my first retirement winter. You are a class act of human beings. See you again in the late spring... :-)

I read the other reviews befor buying and was confused by the complaints that this silk that was sold as a blending fiber was given low stars due to it's unsuitability to being spun pure. Especially as it clearly stated it was for blending and not pure spinning! I wanted it for blending and it has worked out beautifully so far. It cards up smooth and blends very well with little effort. Most "high quality" silk tends to blend in streakes no matter how many passes you make. It also has too long a staple length for smooth blending and spinning of most other fibers.
I did spin some of this blending silk pure. It spun up smooth and even with very little effort. There were just a very few teeny tinny nips in the silk. Unless you were planning on spinning three ply thread they did not even leave a lump in the yarn. I found the roving a lot like cottage mill roving. Very easy to spin, no sticking or clumping like the tight long stapled roving sold as top quality silk. It did have a lot of fly away strands and fluffed up a bit like angora.

This silk is not the finest of silks, but the quality is

I read the other reviews befor buying and was confused by the complaints that this silk that was sold as a blending fiber was given low stars due to it's unsuitability to being spun pure. Especially as it clearly stated it was for blending and not pure spinning! I wanted it for blending and it has worked out beautifully so far. It cards up smooth and blends very well with little effort. Most "high quality" silk tends to blend in streakes no matter how many passes you make. It also has too long a staple length for smooth blending and spinning of most other fibers.
I did spin some of this blending silk pure. It spun up smooth and even with very little effort. There were just a very few teeny tinny nips in the silk. Unless you were planning on spinning three ply thread they did not even leave a lump in the yarn. I found the roving a lot like cottage mill roving. Very easy to spin, no sticking or clumping like the tight long stapled roving sold as top quality silk. It did have a lot of fly away strands and fluffed up a bit like angora.

This silk is not the finest of silks, but the quality is

Because of the uneven staple length, this fiber is difficult to draft and is unpleasant for spinning.

I wanted to try this fiber because I wondered why it was less expensive than other tussahs. There is a definitely difference in quality. Even using a good quality spindle, I found it very difficult get smooth, even singles because of the uneven staple length and essentially useless short clumps of fiber spread throughout. It's also a little coarser than other tussahs I've used. Not much fun to spin. I haven't tried blending it.

This fiber was a learning experience for me as a spindler. Fiber management is tricky because it's so fine that it sticks to everything; a spinning session found me coated in silk at the end of it. Any moisture on my hands caused the silk fibers to stick and made the drafting go all clumpy. If I spun silk on a regular basis, I think I would treat my hands with anti-perspirant to avoid this.

I dyed some of my fiber with Kool-Aid. It likes dye a lot. So much so, that my dye was exhausting before I even started heating it. So, dyes well. Don't worry if the fiber looks like the cat got to it when it dries; it will be shiny and pretty again with a little fluffing.

My biggest trouble with this fiber was the uneven staple length. The fibers could be as long as 6-7", a decent number of 4-5" , and a frustrating frequency of blobs of two inches or less. The blobs are invisible in the undyed top, but they show themselves as solid "mustaches" when drafting out the dyed fiber. It was a nuisance to constantly pick out these weak links in my spinning.

As a spindler, I'm not sure how to compensate for this variance. One could spin thicker and get a very weighty yarn, or spin thinner and deal with simultaneous drifting apart and overspinning, but neither of these choices are appealing.

A person with a drum carder could probably make best use of it by cutting to a more even length and using it as part of a blended batt. I could definitely see a person dyeing and cutting it, and making their own silk/merino blend.