Ode to Silk

My honey and I spent a wonderful week and a half in Thailand & Cambodia this past April, and one of my secret hopes was that I would find someplace that recycled the remnants of the Thai silk into its own fiber, like they do with sari remnants. Alas, it was not to be. 

However, at the evening street market in Chaing Mai, I came across a stand selling silk cocoons as a skin care product. They also had a prop basket with different types of fiber made out of the silk. To my delight the proprieter spoke wonderful English and I asked if he had any spun fiber for sale. He didn't have any with him, but when I told him I was leaving the next day and wouldn't be able to visit their storefront, he offered to bring what he had to my hotel for me to see. How amazing is that??

The company is a Japanese/Thai collaboration called Silk Save the Earth http://www.sse-thailand.com/index.html and they mostly produce the silk for weaving. I, however, walked away with 8 skeins of beautiful, hand spun Thai Golden Silk for 2060 Baht, or roughly just under $70 USD - 2 undyed and 6 colored using natural dyes. I can't begin to tell you how excited I was to have found such a unique treasure. The general concensus was that only *I* could have gone halfway around the world and scored workable fiber in a place it wasn't readily available. I also received a rare invitation to visit their production facility, that I was heartbroken to have to decline. Now that I know, next time it will be on the itinerary!!

So this is was I got. Is it not drool inspiring??

     

The next step is finding the perfect knit lace shawl pattern to show it all off. Darn.. more surfing for yarn porn. >grin<