My spun silk

Here are two skeins of silk that I spun. I was excessively pleased with them, so I decided to send them to my spinning mentor Heather McCloy (who is also a judge of handspinning) for her comments.
The purple on the left is spun from lovely predyed silk brick or top which was a gift from Heather. The blue on the right is spun from predyed silk caps (I dyed them, the caps are from Ashford Handicraft and were dyed with Ashford dyes). Click on the photo for an enlarged picture.

The review of my spun silk is now official. The blue needed more twist in the singles - good to know because I was afraid it was over-twisted - and it needs a better washing because it smells "fishy" from the seratin. Heather sent good tips on that too.

But here goes an edited part of the review of the silk top: "This yarn is *gorgeous*! To be honest, I had to look at it a second time; I really thought it was machine-spun... Single is excellent with only a very few places where the single is uneven or underspun, which causes the variations in the ply - which, trust me, are minimal. This would be a blue-ribbon first-place winning skein at the GA National Fair, much less at an SCA guild entry..." (Heather McCloy via email).

Am I happy! YES! More spinning awaits me!