SOAR Silk

A couple of years ago I was a scholarship recipient for SOAR, a spinning retreat and workshop sponsored by Interweave Press. At the end of the week they have a silent auction, with the proceeds going to fund scholarships in the following years.

SOAR was a great experience and I hope that I will be able to attend again in the future. While I was there a very generous woman gave each of the scholarship recipients a couple ounces of handyed silk. I quickly spun up the yarn (the blue, green, and gold yarns) using the drop spindle I bought while there. Ever since then I have wanted to knit something wonderful with this yarn. Something that would be worthy of being sold in the scholarship auction. I did not think I would have enough of the colored yarn to make something substantial, so I bought some natural colored silk top and have been spinning that up to help stretch out the colored yarn.

The struggle has been in deciding what to knit. The yarn is 100% silk and is between a lace and fingering weight (the thickness is not consistent within or between colors). I have plenty of white silk fiber to spin up and could easily get more. There is a bit more of the green and blue yarn that is not pictured. So I was thinking along the lines of a stranded knitting stitch or a mosaic knit pattern (similar to my hats I posted earlier). I could make a bag, a hat, or pulse warmers. Maybe a scarf, but that would not work with stranded knitting. I like the idea of a bag, but I don't like sewing linings in. Maybe a hat, but how would that be with 100% silk.

Any suggestions?
Maybe I should start swatching.