Twisted Silk

I've mentioned twisted silks a few times now, but I don't think that I have mentioned that all the silk thread comes to me as reels of flat silk, as seen in the previous post.

When the instructions call for twisted silk, it has to be twisted before it can be stitched. All the twisted foundations I have done so far call for a 4-1 twist, that is 4 strands of flat silk twisted into one stitchable thread. Two lots of 2 strands of silk are under-twisted before they are over-twisted together. When the quantity of thread in each under-twist is balanced (eg 2+2), the thread is called karayori. The blue foundation in the previous post is a 4-1 karayori.

The next foundation I will stitch is also a twisted silk foundation but this time in a twist called boroyori. This is similar to a 4-1 twist, but for this thread half a strand of silk is replaced with a strand of #1 gold (2 silk + 3.5 silk and #1 gold). This is the first time I have done this twist, it took me a couple of attempts to get the tension correct. I am too tired to stitch the foundation tonight, but I am looking forward to seeing how this will look as a stitched foundation.

Happy Stitching