OH YAY :-D----knitting with silk hankies is such a wonderful experience when you have sandpaper hands. This will be my modest attempt at describing how to knit with silk hankies.
First off: PUT LOTION ON YOUR HANDS. If you have dry hands and try to spin or knit with silk, you'll end up with a hairball mess! I bought my hankies at a fiber show awhile back and I stuffed them in the bottom of one of my many roving bins until I mustered enough courage to try this.
Silk hankies look just like a pile of hankies when you get them. You need to pull them apart (gently) as you use them. Once you've completed this MONUMENTAL task, you will draft your roving. Punch a hole with your thumb in the center of the hankie. Then, insert your other thumb and PUUUULLLL the hankie until you have roving of the desired thickness.
Snip the silk roving at any point so you have one long strand. Now the fun really begins. I would suggest NOT using bamboo needles.... or any wooden type needle as the silk grabs on to rough surfaces. I made this mistake and it took me about 20 minutes to knit one row. Cheap aluminum needles work best. Since I wanted to knit roving instead of spun silk, I used larger needles (size 11) to get the full volume effect of the roving. Now, g'head and begin casting on and knitting.
UH-OH----run out of silk did you? Welp, put your knitting down, go to the bathroom, get another cup o' JO and pull apart another silk hankie and start all over again. But how do you attach the next piece of silk roving you just made?? Hmmm..... wet your fingtips and roll the two ends together is the best I can tell. You don't have to worry about the "fingertip wetting" procedure if you're working with spun silk. At any rate..... you just keep moving along, hankie after hankie after hankie after hankie after hankie...... until you've finished your project.
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