Crocheting recycled sari silk?

[ava]

Has anyone used recycled sari silk for crocheting? Does it work well? What size hook do you tend to use, considering it's an uneven thickness?

[smokeyp81]

I have bought some recycle silk off of ebay around a year ago or so. (I don't remember which seller) I was less than thrilled with the yarn. I did crochet a small purse out of it. I don't remember exactly which hook I used but I'm sure it had to be at least a K or larger.

 

I think the quality of recycled silk varies a great deal (from what I have read). I think I bought low quality....I had places where it was just a single string, the other spots where it was so thick you could hardly pull your hook through.

 

Sorry I can't help you much.

[pryor208]

I've heard that it can make for a rough project, so you might combine it with a worsted weight yarn to soften it up a bit, and that might also even out some narrow places.

[Me&P]

If you purchase a good quality recycled silk, you won't have any problems. I highly recommend Mango Moon brand, and I think I used an L hook.

 

I've purchased a couple different times from different sellers on Ebay and wasn't nearly as happy with it as I was with Mango Moon. One lot, I threw away, it was so awful. The other, I'm using 2 strands at a time to make a basket - but it certainly isn't good enough for wearables (under my standards).

[Carol]

I bought some of the not-so-soft variety. I used a K hook and made a couple of purses with Tunisian stitch.

[ava]

I've got a skein of Mango Moon and made two hair bands with it last night, I think they came out well. I used a 5mm hook. I asked my husband and he said "they're furry" - I don't know if he thought that was good or bad! I plan to try to put them on my Etsy shop today, and we'll see what happens.

 

I'm getting some more (non mango) from ebay and hopefully they won't be bad quality..

[Aggie May]

I have to say that I have not had good luck with the re-cycled Sari Silk.

The one my sister bought, for me to try, was in lots of bits and very tightly spun so it just wanted to curl back on itself.

It was also very hard and thick, in fact, it looked beautiful in the skein but horrible when in a tangled heap.

My guess is that it would be nicer woven rather than either knitted or crocheted.

Maybe there is good and bad but we seemed to have found the bad.

It was very expensive too, at $10 or $12nz.

Have fun.

Colleen:hug

[ava]

The Mango stuff was quite tightly spun but I let it untwist a bit as I was working and it seemed to get a lot easier to handle.