Anchorage Daily News

The 2008 Olympics in Beijing have allowed Westerners to view some of the ancient Chinese culture. Architecture, dance and music are just a few of the wonders, but none is more breathtaking than the colors and textiles of the costumes. Brilliant red, metallic gold, blue, green and bright yellow pair up with intricate patterns of embroidery on breathtakingly beautiful silk.

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Silk reflects light like no other fiber, and it literally shines. The hand, or drape, of the fiber allows for elegant designs that flow with movement when worn. Silk takes dye like no other fiber, allowing for the pure color that makes it famous. The lightweight fibers are warm in cool weather and cool in hot weather. No wonder silk is perhaps the single most luxurious natural fiber known to man.

The Chinese have been cultivating and wearing silk for almost 5,000 years. In Chinese legend, credit for the discovery of silk, and the silk loom, is given to Lady Hsi-Ling-Shih, wife of the mythical Chinese ruler the Yellow Emperor. Other legends deify the concubine Yuen Fei as the goddess of silkworms. It was said that she dropped a cocoon in a cup of hot tea, where it unwound into fine threads of silk.

Although there are many legends about silk’s origin, we do know that the earliest examples were found in the Shanxi region of northern China near the Yellow River.

The business of raising­ silkworms and unwinding the cocoons is known as sericulture, and its mysteries were kept secret for more than 2,000 years, making it the most zealously guarded secret in history.

The flightless Bombyx mori moth, which feeds on mulberry leaves and produces a highly desirable smooth, fine thread, lays an average of 500 eggs before it dies. Other moths feed on different leaves and produce still other types of silk. For example, Tussah silk is from moths that feed on oak leaves.

The eggs must be kept at 65 degrees and gradually warmed to 77, the temperature at which they hatch. One ounce of the pinpoint-size eggs produces about 30,000 silkworms, and it takes about 5,500 silkworms to produce a kilogram of raw silk.

These silkworms feed on fresh, handpicked mulberry­ leaves until they are very fat, consuming about a ton of leaves in their lifetimes. Rooms stacked with trays, in which thousands of hungry worms noisily munch on leaves, sound like rain falling on the roof. The worms must be kept warm and protected from loud noise, strong smells and drafts. It takes an average of 28 days for a silkworm to grow old enough to spin a cocoon. When the worms are ready to spin their cocoons, their silk glands produce a jellylike substance that hardens in the air. Dupioni silk, a rougher silk fiber with occasional black spots, is produced from two silkworms that spin a cocoon together.

It takes eight or nine days for the cocoons to become puffy, white balls of silk that are ready to be unwound. The cocoons are first steamed, or baked, to kill the pupae. If the pupae grows into a moth, it will eat through the fibers and ­ruin them for production. Next the cocoons are dipped into hot water to loosen the fibers The bottoms of the cocoons are squeezed to release the ends of the filament, and this end is then wound, or reeled, onto a spool. One filament is 2,000 to 3,000 feet long. Five to eight of these filaments are twisted together to make one silk thread.

Chinese production of silk textiles financed the ancient Silk Road, a bridge for economic and cultural trading between China and Europe. Estimates of the modern textile industry show that the U.S. is currently the largest importer of Chinese silk textiles.

Many yarn companies offer pure silk and silk blends, which allow the shimmer of silk to add interest to more durable fibers, such as merino wool and alpaca. You can find silk fiber for knitting and crocheting in a price range to suit your budget, although 100 percent silk can cost as much as $30 for a 50-gram ball. It is easy to knit or crochet silk because the buttery-soft, lightweight fiber just seems to float through your hands. Go for the gold, and try working with some of this luxurious fiber.

Catherine Hollingsworth, interior designer, artist and professional knitwear designer, has lived in Alaska for 18 years. She is interim president of the Alaska State Yarn Council and past president of Knitters of the North. To reach her, e-mail twosticks@adnmail.com.

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