The process of silkworm farming began with the 10-to 14-day incubation of silkworm eggs, which are produced by adult silkworm moths. According to the Silk Museum, keeping the tiny, delicate eggs (about the size of a pinhead) at just the right temperature was very important. Once hatched, the worms, only about one millimeter long, had to be fed mulberry leaves night and day. From a birth weight of only half a milligram, they would grow 10,000-fold to a final weight of around five grams 3 inches in just 30 to 32 days. Then, in the final three days of their larval stage, the worms would start to spin their cocoons out of one continuous thin filament of silk—up to 4,000 feet long—which they emitted from a "spinneret" located near their mouths. The filament, formed primarily of a substance called fibroin manufactured in two glands on the underside of their jaws, hardened instantly when it came in contact with the air.
After about a week, the cocoons were placed briefly in a hot, dry oven to kill the adult moths inside. (If allowed to emerge from a cocoon, an adult moth would ruin the silk, so just enough adult moths were allowed to fully mature to maintain the reproduction cycle.) The cocoons were then put in hot water to facilitate the difficult and tedious task of extracting the silk. The small end of the cocoon's silk filament had to be located and threaded onto a reel, which then unwound it from the water-warmed cocoon. The silk thread was then cleaned, twisted (to prevent filaments from separating) and woven into fabric.
Silk companies now buy most of their undyed raw silk (both fabric and yarn) from China.
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