Spinning silk

I have just started to learn to spin and I know already I love it.  I've been a knitter for 50+ years.  Anyway I am fasinatedwith the whole silk process, and watched videos on the subject.  I would like to buy  silk hankies, but can't fined a good retailer.  Can someone tell me where to find and buy this beautiful fiber to spin?  Or would it be better to buy it already in roving rather than a hankie? Thanks. 

Hi, welcome to the spinning community - you might want to also check out spinningdaily.com, another Interweave site. It's entirely about spinning. Silk hankies (also caps) are a great way to get into spinning silk, they're usually a bit easier for new spinners than silk top or roving. You can start with one of those if you want to, or get some roving & a couple hankies & see what's easiest to begin with. littlebarninc.com has good prices on silk roving, but usually doesn't carry hankies. They also have silk waste & silk noil, which are a bit more challenging to spin. The Woolery (woolery.com) should  have hankies or caps. I've dealt with both of them before & they're very good. Good luck - keep on spinning!  

Try http://www.dharmatrading.com/  or http://www.woolery.com. The Woolery has a Silk Fiber Fun kit that has what I think you are looking for. Have fun.

I found a good video on youtube on spinning silk hankies .

Maplerose, Treenway silks and Aurora Silks (all three shops can be found on line) all have some great silk hankies, roving and sometimes even cocoons if you really get into it. Silk can be a lot of fun to learn to spin on because you have a long continuous thread to work with. I find roving easier to spin, but the hankies are cheaper and it is easier to get lots of colors to experiment with. If spinning leads to other fiber obsessions, like felting, you may find you have different preferences for different applications. I would try both! (When I first learned to spin silk a friend got me to try using a silk hankie and starting from the corner, pulling the fiber and rolling it against my pants. Way slower than spinning with a spindle or a wheel, but it gave a feel for the fiber, and it was good, take-along fun!)