How long would it take to make a yard of silk from scratch, starting with the silkworm's production?

Question

Just curious...seems like it would take an awful long time, considering the size of a silkworm's cocoon! I guess it would also depend on how many silkworms you could get your hands on, too...

Answer 1

One cocoon is a single silk strand with a length of 300 to 900 meters, or about 330 - 990 yards.

Each female moth lays about 350 eggs. Larvae hatch in about 10 days, and reach pupal age in about 5 weeks, and spend about 6 days spinning their cocoon.

It takes several hundred cocoons to yield enough silk to produce a scarf.