too much excitement chez moi

                                                                   high drama

i'll start with the lesson learned  first and proceed backwards: don't throw away your boiled chestnut water.

two days ago i boiled some chestnuts to make my take on kuri gohan. the water had a nice woody color and i thought to give it a go and see what happened. luckily i had an alum mordanted  hirakami silk skein from which i warped 20 ends and dunked them in the water.i simmered the threads for an hour and i got this fool proof color

 actual colors, notice the texture of the hirakami silk

 which combines heavenly with my next warp.

this morning while taking the photo i thought about being redundant and using the photo of  the fabric i'm weaving as a textured background for the yarn photo. you can see the resulting photo above. in my quest against scattering it is very  promising to be able to use weaving as photo textures.

not bad for starters. over morning coffee the gadgeteer in me found out the perfect alibi to shell some dosh and make steve jobs even  richer. i had been resisting the i phone spiel on principle.but after reading this i made up my mind to want one(link via purple podded pea ) apparently it's a trend for the trendy and artsy if you dare call david hockney that.

and to swathe all this adrenaline in clothing the weaving is coming along just dandy. dare i ask for more?

neki desu

of crepes and dithers

crepe weaves are subtle, understated and very elegant. ask oelsner, who has pages upon pages of them.

however i find that they do not work when the weft is a  different color. in the quest for a shibui fabric for a top i came across the dither concept using color as a springboard. the drafts i made using my murasaki dye  colors were very appealing  and i knew they would weave into a nice fabric.
dithers pointed  the way to go. as i see it  dithers can be effective using  a different colored weft and they solve the color issue i find  in crepes.

sampling -hear, hear cally booker :)- image above although the photo's on the crummy side. the weft is a light tan and it has almost all the numbers for an after woven dye perk up.but i am pleased with the subtle visual texture the banding does not exist(uneven beating due  to wonky tension). now you know the reason for  the sample! and i'm already in business weaving.

but this is not all about me,me,me. here is a beautiful photo essay about block printing . enjoy!

neki desu

mega catch up

TAST catch up

here's a month's worth-give or take- of TAST stitches.did not experiment too much with each stitch as time has not been on my side. however the individual raised chain stitches come from an idea found at quieter moments the blog of the greatly missed Elisabeth Marshall.

i am using it as a single stitch on a project and really like the texture it creates.i t's my kind of stitch, simple and effective.

on the left there is a meager attempt at week 34 stitch. i was doing more de-stitching than stitching therefore  it will have to wait till better times. put it down to mull like i did with bullion stitch. and now bullion and i are friends :)

on another note, just found the new-to me- caption application.DUH!

neki desu