inching is easier than centimitering

remember i was salvaging warps so there was no chance of warping two threads together.i am here now slowly and patiently commencing to juggle two kinds of yarns; silk that catches like crazy and hemp that has no stretch. the hemp warp will be weighted and not beamed.life is short and summer is coming soon.

meanwhile design wise:

 

 

stones in itsukushima



neki desu

a well spent weekend

 another installment of this is fashion because i say so. spent the weekend sewing  the summer wardrobe .
i've lost a lot of weight-not complaining because i'm close to my old self-but that means either sewing or spending time taking in clothes. and i much do the former than the latter.

 i scored this wonderful linen fabric in nippori's fabric town when i was in tokyo. There's  something for everyone in fabric town ; notions  nice quilting fabrics, gorgeous fabrics as well as very ugly tacky ones, upholstery fabrics, you name it. it was made clear there  that japan is a textile manufacturing power.

the bad was that it was golden week and 90% of the shops were closed.the good is that my visa was more than grateful.

back to my fabric it is a bluish grey double weave linen with circular  areas of double weave known to weavers as pockets.

the pattern is a download from tessutti in australia. fun sewing and very  easy wear boho looking ^_^ !

neki desu

new love

 tried it and i'm in love with the marudai.
have a good weekend!




neki desu

the frugal weaver

recuperating an old leftover silk  warp. dyed it with madder  this week and  i'm warping away. the cross was somewhat maintained; good thing it is short because it's slow warping. there are no spaces in the warp, don't know what happened in the photo. there's another layer but as it is hemp i am winding and beaming it separately.

if i keep on using the leftovers i'll never make a dent in my stash.

neki desu

some reasons for the red craze

there are many more



neki desu

witche's brew

back to the pot.
things i've learned:
keep a hawk's eye for temperature increases
dye the skein for 10-15 minutes then  take it out add lime water stir and put it back
lime water is essential ph should be around 8-9
Liles says all one needs to know about madder dyeing.(or any other natural dye to that effect)

i'm getting red finally! a dull red but  nonetheless better than coral red






neki desu
 

akane 014

or monkey see monkey do.i saw someone getting the red we all want with madder using a huge amount of dyestuff .and as soon as i got home i tried.

 this silk warp boiled a bit so the color is more of a terracotta. fine with me because it works with the hemp that will also be used as warp. and the design  and concept i have in my head.

the silk skein is too corally yet. it's going into 

the pot again.the madder i'm using comes from 

a company in the netherlands and it was a

 gift from a friend.the yellow has been

removed and the instructions say to raise the temperature and keep it at 99-100º for 80 minutes.

i found that to be the difficult part.

excuse the photo drama but don't tell me you'd rather see this boring photo



neki desu