of cloth

cotton double knit

four years ago  on my previous trip to japan  i discovered  many things one of them that the japanese have a powerful vibrant fabric industry. not only is their handmade cloth exeptional, but also their industrial woven cloth is beautiful,innovative and well designed.

this time i made a point of spending time in nippori in tokyo after visiting some stores in kyoto.

cotton double knit

                                                                                   

linen knit

                                                                                                                                                    have never seen such a variety of great looking knitted fabric in all materials. went wild with the linen knits and bought about 3 and that was being very judicious.

the cottons are a bit heavy, great for jackets for the oviedo weather.

the linens, still waiting for two, will be floaty langelook dresess.                                               lots of sewing ahead, but waiting for the boxes with the patterns and  all the sewing (tools?) doohickeys i bought. another field day at 
customs for the officials!                                                                                                                                                         

                                                                                                         

                                                                                                          

 neki desu

stuff from japan

the first boxes are already here, in less than 3 months.still battling with customs for the others.

it has been a comedy of errors and lots of dysfunctions. the other option would have been buying a bigger suitcase and schlepping it across japan-NOT and then putting it through at the airport. that would have meant getting the bag held at the first transfer bcse of the contents. they are not trained to  discriminate between drugs and bengara pigment. for them it's just  funny looking powder.

whichever way you lose.ಠ ಠ

so here's my bengara both flavors,raw and heated. the white soy beans were sourced in barcelona. the milk extracted from them works much better as binder than regular soy .wasn't going to bring 2kgs of soy beans from japan!  2 and a half months later would still be there in customs giving explanations.

my only yarn purchase:two skeins of beautiful kibiso.
need to think carefully what i want to do with them.









neki desu

pongee

after a week of battling with customs some vicarious weaving.
happy belated solstice.
have a great first summer weekend







neki desu

kumihimo

for fans only!
have a wonderful weekend!







neki desu

an empty loom

is a good thing

when you have a new warp in the making.

the frugal weaver fabric. could weave one meter from that indigo dyed silk remnant. quite chuffed with it,nice iridescence and a rustic appeal.

now on to sourcing the basket for the bottom

neki desu
 

kakishibu- second installment

even after uva exposure and the consequent goldenifying the color was not very pleasing.i mean it's ok,but not kakishibu.as i mentioned i am waiting for the one i bought in japan so i am not suffering bcse i am going to run out.

another session, more powder and this time i heated the water. the take up is better and darker.

still wet but the difference is noticeable.

it's going to stay in the bath for 24 hrs, then it will have the uva treatment to develop the orange undertones.


there's the yearly carnival in my hood,peace and quiet gone. luckily it's just 4 days and it's ending today. my headache has developed into a vintage one.



neki desu

working on a dummy

this would be sort of a liberal reenactment of the yardage i have in mind. painted wool warp in teal,aubergine, dark burgundy and some white areas´fingers crossed i don't get color bleeding there.

the weft would be navy blue.

sill don't know the structure thinking some small diamond patterning via wall of troy or a point twill creating  small diamonds.

have time to decide bcse i am right now winding warp chains, them¡n come scouring and then the painting.

my wonderful flower vendor in the market is gifting me 7 mts of heavy white paper to cover the floor.

this is give or take the colorway,except that the last chip is navy and not purple













neki desu