Japanese Dying 2

towel
Originally uploaded by cob_web

After doing the hanky I couldn't resist doing this towel too! All Japanese hand towels are this size and shape.

Japanese Indigo Dying

hanky
Originally uploaded by cob_web

This is the hanky I dyed in Japan. I'm probably going to frame it and put it on the wall.

Yarn yarn yarn yarn...

So, I'm back from Japan. It already feels like a distant memory :-( It was absolutely fantastic, and we are still sorting through the photos. Or would be if we didn't both have the ill.

I did some crazy yarn buying while I was there. In Kyoto I went to Avril (known as Habu everywhere else) and bought some of thier yarn with stainless steel so I could make Sea Tangles

It was a cute little shop, with people sat around knitting. There was lots of lovely yarn, but it was all quite pricy. Of course, I forgot to check how much I needed, and what the yarn was called. But MAtt encouraged me, so with the help of the phrase book I got the message across. I ended up buying two 100g cones of grey and one of black... when I got back to the hotel I found out I only needed about 90g for the jumper! Doh!

In Japan they seem to sell yarn by the gram quite a lot, so once I had said how much I wanted I had to wait while it was wound by a machine for me! Quite cool. It was VERY expensive. Lets not got there...

On the cheaper side I found one of the fantastic 7 floor craft stores was having a Noro sale, so I got 2 balls of the kureyon sock yarn for half the price you get it in the UK.

For Tinebeest

japanese1
Originally uploaded by cob_web

Here is the japanese packet, there are close-ups on flicker tagged "japanese" http://www.flickr.com/photos/cob_web/tags/japanese/

Nellie

P1000476
Originally uploaded by cob_web

Meet the latest addition to my family, Nellie!

Dying stuff

Dying stuff
Originally uploaded by cob_web

Look at all this stuff! I said on my Yarn website that I wanted to get into natural dying next, and a lovely lady who happens to live just down the road contacted me and said she was getting rid of all her old stuff! Thank you Chrissy!

I picked it all up today. When she said she had a LOT of stuff, I don't think I quite believed her...

There are loads of bit of kit, some lovely buckets and pans, a boiler-thing that I'm not *quite* sure what I should do with and so many dyes! I couldn't resist and sat and listed them all. I will list them at the end for my own info. There were also a lot of mordants and things, but I think I will probably start afresh with those as some were quite old.

Its so exciting, but I Can't do anything till we are back from Japan. I might have to invest in a good book too so I know where to start...

Natural dye list

Something Japanese...!?
Some large Leaves??
Logwood
Cochineal
Lichen
Yew Chips
Acacia Chips
Poplar buds
Cutch
Turmeric
Common Horsetail
Marigold
Bearberry leaves
Heather flowers
Chamomile
Ivy berries
Natural Indigo
Golden Rod
Madder Powder
Madder
Bloodroot
Brazil wood
Gall nuts
Annato
Rhubarb Root
Tansy
Ossage Orange
Oak Bark
Wild Cherry Bark
Sanderswood
Alkanet
Fustic
Weld
Sticklack
Turkish Madder
Onion skins

some unidentified things!

German Shopping?

Does anyone fancy anything from Schoppel Wool? it is a 15 Euro flat shipping charge to the UK, and I have rather fallen in love with this:

But at 10 Euros a ball I can't buy enough to make the 15 Euro shipping justifyable.

Sory for posting everywhere!