It's been quiet on the blog for a while but now I have some fabulous news to share with you all...we are in Japan!!! It's amazing to be able to bring Man here for the first time to show her all my favourite places and discover new ones with her. As we arrived in Tokyo by Skyliner train from Narita Airport, it started to snow gently which just added to the magical atmosphere of the moment. Despite the jetlag, we managed to see and do quite a lot on our first day here. First job after checking in to our hotel was to explore the local area and find some lunch. Man wanted sushi, which can be surprisingly hard to find in Japan! This led us on a wild goose chase around some tiny back streets and cobbled lanes, only to discover that the local 'kaitenzushi' restaurant on Google maps had closed! She enjoyed the street views and was surprised by the tangles of electrical wires everywhere. It was cold and raining by now, so we decided to take a wander towards the station and see what we could find. As it was about 2:30 and lunchtime was over, many places were closed, and added to the constant challenge of finding vegan food for me, we took a chance on the first place that served anything suitable. This happened to be a tiny side street bar with some pictures of food outside including edamame (boiled soybeans in pods). There was no English menu but the owner was friendly so I managed to ascertain that indeed the edamame was the only dish I could eat. So we ordered draft Asahi beers, chomped on the free roasted peanuts and ordered edamame, with pork and basil leaf gyoza for Man. This snack kept us going while we explored some used kimono shops. Man was keen to buy me something, as well as a gift for a friend, so we sought out something lovely for the friend (top secret!), then I found a cool hanhaba obi for just 1,000 yen. In a different shop we were treated like royalty by the lovely staff member - we were just glad to get in from the rain and warm up for a while. We came away with a vintage haori jacket each. After some street food snacks (yakitori chicken skewer and minced meat between slices of lotus root for Man, a rice ball for me), we decided to get out of the rain and headed for Tokyo station. This beautiful building is over 100 years old and I dragged Man back out into the rain to fully appreciate its facade from the outside. It really looks at odds with any other building in Tokyo, but is charming at the same time. There was a Strawberry Festival in the station, with several streets of vendors all selling their delicious-looking strawberry cakes, biscuits and myriad other goodies. It was very crowded but we jostled our way through, enjoying the atmosphere. At a station shop, Man indulged my train geekery and bought me lots of merchandise featuring my favourite ever train, Doctor Yellow. These included a spoon and fork (to go with the chopsticks I already have), keyring, toothbrush and even a pack of sticking plasters! Speaking of Doctor Yellow, I had researched some nerdy Japanese blogs and discovered there was a chance it might be passing through Tokyo Station at 18:46 that day, hence our trip there. Dr Yellow is a bright yellow shinkansen which inspects the track all over Japan, but as it is not a passenger train there is no timetable and its movements are deliberately vague, so nobody knows when or where to see it. Seeing Dr Yellow has become something of a holy grail to me! For the full experience, we battled our way through the crowds at Ekibenya Matsuri to find the perfect ekiben - station lunchbox, of which there are hundreds of varieties including a vegan one - then headed for a department store in nearby Yurakucho where you can get a good view of all the shinkansen coming in and out of the station. As we had time to kill, we found a swanky restaurant on the 14th floor for a drink and were seated by the immaculately dressed and mannered staff, right by a huge window. At this point we were both feeling quite delirious with jetlag and decided that as soon as Dr Yellow had passed, we would head back to the hotel for an early night. Then we felt it...a slight jolt, the room started to spin a little...we looked at each other in panic, was it an earthquake?
No, it was a revolving restaurant!!! A wonderful experience I'm sure, but at this point it just made us feel a little queasy and travel sick. We finished our drinks and went to wait for the Doctor. After 18:46 had passed with only ordinary shinkansen for company, we realised the nerdy intel had been wrong all along and made our way back to the hotel. Ah well, I'm sure I'll see it one day...
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Exclusive Daily Festive Offers From midnight every day you can open a new 'advent window' and see what the special offer is for that day. Be quick though - there are only a limited number of items available each day so when they're gone, the window will close! x When we first started selling sashiko threads many years ago, most customers hadn't even heard of sashiko never mind tried it. The ones who were brave enough to try something 'new' often stuck to traditional colours - white or cream thread on indigo fabric. Over the years we have introduced more colours to the range and we now stock the entire range of sashiko threads from Olympus Thread Mfg. Co., Japan. These threads come in 20m and 100m skeins in a wide selection of plain and variegated colours. We have found that as sashiko becomes more well-known, customers are happy to experiment and use different coloured threads for their projects. We have also found that a lot of customers buy multiple threads at a time online, so we have introduced a special range of sashiko thread bundles, featuring a selection of colours grouped into themes. When you buy a bundle, you get a £2 discount on the full price, which is basically a free skein of thread! Remember, these threads are not only perfect for sashiko but can also be used for Boromono mending, big-stitch quilting and other stitched embellishments. For a bright, fun selection, how about the 'Rainbow' bundle? All the colours of the rainbow, plus black, white and a variegated rainbow thread. The 'Autumn' bundle evokes feelings of changing seasons, falling leaves and a long walk in the countryside followed by hot chocolate next to a roaring fire. 'Cool and Calm' is a beautiful, soft palette to soothe and refresh. With many other thread bundles on offer, there is bound to be something that takes your fancy. Maybe this would be a perfect gift for the embroiderer or quilter who has everything? We hope you enjoy having a browse through these lovely colour collections, and let us know if you have any ideas for other themes!x
The Japan Crafts elves have been beavering away the last few weeks, not only preparing for the Knitting and Stitching Show in Harrogate next week, but also devising some cracking '12 Days of Christmas' offers for the website. In fact, we got so excited that we made a fun little video for you to watch! We have also set up a special Christmas Shop page in the form of an advent calendar. There is a special offer behind each window! Check back each day to see what the offer is for that day. Can you guess what some of them might be...?x
I'm trying to give customers as much choice as possible with the sashiko samplers, and am finding that these days, people have had a go and are coming back for their second, third or more designs. It's great to be kept on my toes! But I find people like to see the finished result rather than just being told "this pattern would look nice in this colour thread", so I am constantly stitching up new designs as they are sent from Japan, as well as reworking older designs to see if they look better (or different) in other colours. Recently I have finished the Hanabishi (Diamond Flowers) and Hanazashi (Stitched Flowers) patterns and am very happy with my colour choices. Apparently, so are customers - the Hanabishi kits sold out at the Duxford show before the end of Saturday! I've also reworked the Kakinohana (Persimmon Flower) kit with a different colourway. Originally I wanted to make it look like persimmon fruits, with orange fruits and green leaves. It does, but since I finished the design on Halloween I also thought it resembled pumpkins! Either way, I like the calming colourway as a an alternative to the original bright pink one. At some point I will also make a sample using lemon and green thread, to resemble the actual flowers of the persimmon tree. While I'm waiting for another order to arrive from Japan, I'm working on a Linked Crosses hitomezashi sampler. Hitomezashi uses much more thread so there is more work involved. Usually, I work the horizontal and vertical stitches first, but this time I'm starting with the diagonals. The packet calls for 6 x 20m skeins of thread(!). Originally I was going to do the horizontal/vertical crosses in cream thread and the 'links' in 100m variegated pink (the colour is much more 'pink' in real life), so I wanted to stitch the variegated thread first to see how it looked. I really like the look of the pinks, so will probably stitch the whole thing in them. I also want to see if I can get it all done with a 100m skein...wish me luck! The kit will be available as soon as I've finished x
I've been selling these lovely 'hanafukin' sashiko samplers from Olympus for a few years now and they have always been very popular as a way to dip your toe into sashiko for the first time, and to give as gifts. The first time I encountered sashiko was on a trip to Japan many years ago when I spotted the rabbit sampler in a craft shop in Kyoto. I just loved the design and could see it was made by following the printed lines with a running stitch, but I had no idea there was a special name for this type of embroidery at the time. The design appealed to me because I knew the Japanese fable of the rabbit who lives on the moon making mochi rice cakes. So I bought the sampler, along with needles and cream thread, and spent some happy evenings stitching it after my daughter was in bed. I returned to the craft shop to learn more about sashiko, and as soon as I got home I ordered Susan Briscoe's book and began to practice more. Eventually I began teaching sashiko in my workshops and importing the samplers, needles and threads. I kept that first rabbit I made, and used it as a sample at shows for years; everybody loved it and the rabbit has always been my best seller. Several years later, as a way of introducing more of the different coloured threads, I stitched a Mount Fuji sampler using various colours. This was also a hit. So when I had a rebrand earlier this year, my partner (who was doing the rebranding) suggested I should make a sample of ALL the designs, and make them into kits. Considering I have about 20 different designs, this was no small project!
My routine became: work during the day as usual, then spend every evening doing sashiko with Netflix and Nutmeg for company. My partner did a great job designing lovely, bright labels for each kit, which I then had printed. In time I had stitched a sample of each design, and in some cases two, so I have variations in thread colours for people to choose. I even redid the rabbit one with subtle pale pink thread for the cherry blossoms, and pale blue for the waves. The problem is, as soon as I think I've finished, I see a new design I want to get! So now I'm back to stitching again every day... Look out for new kits each time you visit! Katie x It's always about this time of year when people first start to mention *whispers* Christmas, but believe me I've been thinking about it for months! Apart from the fact I absolutely love it, I have to make sure I have something suitable for that perfect gift whatever a customer's skill level or budget. Although I don't stock specific 'Christmas' products, there are many items which people buy as gifts, for example bundles of fat quarters, charm packs and kits. If the recipient is into sewing then the fabric itself is the gift. Other times a customer will make up the bag, cushion or whatever, and give that. One thing that is always popular in the run-up to Christmas is the Mini Rice Bag Kit. When I am at a show, I always get lots of people saying they've made it on a workshop with me in the past or they've bought a kit before, and more often than not it has led to them making many more Mini Rice Bags for family and friends. They are just so versatile! So, what is a Mini Rice Bag? Similar bags to these are called Komebukuro (kome = uncooked rice, bukuro = bag) in Japan. They were traditionally made from scraps of fabric stitched together, then filled with rice and given as an offering at a local temple. These bags were to celebrate and give thanks for a good harvest, so the fabrics used were often cheerful and bright. Although made from scraps of used clothing, genuine antique komebukuro are relatively rare these days and very expensive to buy. As I mentioned, I've been selling this kit for quite a while and used to teach workshops on it, but it never seems to get any less popular. I think because the price is very reasonable, it is often bought as a Secret Santa or stocking filler, or a 'little extra' present. So it seemed fitting to revamp this little kit using some of the lovely new indigo/non metallic fabrics I've been getting recently. Many of these designs are by the famous Japanese manufacturer Sevenberry. I always make these bags by hand and they don't take long at all, but you can also make them by machine, which is useful if you decide everyone needs one for Christmas! In the kit you get 12 squares of fabric ready-cut. The bag is reversible, so you can choose which to have on the inside and which on the outside. All these pictures are of the same bag. You also get the drawstring (this comes in different colours) and of course the instructions, which are in full colour with pictures to help you. The whole thing comes in a little bag with a bright, colourful label in case you want to give the kit as a gift. In Japanese crafts it's all in the detail, so the instructions also teach you how to make these dinky toggles to go on the end of the drawstrings - you'll be putting them on every bag you make! I also like to topstitch around the bag with a contrasting thread (in this case, a sashiko thread). Not only does this add to the handmade charm of the bag, but it finishes it neatly, too. If you don't want your stitches to show, you can do this on the machine.
I always look forward to receiving deliveries from Japan, especially when I know there are new products inside! This time, I was also looking forward to having the indigo kofu tsumugi fabric back in stock. Olympus (the manufacturers) had been out of stock for a few weeks so I hadn't had any supplies for a while. I made sure that this time I had lots of bolts of this fabric sent, so hopefully I won't run out again any time soon! This is a relatively small, top-up order so it came in one large box, with a smaller box full of bolts. Everything is packed very neatly in layers, separated by sheets of Japanese newspaper. These are the Sports pages, so not very interesting to me, although I might use them to practice my Japanese reading later. Underneath the first layer of paper were sashiko threads in 100m and 20m skeins. I remember when I first started selling sashiko about 7 years ago and not many people had heard of it. Those who tried it usually wanted the 'traditional' blue fabric and white or cream thread. Nowadays, sashiko has exploded thanks to Instagram, Pinterest, TV shopping channels etc, and has become very popular indeed. The great thing is, people are becoming much more adventurous with their choice of colours in both fabrics and threads. I love it! This is also the case in Japan, where cream-on-blue looks a little old fashioned to younger people, who prefer experimenting with different colours. It has breathed new life into an old craft, which is wonderful. This time I needed to restock the 100m skeins of white and cream, as well as several other colours, and some 20m colours, both variegated and plain. Although I work from home most of the time I never get lonely because I alway have little Nutmeg to keep me company. Have you seen, she even has her own Instagram page! She is quite famous, and loves all her followers so feel free to follow her and keep up with all her adventures. She helped to unpack the threads, then decided that was enough hard work for the day and went upstairs for a well-earned nap. Next in the box were lots of sashiko samplers. Some of them are top-ups of popular designs, but there are also four new designs in there...three sashiko and one hitomezashi, can you spot them? I need to stitch these up as samples and then make them into kits once I'm happy with the thread colours. If you have any ideas for colour combos, jot them in the comments box below or drop me a line and I'll see what I can do. As I said, I love getting new products in, and today was no exception. Under the next layer of newspaper were these stunning new kogin cushion kits! Oh, I can't wait to get started stitching a sample, but I have a lot of other ones to do first... Last but not least are these 2-way Apron/Tote Bag kits. These are a lovely way to make something really useful with sashiko, but I'd been out of stock of them since Festival of Quilts. These kits are made to order and take a few weeks to be manufactured, because they are made to my specifications (fabric colour, instruction language, inches or cm etc). It's great because the instructions are in English!
I've now got all three designs in stock - asanoha (hemp leaf), seigaiha (waves) and shippou tsunagi (interlocking circles). Oh, and a quick 'cheat', in these kits you get a half metre of printed fabric but you only need a small amount for the bag because once you've stitched the front and back panels you are supposed to wash the print off. What I would do is use a different fabric for the other sides, lining and straps, so you can save your printed fabric for another project or to make more bags! I hope you have a lovely week which includes some sashiko and relaxation. Don't forget to show me what you've been making and I will put your creations on the Customer Makes page for the world to admire Katie x |
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