Wednesday 17 September 2014

A Tweedy New Colour

We've got a brand new colour in our 100% Silk Noil Tweed yarn - 30-011. Previously we had the 2 delish browny-grey colours - Medium and Dark. Now we have the perfect partner, Natural undyed. All three are shown in the above photo. The Medium colour is on top, the Dark is the cream in the Oreo cookie, Natural undyed on the lower level.
the new Natural undyed colour

This yarn almost has to be seen to be fully appreciated. But we do our best to make our photos as close as possible to the being-there-touching-it experience. People buy a skein of this yarn, and then we see them racing back into the shop the next day to buy several more skeins before someone else buys it up. It has that effect on people.
 the subtle and quiet Medium colour...

We've also dyed and painted this yarn - absolutely scrumptious. We hand knitted it, machine knitted it, woven it. We can't say enough good things about it. Japanese origin. Simply beautiful.

the rich, moody Dark colour

Thursday 11 September 2014

Dreadlocks, mon

We've been waiting a long time for this yarn, and it has reggae-ed its way into our hearts in finest style. It's 100% Tussah silk, and of course, we call it Dreadlocks. Bob Marley would have been proud.

This crazy yarn gets more attention than any other yarn in the studio, hands down. Well, it's just so weird and wonderful, isn't it? Use your imagination for this one. It's stiff when you get it, but softens when you soak it in water; create in whichever format works for your creation. We'd love to see what you do with it. Email us with images at info@sanjosilk.com.

See it on the Sanjo Silk website (40-017) for more images. Jah love, mon!

Monday 8 September 2014

What do you do with those?



We're often asked, about many of our yarns and curiosities, "What do you do with those?" There is possibly no other item in our entire range that elicits this question more often than the Cricula cocoons. These are the beautiful little golden lace caps that are produced by the wild Cricula silkworm of Indonesia. They're most beautiful just the way they are. They don't spin well, and lose their gorgeous golden lustre when simmered in hot water, the way you'd prepare cocoons for spinning. What to do? What to do?

While on a recent trip to Japan, Lady D (Sanjo partner) went to a spectacular museum featuring an exhibition of woven yardage, hand-wrought pottery teabowls, and intricately made shifuku (teabowl pouches, usually handwoven).

Well, how about that? There was a shifuku made from Cricula cocoons! Isn't it stunning? Made with great skill by TSUCHIDA Hanshiro.


We're limited only by our imaginations.................