Wednesday 10 October 2012

Indigo Knit Cafe

For the past six months I've worked every Wednesday on remodelling a 100 year old shop that sits in the entrance to an old house. It was a mess. Packed with junk, (but a few hidden treasures) we kept the garbage men in shape hauling stuff away. Kurihara san and I just worked away week after week by ourselves clearing out a ton of old stuff, designing and rebuilding.
 It is almost finished and we will open Aikoan  藍古庵 (Indigo Old Hermit Hut) in late November. It has some old knitting machines that make socks and tube knits for t-shirts. It has a small indigo vat outside. It has a shop selling my indigo work, both knitwear and katzome goods and work from my students. It has sewing machines and an over locker serger for friends to design, make and sell their knitwear designs. It has a kitchen to make food for guests and students. It has some great tables and chairs to use as workshop space. I am looking forward to having and managing a creative organic space. Here Daphne and I are checking out the funky plush loop sock knitter.

Here Liza  and Justin are helping Kurihara san with shelf sanding and oiling. 

What she looks like from the street. It needs a bit more love but what an improvement from six months ago.




8 comments:

  1. how exciting, wish I was there to be involved

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  2. Hi Jean, Once things are moving smoothly I would love to have
    a group of knit designers come and stay there for a week or so and just go crazy with knitting on the tube knitter and designing etc. We could prepare a dozen shades of indigo and over-dyed purples and greens and go for every combination we could imagine. It;s going to be fun.

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  3. what grand ideas, bryan...i love the words about dyes and overdyes...and the space looks fine!

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    1. I wish I had time to make it work. I am hoping to keep it as unstructured as possible. Kids playing together. This is what I want. Of course the adults need to be around, but I would prefer they are out of sight.

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  4. gezz i'm in awe.seriously i need another life.

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    1. Neki san, When you find were to get one , pick me up one too. I'm never going to get one hundredth complete with this one.

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  5. It is so good to dream of being part of that group of playing kids...

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  6. Luc, Justin and I were sitting around last night and talking about how we get narrower as we get older. I woke up with the conversation still going on in my head. Too many windows to wash, dishes to dry, meals to make, tea fields to weed, music to download... What happened to play time? Questionable that we schedule our play time.

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