Ogata san..

is motoring along. She stitched up and dyed the homework example for the autumn workshop. It turned out great and now her three daughters each want one of their own. Do they know how much work goes into one of these?

When the stitching is finished the threads are drawn up but not tied. Just before dying, the cloth is wet and then the threads are pulled tight and tied two at a time. Wetting the cloth allows it to compress more and the resulting resist stitching is clearer when dyed. You can play around with the tightness of each thread to effect the crispness of the pattern, You can see some of the stitches in the center of the shawl were not pulled as tight. This adds an extra dynamic to the finished piece.

Ogata san has a little crush on Justin, my friend visiting from the States. She loves his rings and tattoos and gentle bearness. (Come on spellcheck that has to be a real word.)

She arrived at the house for class and proceeded to check out the cherry logs I have set by the stream to grow mushrooms on to see if they had come out yet. No luck there but she noticed my flowering ginger myoga were blooming. She gave me a little slap on the arm and told me I was wasting them. She gathered some up and in a jiffy she had a side dish ready for lunch. Justin smiled and told her 'she rocks'. (She giggled as if she understood.) Love..the universal language.