Over the break during the wee hours of the morning, I watched “The Lord of the Rings” while finishing a small embroidery.  And in between, while Frodo spent hours of screen time drudging through Mordor struggling with that darn ring, I drudged through the internet and discovered these very beautiful Japanese thimbles, called yubinuki.  The whole ring theme seemed apt for this month’s fabric play.

The thimbles below are from the Kaga region of Japan, which is known for its textile work and the making of fine kimonos. In the true spirit of Mottainai, to not let anything go to waste the leftover silk threads were used to make beautifully designed thimbles like those below.

Isn’t it amazing to produce such marvelous embroidery on such a humble item as a thimble.

These thimbles are worn between the second and third knuckle on the middle finger of your stitching hand with the needle pushing against the fabric just like in the illustration below from John Marshall’s book, ‘Make Your  Own Japanese Clothes’.

Of course, I had to give that a try. I found great information with easy to follow instructions on Shishi Girl’s blog here. Of course, the Japanese versions are measured to the millimeter and mine are measured with my failing eyesight, but that’s how I like it.

The “real ones” are built and embroidered around a foundation of rice paper and silk batting, and mine are recycling t-shirts and linen, because that’s what I had on hand. I also didn’t follow the instructions, as you can see below, because mine don’t have any batting and are clearly a peasant version of a true yubinaki. Honestly, it’s even a far stretch to connect the two.

I ended up with very few thimbles, as they do require a bit of trial and error.

I specifically like these beautiful and humble vintage thimbles below found on the Wafu Works blog, a shop and enterprise specializing in vintage Japanese art and textiles. Aren’t these beautiful?

Image (c) Wafu Works

I think they are really more like jewelry. The concept would also work for making bracelets or beads…..ah, the possibilities!

Visit Nahtzugabe to see what else has been played with during this month fabric play.

Now that the election is finally over, I can go back and finish my dining room instead of reading polls all day.  I’m still in the midst of plastering and filling holes and my ambition is to celebrate Thanksgiving in a newly painted decent dining room. Wish me luck.

Election time is a reminder how much we’re all connected and that each of us can make a difference when we join forces. This also applies to our monthly fabric explorations, which so far was hosted by the German blogger suschna all by herself. To share in that responsibility, some of us ‘manipulators’ have decided to help out by hosting the monthly event on our respective blogs.

On November 25th, it is my turn. I’m thinking of exploring with either origami or shadow and light. If nothing interesting happens out of that, I’m just picking a random word from the dictionary for inspiration. If you would like to participate, just send me the link to your post at kathrin@annekata.com or leave a comment on Nov. 25 and I’ll link you in. Any projects finished or not, big or small are welcome and very much appreciated.

Speaking of networks and cross cultural projects – last month talented Danish knitter Thea from http://the-knitting-bee.blogspot.com/ (see top image) contacted me . On November 13th she’s organizing  google+ hangout regarding –  in her words – “what is a net, a web, a network and how do we make a blanket symbolizing a net…”

If you would like to be part of this, see Thea’s invitation. I’m not a knitter or crocheter (is that a word?), but I’ll be there on Nov. 13th, because I’m interested.

Who knows who we’re going to meet? It will also be a great way to understand google+ better and, as I’m still not on facebook, but love the idea of connecting and meeting people from all over the world, I am going to give google+ a try.

Will you join?