NAKACHUU YARNS FROM JAPAN.

Last week I went to Skals Haandarbejdsskole in Jutland to teach in weaving. This school I went to when I was 16 years old, just finishing my primary school. It was the first time I went away from home. This was the starting point for me and it was an eye opening into the textile world. 22 years later I was asked if I wanted to come back, this time as a teacher in weaving.
At the school it is possible to learn different kinds of subjects; embroidery, sewing, weaving etc. and you can do courses in different kinds of length.

I deceided to do a class in japanese yarns from Nakachuu, which I visited last year when travelling in Japan. They have the most beautiful yarns many of them in paper, with different kinds of treatments onto the surfaces, bast fibers, wool /steel, silk /steel etc. All of the yarns can be bought through Nakachuu in Nishijin, Kyoto and some of them through the danish organisation; Garnindkoebningsforeningen of 1998.
Yarns in cotton mix (black/white also known as number 33-A), silk bouclé, thin transperant paper, silk with some kind of treatmend on the surface, silk thread woven in about ½ cm width and many more.
The course lasted a week and I had several samples with me the students were going to weave.
One of the samples was woven in a honeycomb structure. This is just a little part of it from my weavingprogram called Weavepoint. I like sitting and working with it and then take all the knowledge onto the loom, working with the different kinds of yarns, seeing how they react.
In this set-up the warp was a one-thread linen and three different kinds of samples came out of it. All of them made on the same tying, but woven differently.

Here a silk -white with a treatment on the surface is woven in the plain weave, from Nakachuu. The black yarn is called ANTARA and is from Garnindkoebningsforeningen. Woven into the plain /floating area. This textile become very graphic because of the contrast.

Here ANTARA is woven into the plain area and the black /white, number 33-A into the plain /floating area. The textile is beautiful in the tone-in-tone hues of the black.

A paper yarn called KOYORI M/C 1/6, black is woven into the plain structure and a funny bristling yarn; a cotton thread surrounded with the bristling small paper in white. Woven in the plain /floating area.

These three samples I think can be used for pillow covers. I have already woven the two first samples and just need to sew them.

Here is a twill /plain variation I did some years ago in Trevira CS. For this course I only change the yarns and a totally different kind of textile came out of it. The samples get a ricepaper look. The warp is the transperant paper and the silk treated so the surface get a different kinds of feel and touch.

Here ANTARA is woven in the twill area and the one-thread linen in the plain.

The KOYORI paper yarn is used in the weft. Black in the twill and white in the plain.

Here the weft is the transperant paper yarn, in the plain area and the silk treated in the twill.
If you are interested in buying yarn from Nakachuu.