New Paper Yarn

We have a pretty yummy new paper yarn in our stable. This one is a bit softer than "Russell" (our previous paper yarn). But we can call this one Russell too, as it rustles just as beautifully as the Old Russell. Because it's softer, it's more wearable. And it's really strong. The new number is 30-501, and it's available in 2 sizes: 25g and 50g skeins. These sound like small skeins. Don't be fooled! 25g of this yarn is over 300m! And all that fun costs only $3.75! 

Painted Loop Fringe Yarn

Oh my. This is the latest thing that has us quite breathless with adoration. We recently had one of our now-famous yarn painting sessions, and we painted some of the Loop Fringe yarn. Is this not gorgeous?

We're at the testing stage of a knitting kit for this yarn. It will be a drop-stitch pattern that takes great advantage of the looping, curving, sinuous qualities of this luscious yarn. We'll keep you posted of the progress with this project. But don't wait! Buy some yarn and play with it! It's so lovely, you almost can't make a mistake. The only way you can go wrong is to knit it too tight and too controlled. It's a yarn for playfulness and looseness. Let your inner goddess loose with this one.

Again, this is only available at the Silk Weaving Studio, Granville Island, Vancouver, Canada - not online, so sorry. The painted stuff is difficult for us to represent online, but we'll keep trying.

E-Silk - Wonder Yarn

Hey, this is one of the yarns we sold out of at Convergence 2014 in Rhode Island. It was a bit viral... Once a few people bought it, word got around and before you know it, we were sold out! We brought a bunch of our handwoven pieces with us to the conference to show people how to use the more unusual yarns, and this e-silk - 10-205 - got oohs and ahs.

This is such an amazing yarn. We use it in the weft. I've used it in the warp, but it's not for the faint of heart - weft is a no-brainer. You can just weave it as though it was any old silk yarn. But when you wet-finish your piece, ooh-la-la, the texture!

This scarf shows wide bands of solid e-silk in the weft. This creates bands of very elastic weaving, which gives a very refined texture, as you can see. The contrasting yarns are forced up into relief, and create bumps, ridges, bubbles and all kinds of fun.

Here's another one, where elastic has been used in part of the scarf to create abundant texture.

We have it in 2 colours - Ivory and Black. The yarn is very, very fine, so we find that these 2 colours work well with all the many-many colours we use in our weaving. It comes pre-wound onto bobbins, so all you have to do is start playing! So c'mon! Get some!

Convergence 2014!

Wow! Sanjo was just at Convergence 2014 in Providence, Rhode Island. The conference was from July 16-19, and we had a smashing time! Sanjo was something new for the attendees, something soft, natural, beautiful and completely irrestible. The result was that we sent a lot of people home with lovely new silk yarns to play with, inspired by the weaving and knitting we had to show.

The most popular yarns were 30-011, 20-090, 10-205 and 40-001. You can see that people were buying interesting yarns for creative pursuits - you people have good taste! We also sold out of our quality cards, which we will have on the website asap.

By the way, we have put the e-silk (silk-wrapped elastic; makes crazy textures. more on this later) to the website. This was such a popular yarn at the conference that we sold out almost immediately, so now you can get this great yarn online.

We're exhausted, but thrilled that you gave us such a great welcome. Thank you to everyone who came to Convergence and helped make out journey to Rhode Island such a success.

Colours are Coming

We've been promising that colours are on their way, and here's a sneak preview. These are yarns that have been dyed in prepartion for studio knitted pieces. The yarns are 30-006 Loop Fringe and 30-603 Mohair Silk  and the colours are Dusk Purple and Blue Ice. These are 2 of our Pale Range of colours, specially developed to be "Adult Pastels". Sophisticated and lovely, they look so beautiful in silks of all textures.

Stay tuned. We'll give you some more sneak previews. We're working at getting the colour range onto the Sanjo website. If you happen to be visiting Vancouver (or live here), pop down to the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island to see the colours filling the shelves. Ooh la la!

Spinny and Happy About It

What a great day we had! Kim McKenna came to the Silk Weaving Studio to share her silk-spinning expertise. She was there all day, which made for a comfortable, casual coming-and-going of spinners with their wheels. 

It got pretty crowded for a while, but we spilled out to other parts of the studio, and sat on whatever we could find. Wheels were finetuned, loads of handy tips were shared. Kim was terrific, tireless and generous.

There was lots of fibre, including Muga (the easiest for beginners), Tussah (next "toothiest", so #2 for the newbies), Bombyx (a bit more slippery, so a bit more experience required), and Silk/Camel (the Big Kahuna, so soft and luscious, for those with some spinning under their belts). We also have some beautiful hand-hewn drop-spindles for those who need portability, available at the Silk Weaving Studio.

Lucia (L) had never spun before; she was pretty excited to take home a little skein of handspun silk/alpaca that she'd spun herself. Carly (R) is a very experienced spinner, and honed her silk-spinning skills considerably using Kim's pointers.

Everyone wanted to be part of this fun event. Notice this lovely little girl's bracelet, which Kim made for her as she watched. I sense a future spinner here.....

Thank you, Kim! Everyone had such a good time. People were asking when the next one will be. Soon, I hope.

Join Us at Spin Day

Please join us for Spin Day at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island. This Saturday, Apr. 26, from 10 until 4, Kim McKenna (spinner extraordinaire) will be there to demonstrate, help, give tips, and generally make us all better silk spinners. If you have a spinning wheel, bring it. If you have a drop spindle, bring that. If you don't have either, come anyway. There will be wheels and spindles to try.

It'll give you a chance to try all those luscious spinning fibres you've been wanting to spin: Bombyx, Tussah, Muga, and Silk/Camel especially...

Kim assures me that silk is easier to spin than it appears. I can't wait to learn the secrets!