Ooh, Everyone Loves a Sale

Limited time offer! We're selling our cones of undyed 100% Bombyx Silk 8/2 at 20% off. We just have too many, so our overindulgence becomes your advantage. This is a heavy, lovely yarn. At 8/2, it's hardly what you'd call a "chunky" yarn, but in the silk world, this is considered fairly heavy. Knit with it. Weave with it. Or just sit and look at it and let inspiration carry you away for a while...
10-005 on Cones
P.S.  we're just working on 2 new knitting kits, a shawl and a scarf, that use this yarn. Stay tuned. The sample is absolutely glorious.

New Stuff

We just wanted to let you know that we've added a whole bunch of new things to the Sanjo Silk website. It's always so much fun when this happens, and we don't like to keep all that to ourselves.

Uber-yummy 10-207, which is a 65% Silk 35% Linen. It's got a soft drape of silk, and the lovely bast fibres of linen.

You spinners are in luck! We've got some great new things on the site for you. We know you've been waiting for Silk Mawatas (silk hankies), and now we've got them. You can spin right from these. They're also wonderful for nuno felting. And they dye gloriously (we have some in the studio shop).

We've also got the spinning version of the yummy Silk Linen yarn at the top of this post. This silk linen fibre combines the lustre of silk with the slight crispness and "tooth" of linen. So lovely.

This is so much fun we can hardly stand it! It looks like a box of silky cinnamon buns! They're actually sample boxes of silk spinning fibre. There are 2 versions, each with a different selection of silks. Such a great way to try out some different silks and silk blends. Also wonderful for felting, need I say?

And finally, this beautiful tussah silk. We call it "Highlights" because it has a range of tones from golden to soft brown along its length. Very fine. Very beautiful.

Check them all out! We also want to remind you that the Canadian dollar is in shrinking mode right now. This is especially good news for our American friends. When you buy, it's like getting an additional 20% off when your credit card sale goes through! And for our Canadian friends, remember when you're comparing prices that American prices are about 20% higher when you convert to Canadian bucks. Such is the way of global economics...

Mexican Silk

We tend not to think of Mexico when we think of where in the world silk comes from. But in many ways, it's an ideal place to raise silk. Typically the indigenous weavers have woven their work largely from either cotton or wool, using the silk as inlays for the decorative bits.

During a recent trip to Teotitlan, in the state of Oaxaca, I managed to track down a man who has a very small scale sericulture endeavour. He raises the silk worms, and then his wife handspins the silk into this spectacular, lumpy yarn. His production is so limited that he looked completely baffled when I asked if I could purchase a small amount. This spool was hand-wound, and the man and his son had to put their heads together to figure out what to charge me. Oh my, how dear is that?

Here are 2 images. One is of a traveler spinning some of this precious silk; the other is of the local lady doing same. Can you tell which is which? Who has the better technique? Or posture, for that matter???

S A L E ! ! !

Sanjo Silk is having a sale. What a great way to start 2015! We've taken inventory, and some of these gorgeous yarns just have to go. It's a personal shopping experience, so come on down to see us at the Silk Weaving Studio on Granville Island in Vancouver. We're open every day from 10 'til 5.

Ho Ho Ho

We've been silent for sooooo long! It's so uncustomary for us. Believe me, if you'd been in the studio during this time, there was anything BUT silence! It's been a busy-busy time, dyeing beautiful yarns, finding new and lovely things, keeping up with your orders and requests, trying out new yarns. Yes, anything but silent.

We thank you for a tremendous year. You've made us feel loved and appreciated. We're very fortunate to be part of this wonderfully innovative and supportive community. We wish you all the very best of the season, and are sending "creativity dust" out into the universe to help us have a 2015 full of extra-breathtaking things.

P.S. There are a whole whack of new things being added to the website in the early new year. Keep an eye on us - there's a whole lot of newness coming. Eveything from new spinning fibres, to basic yarns, to uber-cool texturals. Can you tell we love doing this?

Knit City 2014

The Knit City conference took Vancouver by storm over the past weekend - Oct. 4 & 5. This year it moved to a new a much larger venue, having completely outgrown their original venue in just 2 years. Although everyone complained about the horrendous lighting, the spaciousness of The Forum at the PNE was much appreciated.

We had many-many visitors to the Sanjo booth. Lots of people buying silk for special projects, kits (so appreciated for their simplicity - all you need except the knitting needles, in one box), spinning fibre, and lovely silk bits and pieces. Lots of new customers, learning about Sanjo and silk for the first time; lots of returning customers, enjoying the plentitude of saturated colours we had this year to compliment the always-beautiful natural, undyed yarns.

We loved the diversity of the knitting crowd gathered at Knit City. There were young and old, steam-punk and handbag-ladies, traditional and uber-innovative. So great to have this mish-mash of creative minds in one place, all looking for that thing that would push the Imagination Button for them.

Thanks to everyone who came by to say hi. We had a great weekend. And thanks to Fiona and Amanda of Knit Social for another Herculean job!

Thank you, Handwoven!

 

Handwoven Magazine has included us in the "Goods" page of their brand new issue - yowzah! Thanks for that, Handwoven! We haven't even seen it yet, but we're already getting enquiries. If you don't know which yarn they're enticing you to investigate, it's this one: 10-006

This is a very unique yarn. It's a 20/2, but it's uneven spun; some parts are somewhat loosely spun, and others are more tightly spun. The result is a subtle variation in texture when it's woven. Lovely in both warp and weft, I often combine it with the regularly spun 10-007   Here's an image that shows how these look when woven together. 

 If you look closely, you can see, in the floats, that the yarns look different from one another. And that the texture is just a bit more varied than what you might anticipate when using regular 20/2. That's because of the uneven spinning. Cool, huh?

Also available in colours