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Encountering India’s Textiles

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India has a strong textile history, and is currently the second largest producer of fibre in the world.  So it’s no surprise that it was one of the major reasons I wanted to go to India.

Perhaps it’s a little bit of a bias, and it’s definitely perpetuated by movies and media, but Indian fashion seems to always have some of the brightest colors, and daring color combinations.  I wanted to walk into a fabric store, and immerse myself in the colors and sights.

What happened in regards to finding Textiles in India was both what I expected, and much richer and different than my expectations.  To frame the story, I have some pictures to help me organize my thoughts.  Most of the textiles we encountered were cotton, silk, and wool.

In Delhi our driver (Raj, who was amazing) brought us to this great and wonderful store.  It had different rooms with different vendors, and Michael and I thought it was going to be a brief stop, only to find we emerged 4 hour later.  First, we were brought into a room filled with rugs.  We were invited to sit on a couch, And given chai.

Then, this most amazing salesman (and I mean that as a compliment, not the way I mean it when people complain about car salesmen) and educated us about India made rugs (the knotting style, colors, patterns, everything).  Then, his helper began rolling out the rugs, and this is where it gets magical.  The room was perhaps 18 ft by 18 ft, and wood floors.  The assistant knew exactly where he had to stand in the room so that when he rolled out the rug, he could flick the edge with his wrist, and the rug would unravel, ending just at our feet.  Real showmanship at work.  Though we had talked about buying a rug, we weren’t planning to take one home with us that day.  Despite that?  We came home with TWO rugs.
It was worth it.
We did other textile shopping while we were in India, of course, but one of the other standout experiences was when we got to see a silk weaving factory.  You can see below that the looms they used, the mechanized ones, still used punch-cards, really long punch-cards,  to dictate the pattern.

While it was really cool to see the the weaving and the results of the weaving, and see the vibrant colors and how the textile industry employs so many people, it bothered me a bit about the level of noise in the factories.  It was deafening, and there wasn’t much in the way of ear protection.  
Still, the colors and weaves of the silks were gorgeous.
And between everything?  I was knitting on my own.

Stash Sunday

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Yarn Organization 174Merino Wool, Silk and Angora

This is some handspun that is realitively new.  That is, it’s been spun in the last 6 months.  This was a dream to spin, and I’m tempted to buy up the rest of it from the Yarn Spot and spin that up also.  So nice.  I’m thinking I might want to get a local dyer I know, of Rock Creek Yarns to dye it for me, though I’m unsure of what color I’d like.

The details:  I’ve got 9.78 ounces/ 936 yards of Sport to fingering weight yarn.  Not sure what it’s going to become yet, but I’m thinking a beaded shawl, just so the lace can let the angora bloom.

Stash Sunday

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Yarn Organization 228Todays’s Stash Sunday is brought to you by Classic Elite, in the form of Classic Silk.

I used most on the Classic Silk Mayfaire Camisole.  I like how it came out.

I’m debating about using the rest for another thing (perhaps a baby item?) or just trading it with someone else.

I like how the yarn knits up… nice hand.  Because it is cotton, it grows a little during the day, but it isn’t too bad.  When I made the camisole though I did reinforce the neckline with elastic, so it doesn’t stretch too much.  Otherwise I would have cast off different than the pattern asked for, so it wouldn’t stretch as much.

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