Indonesian textiles and Western knitting

Yesterday was a deceptive day,  bright sunshine but a sharp wind. I needed my Joanne-sourced corduroy jacket for walking. Windproof!

At home I lost track of time, knitting peacefully on a new toe-up sock, dozed off with it in my hands, and completely missed Textiles and Tea. I did catch a later Hajji Baba presentation on Indonesian textiles though, see below a bit.

Finished spiral socks, yet to be pressed.

New choices for next socks

These are my favorite knitting gadgets, a clamshell of stitch markers, a gift long ago. Non knitters -- you slip them onto your needle to remind yourself of critical points in the pattern, and help with counting.

These are particularly nice. Yesterday I dropped one in the course of doing the toe up section, swept the floor, moved every item from all around the sofa, coffee table,  no cat to blame now. No marker. 

So I got out another, so as to get on. When I was folding the sock after knitting, I found the marker. Fallen into the toe I'd knitted.. maybe I could store small items in there as I go.

The Indonesian textile presentation was largely concerned with the collectors, all Westerners, remnants of a colonial age, sadly, and carbon dating to establish age.

So I'll just show the woven items and geographical context and let them speak for themselves.  

This intricate weaving is done largely on the back strap loom, another amazing example of the weaver's skill using simple equipment. 

The fibers include cotton, abaca (banana tree fiber) and bark cloth. And you'll see beading and metal thread weaving and embroidery.

 

It's intricate, detailed work, some dating back to the fourteenth century, a long tradition of art making. 

I'd like to see presentations by the makers, like the Australian aboriginal artists we saw a while ago, speaking for themselves as artists and curators, rather than being viewed as material for scholarly research. 

Meanwhile, these are lovely images of sophisticated work I thought you'd like to see.