This is a beautifully rustic, hand twined bag–a kind of combination of a back pack/back pad.  It is braided from bast fiber rope which is covered in cotton.This beauty is an acquisition from my recent trip to Japan so I am in the process of studying it.  Imagine my surprise when I stuck my hand in this pouch and found a smashed box of safety matches, some dried leaves, a few pine needles and a carefully folded, hand made envelope (or sorts) made of newspaper–which is dated 1935.  This heavily abraded bag measures 16″ x 15″ or 40 cm x 38 cm.  It’s subtle–and beautiful.   And even though there was an unexpected cache of contents in the bag,  I wish I knew more about the owner what this bag was used for.

When I was in Japan this past month I came across a number of skeins of hand spun cotton yarn and I bought about 15 skeins thinking I could find them good homes.I’m not sure where this cotton was grown or spun, but it’s really beautiful as it is. Each skein is about 8 1/2″, 21.5 cm long x 2″, 5 cm in diameter and weighs about 2 0z. or 56.5 grams.