It’s been a bit dark here and at our webshop lately.  And there’s a reason why.
My web administrator and I are moving servers and redesigning the webshop while I am in Japan for the next two weeks, so the webshop www.srithreads.com will be closed during this time.

When I’m back on 29 March, we’ll have (fingers crossed) the first, test phase of a new shop with more fluid functionality and hopefully a bit more ease of check out.

Most likely the webshop will have to go through an additional stint of kink-removing and maybe a little design tweaking thereafter, but the hope is for something a bit better than what I have now–so please bear with me!

In the meantime, I’ll be regularly updating this blog with some new postings about old threads, and, with luck, I may also do a bit of posting while I am on the road in Japan.

And what, you may ask, is this strange image today?

It’s this backlit.

A big, layered, patched and threadbare futon cover, that I always admire at night, for its lush, dark translucency.   It has almost a Jekyll and Hyde personality split: beautifully blue and rustic in daylight, and brooding, looming and shadowy at night.

I think it’s beautiful at night and during the day.  Equally so.

So stay tuned to the blog for new postings–and thank you for your patience while the new webshop is in redesign.

I’ll be back from Japan with plenty of new inventory, and I look forward to offering it to you at www.srithreads.com in April.

And I’ll post something new here in the next day or so–please stop by soon!

I’m crazy about the boro futon cover I”m showing today and it’s a wonder that I haven’t yet posted it on this blog.  In a way I have, because it’s the source for the blog’s banner, above, but I think it merits a closer look–and a bit of appreciation.

It’s a big bear of a thing, with large, contrasting patches of blue and brown cottons and fantastically marvelous meanderings of mending stitches.The indigo dyed cottons are old pieces that are hand woven from hand spun cotton yarns.  Some of the brown patches date to the early twentieth century.  Note the kasuri flower patch, below.  It looks as if it is niko niko kasuri, a kind of semi-mechanized ikat cloth that was produced in the early twentieth century.

The back of the futon cover–which would have been the proper, outside of the textile when in use–is beautifully battered.

This beauty measures 79″ x 64″ or 200.5 cm x 162.5 cm.