needles and the moon
February 8, 2018
in Japan, it is the day of Hari-kuyo
at the local shrine broken needles and pins are placed in a block of tofu
to honor them and give thanks for the work they have done
finally finished – except for the finishing
it has taken a ridiculous amount of time to reach this point
first – I wanted to see if I could use wedge weave for the background and fit it around a shape
then, I wanted to weave a cottage – maybe a village another time
like my ceramic village
and finally, a circle was on my list of shapes to try – they are tricky
and so – in honor of the super blue blood moon
and now to stitch in all the ends
not my favorite part
10 Comments
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Hi Jean, in your blog post from Dec. 17, 2011 you stated that you have a collection of Kateigaho magazines dating back to 2003. Would you be willing to sell those magazines you no longer want?
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Erik – sorry, at this time I’m not considering selling any of the Kateigato issues.
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I’m fascinated with the shrine to broken needles–it seems so right to me! What’s tofu got to do with it, though? I like your tapestry a lot–you keep trying different things and pushing yourself–not that that comes as a surprise!
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Kerry – it is a very old tradition, tofu would have been easily available, inexpensive and soft so easy to insert needles. I would like to know how they dispose of it all. Tapestry has been more challenging than I expected.
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I keep my bent and broken needles and pins in a mini Altoids box. So far it isn’t full so I have no idea what I’ll do with it when it has no more room. Perhaps metal recycling? And about the ends on the back of your cute tapestry – have you seen Sarah Swett’s method of weaving the ends in as you go? She recently had a blog post on it. (Sorry I don’t have the URL handy.)
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Louisa – to dispose of the broken needles and pins I wrap them in masking tape – so nobody can get stabbed – and put them in the garbage. Sarah Swett’s blog is wonderful, I have tried weaving in the ends as I go but it doesn’t work on the selvedges and with some of the handspun yarns it is too fiddly.
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Darn! Yet another year I have forgotten to honour my bent and broken needles. I have saved them for several years now. Love your tapestry!
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Hi Heather – so nice to hear from you, how is everything on the island? I almost forgot but with all the stitching I’ve been doing have some very bent needles and lots of bent pins. Don’t think they make them like they used to.
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Lovely weaving…I appreciate the Hari Kuyou tradition too 🙂
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Kjerstin – I would like to know what the temple actually does with the needle filled tofu, never been in Japan at this time.
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