Furoshiki

I've been inspired! I just watched the neatest video on Furoshiki-the Japanese art of cloth folding. Before the advent of the plastic shopping bag, it was quite common in Japan to see a large cloth skillfully folded around an object or gift. The practice has died out in more recent times, but seems to be making a come back, in part due to the Japanese ministry of culture which has begun to advocate it as a more green practice. It makes me want to wrap all my Christmas presents this way. I've always taken special care to wrap my gifts-I am always in love with the ribbons and the bows. Well, until the end, when I'm out of the special gew gaws and sick unto death of wrapping yet another item. Check out this poster, which has guidelines for creating everything from beautiful wraps for bottles, (as pictured above) to handbags. Wouldn't you love your knitting in one of those? I wonder if you could wrap a baby in those bags to make a sling? I'd have to figure out what to do with the knots...