The site I found these on will not be posted, because it is a store. But I am wondering what the difference is between Kona cotton and Pima cotton (I believe this may be a YART, sorry); also, what is Shibori? They have Bali Batiks & Handpaints, which reminded me of something I have wondered about: is there an advantage to handpainted material? They seemed to focus mostly on quilts: is cotton the best thing to make quilts from?

Pima cotton is extra long fiber, which gives it superior qualities. Here's a long site about it:
http://www.supimacotton.org/history/

Kona is one of the Hawaiian islands. It has a highly regarded coffee, mentioned by Mark Twain.
I suppose it also produces a superior cotton. I'll go look for that.

Many sites about Kona cotton:
Kona Cotton : A quilter's dream fabric, also good for soft children's clothing, comfy shirts and
dresses. ...

A minor correction. Kona is actually a location on the Big Island of Hawaii (called the "Big Island" to distinguish it from the state of Hawaii).
I am flying to Kona on Friday to spend the weekend at the Waikaloa Outrigger Hotel.
I am very familiar with Kona coffee but don't recall seeing any reference to Kona cotton in my 18 years here on Oahu. Probably because I drink the coffee but wear very little clothing.

In reply to:

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Probably because I drink the coffee but wear very little clothing.

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How little? And in what way little? Like little bitty shirts? And little bitty shorts? And shoes that are a bit too tight? I mean, so little that you're constricted? Or we talking X-rated here?

Thanks for the info about Kona, JH. Mark Twain made it sound as though it was one of the
islands. Now I know why I couldn't find it on the map. I also saw an interesting bit about
using satellite pictures to determine best time to harvest the coffee, by the color of the
leaves.

Yes, John, do please share with us your...attributes.

I declare, if Fiberbabe doesn't find this thread (!) pretty soon, I'm gonna needle her.

Information about attributes reminds me of bit in New Yorker a long time ago. A Brit
Dame was quizzing a retired Col. Blimp about service in Indian. He started out: "Well,
we have white officers with black privates." Burbled the matron :"Oh, my, how gaudy!"

"How little? And in what way little? Like little bitty shirts? And little bitty shorts? And shoes that are a bit too tight?"

I do a lot of distance running (10 Honolulu Marathons), so yes, to most of the above. I start every day with a long run (sometimes no shirt, but always itty bitty shorts), and New Balance running shoes, size 13 EE (not particularly tight). I don't manage much more than a T-shirt and shorts for the rest of the day, unless the temperature drops into the high 60s,then I might resort to long pants.

Thursday
Partly Cloudy
HIGH: 31° LOW: 23°

Friday
Mostly Cloudy
HIGH: 40°LOW: 31°

Saturday
Cloudy
HIGH: 32° LOW: 10°

We're having a heatwave

Units, Connie, units!!!! That IS a heatwave in Celsius!!!!!

John: wow! [very impressed e]

Here in Southern California, the geraniums are already waist high, even though it is
decidedly cooler than it was last year at ;this time. T-shirt weather hasn't arrived yet.

Hi Jackie.

Shibori is a Japanese technique of tie-dye, essentially ~ although sometimes it uses other dye-resist techniques like folding, pole-wrapping, or stitching. You can get really intricate patterns through the use of shibori - in fact, I had a friend in college who got major contracts to do huge installations in the lobbies of corporations in shibori. Scroll down on this link:
http://gallery.passion4art.com/members/carol/
and you'll get a sample of the type of patterns you can do with shibori. I haven't been able to find anything on the web of my friend's work, but I'll keep looking.

Batiks are dyed with a wax resist, typically. A lot of mass-marketed batiks are prepared by machine, and they have very regulated patterns. Handpaints are, as you might imagine, hand-painted. There's much more individuality to each piece, but depending on the use you intend to put them to, there's no discernable advantage.

Now you've forced me to commit to catching up to the 2000+ posts I'm behind!

Batik is most highly developed in Indonesia, particularly on Java. The two main types here are batik tulis (written batik) and batik cap (stamped batik). Clothes with machine-printed batik patterns also exist but don't really count as batik.

A good site with lots of information on batik (some illustrations but not enough) is at: http://www.expat.or.id/info/batik.html

Bingley