Thursday, January 12, 2012

The Anti-Bag, Hacker Friendly Furoshiki

How am I just learning about the Furoshiki now? The Furoshiki is little more than large piece of cloth. What makes it cool is that there are various wrapping techniques techniques you can use to turn the flat cloth into a bag.

Watch this video to see what I mean:

Just the other day, I was mumbling to Shira that I should have my Mom take some fabric and whip me up a wrap of some kind for my camera. These days I'm pretty anti-camera bag (if it's in the bag, you can't take photos!), which means that most of the time, it's around my neck. But, for those few times when I do need to stow it away, some sort of wrap seems like it would make sense. I've improvised this by putting the camera in a knit hat or wrapped in whatever was around.

Little did I know that the wrap idea goes way beyond simply balling up the material and say, using Velcro to secure it. The Furoshiki relies on nothing more than a few knots and proper folding. As an Eagle Scout, anything with knots is going to appeal to me. Not only could I use the wrap to protect my camera in the bag, but it could serve as its own bag.

Before I put my Mom on the case, though, I'd like to figure out what material would be best for a camera wrap. Any suggestions?

The Furoshiki is also handing for wrapping gifts, and fits in with my new gift wrapping craze.

An idea related to the Furoshiki is the Shemagh, the traditional Middle Eastern headscarf (aka, the Kafaia). There's definitely some political weight that goes with the Shemagh, but, if they're good enough for the US Military, they're good enough for me. YouTube, of course, has plenty of videos showing how to tie a shemgah (and there handy websites on this topic, too).

Finally, you could consider a Furoshiki (or shemgah) as a sort of towel. And as everyone knows, the most important item you carry with you is your towel.

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