This past weekend, I had the opportunity to wear kimono for the first time since my surgery back in December. Because I was working in the dealer's room at our local anime convention, I wanted to wear something comfortable. I chose the red denim kimono with the cream kitty hanhaba obi. I tied the obi in a simple kai no kuchi, secured with a black obijime with little red threads. The haneri is a plain black chirimen, and the obi kazari is my little purple kokeshi charm. The purple tabi are ones that I recently dyed, and I'm happy to report that there were no color bleeding or fading issues! The zori have a black vinyl bottom with blue and brown plaid hanao. It's only barely visible at the back of the sleeves, but you might spy my black nagajuban - one of my favorites for its unique color.
While I feel like I did fairly well with my kitsuke despite the long hiatus and new kimono, the issue I did have to deal with (fairly unsuccessfully) was my surgical site. You probably can't see it in the pictures (I can only just see it myself), but it's on the front right side of my neck (about 3 inches long). The skin there is still very sensitive and fragile, so placing the collars was a major challenge. In the end, I had to show less haneri in order to get it in a fairly comfortable spot. I still had issues with it rubbing, but it was fine most of the day. I have a tea ceremony presentation to assist with this coming weekend, so I'll have to try again and hope it all looks ok!
