Saori, Osaka: II

We started by learning various techniques on these beautiful 2-shafts looms. There are so much you can do with 'just' plain weave. It really lets the textures and the colours take center stage. There is emphasis on expression, not too bogged down by how the selvedges look, etc.

This beautiful red sample is woven by Setsuko. She was one of the instructors during our week at the Studio.

This second sample was woven by Kenzo Jo and the first part showed the effects of the various twists in the yarn and the pattern that can be created by that. The yellow and orange parts are the similar technique to the red sample.

I wove 3 pieces in the 5 days. That is probably more than all the weaving I have done this year. This first piece was more of a sampler of all the techniques including clasp weft using 2 and 3 colours, looping, the textures similar to the red sample, insertion of fleece, and the blending of colours.

I think that the big revelation for me is that I can work with colours! I am not sure why but I have always find it extremely hard...... Somehow, at the Studio, with all the cones of yarn in front of me, that fear of colours seem to have diminished slightly. It will be interesting to see if I can keep that momentum with the next pieces that I work on.

This image shows how the piece progressed and the photo was taken with its full loom width of 60cm.

It is a little short for a wrap but works extremely well, doubled up as a short scarf. The softness and the drape is amazing. It is a limitation with images that you can not feel.....

The second piece is a joint effort with Kaz. We both wove on this. I have wondered how to achieve this, especially after the machine knitted pieces with the ruffles.

Again, some highlights from the brave new world of colour.

I think that this will be pushing my blogging skills to the limit as there is so much more textile content from our trip. I will try to keep up while everything is fresh in my mind.

Saori, Osaka: I

Last month, Kaz and I were fortuante enough to spend 5 days at the Saori Studios in Izumi-shi, Osaka. It was a beautiful studio filled with natural light and ventilation.

As you can see, looms were all set up ready to go. Everyday, people turned up just to weave. Experienced and new weavers, young and old, couples and children. It was a pleasure to see how easy it was, no hang ups about threading or sleying. You just pick the colour and type of yarn, wind up a bobbin and off you go.

There was an extensive selection of yarn to choose from. Each cone is colour coded to show fibre: wool, cotton, synthetics, jute, etc. You can blend fibres and colours. The warps were all set up in fine black cotton at 5 ends per cm and they all have 2 shafts.

Everything has its home. Shuttles, bobbins, scissors were all provided for. You literally just need to turn up and start weaving. At the end of the day, tools were returned, warps were re-tied and each loom is ready for the next person. The studio is opened from 9:30 to 5:30 each day, 7 days a week!

We were also fortunate that the condominium across the road was available. Saori has the property to house people who had travelled to weave at the workshop for a very reasonable sum. It is a fully equipped apartment across the road from the Studio.
The most wonderful thing about the apartment are these Saori curtains in each room.

bedroom

There are 2 bedrooms, a tatami room, kitchen, living and dining area. Each room can sleep up to 2 people. On the second night of our stay, a lady from Okinawa joined us. She was on her way to Tokyo and stopped by to weave for a day. She arrived in the afternoon at about 4pm and started weaving straight away. By dinner time, she had a scarf. The next day, she learnt how to wind a new warp and to set up the loom (threaded and sleyed) from scratch as she had bought a loom to take home the last time she was at Saori.


dining area



living area

It was a wonderful experience. It opened my eyes to a different way to weave and a different way to utilise the finished pieces.
Please look forward to the next installments......

The real thing

I have come to the conclusion that often I have to repeat something 3 times before I am totally confident with it, be it a weaving/knitting/sewing project, or a recipe. Each time I learn something new.

This is the third time I have woven this scarf and it is the second time that it is woven in exactly the same yarn as well. It had taken a few years to get to this point.

The first time, it was on my ashford table loom, in my second year of weaving. I was still learning how to keep my weaving balanced, how to beat gently and my selvedges neat.

Each time I threaded this pattern, I have made some sort of mistake. However, I realise that this often happens when I am in a hurry or if  I was distracted. I am learning to make better notes so that I don't do the wrong thing over and over.......

The second and third time was on the countermarche floor loom. Did I ever mention that she is named KaTe?

I practiced with some Bendigo yarn to get used to weaving on this loom. I think I have only had 3 warps on it previously. I did make a mistake with the winding of the warp but it came out fine.

I was surprised at how fast it was with the treadling compared to weaving this on the table loom, painstakingly manipulating the shafts for each pick. This pattern has a repeat of 50 picks. Of course, it took me a little while to get into the rhythm.
The pieces of red thread is there to help me check the measurements of each repeat pattern. This is a tip from Shipbuilding. In this case, I was on the verge of being obsessive as the pattern is circular and if it wasn't balanced, I would end up with ellipses. 

Finally, the scarf was washed, lightly pressed, boxed and gone onto its new owner.....

Happy food

Where is Spring? It has gone missing.......

It has been a long winter. Not so much like European or northern American winters where there is snow and freezing temperatures. It has been gloomy and wet. Don't get me wrong. I am thankful for the rain but it is the greyness that gets to you after a while.

I read somewhere that yellow food makes one happy. This winter, I have been trying that out. Not sure that it is so effective as a long term solution but certainly satisfying at times. Here is my all time favourite yellow foods.

I stocked up on mangoes at the end of last summer. I scooped out all the flesh and froze the purees. During the year, I made mango sorbet. Easy recipe: equal quantity fruit puree with 1:1 sugar syrup and churn in the ice cream machine. Beautiful sorbet at the end of 50 mins. with no effort! I do the same with apricot, plums, persimmon, etc.

My other all time favourite is this lemon syrup cake, grilled. I used to love it fresh, on the day it is baked. However, a friend of mine has introduced the grilled version. Now, I can't wait till it is ready for that.
I cut up the slices, freeze it and whenever I need a fix, I can get a slice out and put it under the grill or in the toaster. Just make sure it doesn't get burnt.
Beautiful with ice cream for a after dinner dessert as well.

And last of all, my lunchtime staple. zucchini slice with farm fresh eggs. One of my other friends has moved to the country. She has established a orchard with all sorts of fruit trees and has her own chickens.Whenever she comes to town, she always bring me some eggs. They are delicious!

Mixed frills

My shoulders have been playing up and the last item of machine knitting I finished was the purple frills. This piece was full of frustrations as the colour was perfect but the yarn was not of great quality despite being pure wool. It was made to go with 'Curly' and they were birthday presents for 2 little girls. In the end, it turned out ok. There were lots of broken ends to weave in, which is NOT my favourite task!

I was also keen to try out this version of the silk/stainless steel yarn and wool. However, I was also aware that more machine knitting is not a good idea. In the end, Christine had very generously offered to knit this up for me!

She is a real champion of the craft - generous with her time, equipment, enthusiasm and most of all encouraging with novices. I admire her energy at the MAKV stand, promoting machine knitting at craft shows, demonstrating alternative styles of knitting with simple shapes and interesting yarns.

This was knitted with some Avril grey silk/stainless steel yarn and a merino(70%)/cashmere(30%) variegated shades of grey by 'the bunny lady'. This is her nickname by another friend and I have adopted it. Once I remember the 'real' name, I will let you know.

She makes wonderful spaced dyed yarn in this mix and also beautifully dyed fleece for spinning and felting right here in Victoria (Australia)!

Weave juice

A little while ago, this beautiful parcel arrived in the post from Kaz. She had made up these cards called 'Weave Juice' to help inspire designing weave projects. (I think that most of them can equally be used for knit projects!) They are exquiste. They also came in this origami box that she had folded as well.

There is only 12 weeks left of this year. A few friends and I are planning to weave in the new year. We are going to set up the looms at my house and start weaving something on New Year's eve, through midnight and into early morning. (well, that is if we don't fall asleep)

We thought we can start planning to that the looms are warpped up ready to go. We can use these cards for inspiration and come up with various designs for each warp.

More to come as we progress........

Excursion......

Spring is a month late in arriving this year. Last Saturday, there was lovely blue sky and the temperature just crept above 20C. Perfect day to get out of the city.  Shipbuilding and I took a drive here to see this.

It was well worth the 2.5 hours each way!
There is something about seeing things in real life rather than just in photographs or in a book. The textures, the colours, the drape of the cloth. It was beautiful.
So if you are anywhere near Ararat, it is worth a visit.