Condominium Dress Weaving

The condominium is equipped with a loom.  I brought over a black pre-wound warp and have been weaving in the evening.  I weave a little and then stare out the window at the mountains.  

I am winding my own thread on the bobbin winder.  I am mixing a silky looking navy with brown, orange, purple, black, and red.  In one section I placed lengths of purple/silver thread in random positions.  

My hope is to weave enough yardage for a dress.  Only time will tell!!!!

Extra Peace Warp

When I unpacked the Piccolo loom at Saorinomori there was about two to two and a half feet left of the Peace Warp.  I used the bobbins that I brought back from the school along with some of the fleece.  The green and yellow blobs below are the fleece popping up from the cloth adding a three dimensional effect.

Pictured above is the cloth that I wove off from the end of the warp.  Both the warp and the top section of the weft say "Peace." P=purple, E=orange, A=yellow, C=green, E=orange

Peace Banner: Osaka, Japan

On July 28th and 29th, I had the distinct pleasure of going to Osaka Montessori International School in Abeno, Osaka, Japan.  I was greeted by Alex, the head of school, Yuko, a former parent, and Rumi the classroom teacher.  We wove on cardboard looms until the floor loom was delivered by Saorinomori.   

The loom arrived with great fanfare. I quickly unpacked it and set it up.  The warp had lost some tension during transport.   Alex held the warp threads while I rewound the warp onto the roller.  Each of the 22 children patiently took turns weaving.  The younger friends, ages 3 and 4 needed help pressing the treadles, but the other children, ages 5 to 8 could weave independently.  I was amazed by their patience, concentration, and ability to follow directions.  They wouldn't even stop to get their pictures taken.   They far exceeded my expectations and showed great enthusiasm and gratitude for the opportunity to learn how to weave.   When I left on Friday they asked if I was coming back on Monday. It was very sweet.  

Pictured above is Mia age 3.   She shows great ability to hold the shuttle.

Pictured above is Noah age 5. He not only was able to weave independtly but he stood by and coached the other children so they wouldn't get confused.  

Pictured above is the finished peace banner.  I cut the picture in half because there are three children that cannot be photographed.  I will blur their faces when I get back to the US.

Kenzo Jo's Birthday

Kenzo Jo, son of Misao Jo (inventor of the Saori Method), turned 73 years old today.  Everyone in the studio sang Happy Birthday to him in English.  He shared his cake with everyone.  

Pictured above is Kenzo Jo, two of his sons, and the Saorinomori team.  Happy BIrthday, Kenzo Jo!

Kobu Weft

Kobu is linen.  To me if feels like fine jute.  The loopy yarn is a little twitchy and needs to be separated so it doesn't catch on other fibers.  Kenzo Jo stopped by my loom every hour and combed my warp.  His advice is to move any threads without tension forward and then they will eventually even themselves out.  If you add tension to the rear of the loom you will have to move your weight (clothes pin) each time the warp advances.  His advice for broken threads is to wait until you advance the warp enough  to re-thread it.  I like my idea better. I added thread, knotted it to the broken thread, and re-threaded it.  That way you have less fabric to fix at the end if you want to sew your broken thread back in the cloth.  

Here are some pictures of the linen cloth on the loom.  Many people have stopped by my loom and commented that they like the colors.

Pictured above is the finished Kobu cloth.  I am posing on the left with my mentor Kenzo Jo on the right.

Saorinomori Fashion Show

The afternoon of my first day at Saorinomori in Osaka, Japan, they had a fashion show.   Each weaver brought in two or more projects to show the other members.  I was amazed at the variety of different garments, the colors, and the style elements.  Kenzo and his son took photographs for their blog.   Many of the weavers took pictures with their cameras.  Hirome wrote notes down about thread content, design elements, and other salient points.   

The woven fabric was added to a pre-made mauve shell.

HIromi is modeling her flared pants made of Japanese paper.  

The top has braided fringe used as straps.

The collar on this coat has a clip for changing how to attach it.  On the back side the fringe is seen to the back of the coat in funky patterns like snakes and spirals.  

This jacket has an interesting plaid.  

The same warp was used for the top an skirt.  The top is more striped in appearance and the skirt has more plaid elements in it.  

I love the back on this top.  

This top is made of 11 different pieces.  When asked the weaver said it was made from a very short piece of cloth.  She used left over pieces from other projects to "patch" it together.  Her advice it to never throw anything away. 

HIromi is modeling a newsboy cap.  "Kite" pronounced k-eye-tay means to write, as in writing the news.   

Hiromi is modeling the stunning back of this vest.  The gathered parts of this vest are made of elastic yarn.  

One woman made curtains out of her fabric.  

Gumdrops

My favorite Barney song (think purple dinosaur) when my sons were little was the gumdrop song.   If all the raindrops were gumdrops and lemon drops oh what a rain it would be.   Standing outside with our mouths open wide - uhh, uhh, uhh, uhh... uhh, uhh, uhh, uhh, uhh, uhh.   If all the raindrops were gumdrops and lemon drops oh what a rain it would be.  

So, I guess it is fitting that the yarn I bought for the individual cardboard looms is called "Gumdrop" by Lion Brand.  Each skein is a bright variegated color predominately green (smoothie), pink (cherry) blue (blueberry) or orange (orange). I bought a banana colored plain yellow for the warp.   

Cardboard looms, if you have never made one are a simple project.   I bought a trifold corrugated project board and cut it into 28 lengths.  The size isn't super important, but mine are about 5"X11".  I didn't cut the notches until I got to Japan.   I couldn't find a ruler in the condo so I used the thick end of a chopstick as a width to cut my notches.   Each cardboard piece has 1/4" notches of equal number on the top and the bottom.  The corresponding notch is threaded from top to bottom and wrapped around the back.  By leaving a tail of yarn at the beginning and the end you can tie a square knot on the back side,   

I then cut different color yarn into one yard lengths.  It is not important to be exact.   I gave each child one length of each color to get started.