SAORI weaving goes to the Santa Cruz county fair

   I want to share the happenings of the  last  two wonderful days introducing hundreds of children to Saori  weaving .
Last year I took my saori loom to the Santa Cruz county fair to demo  for the first time on education days, but I was not happy having the crowds just observe me weaving.  I got up from my loom and  asked the lines of children "who would like to try weaving?  I was overwhelmed with raised arms and eager faces!  So  I brought another loom when i returned the second day and I was swamped with thousands of school children eager to learn, SO this year I brought 3 saori looms . I asked my weaving  student , and now friend Robin, if she would like to help.  We barely got the looms set up in our hand spun hand woven section in the FARMS OF YESTERYEAR part of  the fair, when at 9am students arrived with their parents and teachers.
 For three hours Robin and I worked non stop till noon, giving eager students opportunities to weave.  The plan was to just do one day this year but Robin was so excited with the joy of the children learning to weave she asked if we could come back a second day.
Some of the children sat down and after a short 30 sec. briefing they took off weaving.  like they had been doing it all their lives! The ages were around 6 through 10 years. The saori looms were incredible, preformed perfectly, with ease and that helped hundreds of children  to weave almost instantaneously. I could see the  confidence in themselves growing and it  was a  blessing to experience.

 ROBIN HELPING A NEW WEAVER ^

 ROBIN HELPING  VERY HAPPY STUDENTS

 SECOND DAY WE ARRANGED THE SAORI  LOOMS DIFFERENTLY AND ALLOWED MORE ROOM TO  ALLOW US  TO MOVE AROUND ( but we were still scrunched in )

 KEEPING THREE WEAVERS GOING BY MY SELF WAS HECTIC BUT THE CHILDREN LOVED LEARNING TO WEAVE !

 CATHY STEPPED IN AND WAS SO HELPFUL , THANK YOU CATHY! ^

 The the second day Robin had to leave to go to work early , and there were even more children so it was CRAZY but fun! Cathy Walls , the hard working fabulous fair coordinator  for the fiber section, stepped in and saved the day helping me for the remainder of the time.

 OH I FORGOT I DID ENTER 4 WEAVINGS TOO!

 A SAORI HAT, AND MY SAORI WOVEN SANDAL STRAPS ^

 MY BEACH DRESS /HAT/SLEEVES WHICH WON 3RD PLACE ^

 AND I RECEIVED A BLUE RIBBON FIRST PLACE ON MY BAG, AND IPAD CASE COMBO

we were all tired, but very excited and walking on air  with the  joy of introducing  so many eager children to learning about weaving, they loved it.  Seeing children walk away with sparkling eyes and smiles from weaving was great.  

PEACEFUL WEAVING
JILL www.saorisantacruz.com

A year of " scraps" woven on my SAORI loom now sewn into a skirt

 In the past year every scrap of yarn, fleece, almost depleted  bobbin wool fiber, some hand spun yarn too., etc. went into my "scraps weaving". My 4 harness Saori 60 loom's cloth beam kept being filled but last week I decided ,even though I had many yards of warp left , I would cut it off and wash it and  design and sew  something.

 view of the scraps weaving.I was  recycling all the yarns, fiber, and cut trimmings from the studio with no thought to colors just using them as they were available now washed and line drying

at first I thought I would make some  large sturdy tote bags but I started draping and designing and my woven fabric called to become a  skirt

I hand basted  it on the dress form and cut it to fit.

then off to sew 

 I did some serging of  black cotton as a lining for the skirt back as that  section is the most prone to wear and friction from sitting. 

sewing the lining  to the hand woven fabric.

 almost done ,points grace each side then drape done when worn.

the first 7" or 8" of the weaving was a scrap I had left over after cutting, so I twisted the beginning fringe and hemmed it and made the scrap into a pocket  sewn onto the right side of the skirt. Inside there is a faced waistband and a drawstring for size adjustment.

the shape of the skirt laid flat

there it is.

I enjoyed seeing my wool sewn and designed "matryoshka "shoulder  bag with the scraps skirt . The bag is  sewn out of commercial wool yardage lined in cotton with a zip on top. Before I assembled it I needle felted wool fleece to my matryoska design. It  looks comfortable with the new skirt.

peaceful weaving
jill
www.saorisantacruz.com

Saori weaving class with rigid heddle looms

A local knitting shop , The Golden Fleece in Santa Cruz CA., wanted a weaving class with rigid heddle looms. I said sure BUT it will need to have a Saori philosophical flavor, so the owner said fine. First class with the 6 students we warped, covered basic weaving then the students took the looms ho home  for 3 weeks to weave and returned yesterday for the the "finishing" techniques class. 1/2 of the class not only finished there scarves , but they warped on there own and wove another scarf! one student wove 4 scarves! These were all new weavers.

one student loves tartans

another lavenders and beige cotton

 a lovely textured green scarf.

 another student wove purples, amazing and with wonderful drape.

 cashmere and some novelty yarns for this lovely  lapis  shade scarf

 amethyst  and alpaca greys and lavender and a eye lash yarn  too.

 and the tartan student , on her own, reached out to more expressive saori-ness

APPLAUDING these first time weavers.

peaceful weaving
jill
www.saorisantacruz.com