Woolfest 2015

Back home and feeling inspired and envigorated after another FANTASTIC Woolfest :) Such a joyful weekend in the beautiful Cumbrian hills. We had our Saori stall with 2 looms set up for everyone to have a play at weaving Saori - it was lovely to see so many people finding pleasure in Saori. 
The Woolclip put a great show together with loads of inspiring textiles and fantstic fibres. I found some fibre treasures for the studio including dyed silk hankies and rainbow roving-weavers coming to the studio in the next few weeks can enjoy the treats!

Big thanks to Janine, Ruth and Jo for helping out and inspiring all :)

Beautiful Cumbrian hills on the drive up

Famous Blacknose sheep - these lovelies went to a very good hairdressers!

Stunning weaves on the Woolclip aisle

Looms set up before the doors opened

Local Saori weavers work on display

Weaving banner

Love this about Woolfest! Herdwick being taken to the ring :)

Beautiful work at the Arty Bird stand

Beautiful plant dyed yarns and weaves from Ananuca artisans in Chile

2 Banners created at Woolfest - one of them was won by raffle ticket no.55

Looopy!

I was totally inspired reading Terri Bibby's blog post about loose, loopy weaving -
http://www.saltspringweaving.com/blog/?p=1748
I really wanted to have a go and thought this red warp would be ideal. I adapted Terri's technique so that my loops started off small and then grew up to the top. This was completely, joyously random. I looped small to start with then took the threads as high as the shelf at the end.
It was so exciting getting it off the loom as the loops all kind of stuck together, then you have to prise them apart to set them free - very satisying! Going to find it something pretty to hang it off now :)
Big thanks Terri for inspiring a joyful afternoon.

Spring Kai

Friday saw the first Kai at the studio-
Kai in Japanese means sharing or a gathering. A Saori Kai is a great opportunity to meet other Saori weavers and share weavings and experiences.
We had a lovely group of weavers come who brought some of their recent weaves to share. Techniques were discussed, sewing problems were solved and lots of yarn and weave admiration had by all :)
We had a play with the WWW technique and wove a loose communal Kai piece (photos to follow)
Delicious cakes and bread supplied by the Hempnall Honey co. 
A lovely morning, thank you all for coming and sharing, look forward to the next Kai!

 

WoollenWoods new weaves

New wild weaves from Kally - WoollenWood (check out her beautiful hand carved crochet hooks,yum!)
Stunning hanging using the 2 dent comb reed and her luscious handspun yarns with crochet  lichen on the top. Kally says 'the weaving has developed some interesting characteristics now that its been washed eg. a lumpy curly twisty fringing which resembles veins of ivy' -
I love how it sits so happily wrapped around the tree - inspiringly gorgeous :)

New Year weaves

Happy new year and a catch up of whats been happening in the Shed.
We had a packed 2014 with shows, workshops and a new baby :)
Firstly some Saori weavers work to inspire you. These are all made by weavers at the studio and around the UK with Saori looms, some fibre and lots of imagination. Thanks all for sharing your work, can't wait to see what comes next.

More later..........:)

Saori weavers meet and inspire!

An inspiring day at the studio!
Weaver Fiona came for a weaving session to learn some new techniques to go beyond the stripe-she felt that she had got into a little pattern of reverting back to stripes when weaving so we had a play with some Saori techniques to create texture and interest in your cloth, to go beyond the stripe :)

Fiona brought in some of weavings including this fantastic purple coat, all made from rectangles pieced togerther using wools, fancies and cheniles - a really clever little feature is that it has an extra zip up the centre, which Fiona uses to zip her fleece into for when it get especially cold, making it double layered, genius :) 

Ang from Weird Weave came along with her great new hats made from shetland wool mmmm and some lovely clasped weft pieces in gorgeous colours, looking forward to seeing what they turn into :)

Later in the week an inspiring mother and daughter come for a weaving session - Love the textured weaves.
Thanks to all for a wonderfull weaving week :)

Saori workshop @ studio

Sharon from 'Taylor Made Yarns' came to the studio for a weave. She is a pro spinner and spins these AMAZINGLY gorgeous gigantic skeins of art yarns using beautiful fibres and lots of luscious wensleydale locks.She's been weaving on a knitters loom and wanted to have a try on a Saori loom. Completely, joyfully hooked on Saori :) Thanks for an inspiring morning.

LUSCIOUS LOCKS :) Can you imagine these beautiful skeins woven? mmmmm :)

Some of what Sharon makes from her Art yarn.