Adventure in Saori

I started to warp my loom for a run of 4 tea towels. They were not going to be the usual type though. I was going to incorporate a little free style weaving in them. They were not going to be so "out there" to make them unusable for drying dishes, just enough to make them fun.

Well you know what they say about the best laid plans.

Here is the intended Saori-style kitchen towel warp. Note the gaps?



Well perhaps they aren't all that obvious to a non-weaver, but I completely missed a couple of dents in the reed. That's a pretty normal, intentional deviation for Saori weaving, but I didn't intend to do it for tea towels. I think the "flaw" would make the tea towels more prone to wear and perhaps to catching on things.

As I was beaming on the warp I was thinking how fun it would be to weave it off for a top instead, and now I'll get my chance. The gaps will work much better as a Saori style top or vest and there just happens to be a weave-a-long happening on one of the Saori forums on Ravelry for this very type of thing. So yeah, I'm in!

Here's my progress so far:



It's a whole lot of fun weaving in this "no rules" style rather than in a regimented way using complicated patterns that have to be treadled just so or they are considered "wrong".



In Saori style weaving it's all good. Loops, skips, floats, a variety of textures and colours; it all adds to the "not made by machine" look. It's more "human", less "mass produced for Walmart".