Just Call Me Orihime

Yesterday I blogged about the story behind Tanabata, which featured Orihime, the Weaving Princess, reknowned for the beautiful cloth she wove. Yeah, that's now me. Action shot!

I asked the lovely teacher if it was ok to take photos and she proceeded to take shots of me from at least five different angles. Not all entirely flattering but then that'll be the chocolate rather than her photography. And yes, I had the teacher all to myself!

I was back at Wanariya, the same place I tried the indigo dyeing at (blogged about here). I booked in for this as soon as I got there and saw the looms and I may well go back to do more. I really enjoyed it! This is my first ever bit of weaving on the loom. 

The white bit is some waste cotton just so you're not right up against the ends of the warp threads, followed by a strip of card. The warp threads are the ones already on the loom and the weft are the ones you add.

There were eight different looms, each with a different set of warp threads on it and I chose one with multi-coloured threads. I then chose hessian twine over wool, since I was making two coasters as a taster session and thought twine would be better than wool for those.

Love handles, ah well. More to hug. I was a little bit cramped since my legs are somewhat longer than your average japanese legs. This left me a bit pigeon-toed so that I could press the left and right peddles underneath - like church organ peddles - that controlled which warp threads were uppermost. Then it was just a matter of moving the shuttle back and forth.

Once I had done enough with one colour the teacher added a card strip to leave enough warp to make a fringe and then I started with another. Once I was done she took them off for me and ran a line of machine stitching along the end of each to secure the ends.

Yay! Here is how my coasters turned out.

I am really happy with these! The sides without the fringes should be straight if you get the tension right and mine are not too bad at all. I also love the multi-coloured warp peeking through too. Ooooo, I really don't have space for another craft in my life....do I?