Finished school cloak

I have finished the flicking feather korowai.  This korowai was done to learn different things.


1. Using the new thick icb string. I have found this string nice to work with however I tended to do slightly wider rows which meant I had to do a feather row every row because of the curly nature of the feathers. Whether this means extra work I haven't quite worked out. The feathers were mostly ok separated by three plain whenu although sometimes I used only two between. I think it will be good for a quick cloak.

2. Using the plain chicken string feathers and using them flicked up. This worked surprisingly well. The feather bundles need to be made well but look quite nice altogether.

3. Using a brown cord twining down for an edging.  I have often seen this on old korowai but not really done it before. Worked well.

4. Doing the poka (shaping). I have never quite got the hang of why the shaping is done where it is but had another go on this cloak.  Being thicker string and wider rows I couldn't follow Diggeress' s instructions in her book 'Weaving a kakahu' to the letter but hope I have it OK. What surprised me seeing a lot of old (and new) cloaks was that the shaping was very subtle and didn't really seem to stand out much.  However I think this feels better to wear than a straight one so will do this in future.  I think a bit more study on this would help though.

5. Using a plait finish with a close cropped whenu ending. I am not so happy with this. I think I need to look into this type of top more. It may work better with finer string.