Saturday weaving Ocean View, Dunedin

This coming Saturday will be our first meeting for the year. Everyone welcome to come and see what we do,  to learn to weave, join in with your own korowai weaving projects or come for a cup of tea.
I will have Lily's kakahu there and our other weavers will be there with their projects.
The venue is the Coastal community church on the main road to Brighton at Ocean View. Time from 10 am to 4 pm but come whenever you like in those times.  Cost $5

Lily's kakahu 2nd week

This week has been a two steps forward one step back kind of week.  After a lot of undoing I'm back on track. I found a way of undoing quicker by doing three rows at once.

Now that I am 60 cm up from mid calf length I am starting a few rows of poka or shaping for the hips.

You can see where my first short row has started, where the feathers on the right start. That short row went along to the same distance from the end (80 whenu). Now I am starting a full length row which will follow the line up and over the short row.  Then the next short row (40 Whenu from the ends) and then back to long rows until I get closer to the top where I will do some more poka for the shoulders. I really like these poka for making the cloak sit well and feel 'right'.

Lily's kakahu week 1 weaving

Finally able to start weaving this week. But it's been a mixed up week with helping family shift house. Cleaning bathrooms with old toothbrushes,  chasing escaped sheep in the rain, and feeding troops of in-laws.

But I did manage to get some weaving done. In fact I got about 30 cm finished. At 60 cm I'll do a few rows of poka shaping for the hips. It helps having a story to listen to when working on my own because I want to hear what happens next. The rows fly by.

It took at least 3 weeks to get all the feathers done in December but I think I like having them all done and being able to concentrate on weaving alone.

I have had another enquiry about a commission so it's all go this year. I'll be a busy bee all year.

String

Trying to get the string the right colour for my next big project. The first lot turned out too pink for the yellow toned feathers so I am trying again.

While waiting for the string to dry, my fingers are itching to get started so I made this angel korowai yesterday afternoon.

The fluffy feathers are the under feathers from a peacock.  As they are very fluffy I tried cutting the fluff off both sides of the feather up as far as I wanted then used the bareish stalk of a single feather to stitch in to the row. The feathers were so fluffy I didn't need to bundle them at all. The top row are some feathers I had bundled years ago for another unfinished project. The taaniko pattern means a couple and child amongst the stars, to me.  It shows the love and heartbreak of a family when a tiny baby dies. At least that's what I was thinking about.