I’ve been meaning to try Saori style weaving for months, and I finally got to it.

I chose 8/4 cotton (Drops Loves You 7 4-ply, in Pearl, Wheat, and Cookies & Cream) for a warp, arranging the colours to simulate a highlight in the middle.

10dpi, 136 ends, 34cm warp width, 133cm warp length.

I selected yarn leftovers that would fit a late autumn / winter colour palette, but with the odd wild colour thrown in for good measure. But the star of the treasures was tufts of unspun wool from the lovely flock of sheep near my mum’s - three beautiful colours (light, medium, and very dark brown). Not only do they hold sentimental value, but they made me realise I could blend the colours like paints, and they brought welcome extra unevenness to the piece. Still, I felt this Saori style weave is looking rather too orderly! I clearly was being cautious, or indeed breaking the rules is much harder than I thought :D I look forward to practising more.

The background weft was my Stylecraft ReCreate DK in Ecru (a recycled wool acrylic blend). I chose this over cotton because I wanted a bit more of a fuzzy look, and I’m happy how it turned out.

Fresh off the loom: 32 x 96 cm.
After wet finishing: 32 x 87 cm.

Hand sewn 1cm seams to hide the mini fringes, then about a 2 cm pipe like seam from there to hold the drawstrings, and a simple stitch for the bag sides.

Crocheted two cotton cords with the help of a tutorial video (crochet isn’t my skill), and fitted them onto the bag. They aren’t of equal length as it turns out, but this bag was never going to be about perfection.

Final size of bag: 40cm high, 31cm wide.