The Mother-Daughter Saori Jacket

The mother-daughter Saori jacket is now in print

The Saori jacket was created by Sarah, my 18-year-old daughter, and myself. A one-of-a-kind, soft, and stunning Saori jacket.

The 2011 edition of the Ashford Wheel Magazine arrived this week.

After a full year of hand spinning, weaving and sewing the Mother-Daughter Jacket, documenting it with pictures, blogging about it, and then writing the how-to article for Elizabeth Ashford for the Ashford Wheel Magazine, we opened the envelope with excitement and trepidation.

The article is on pages 20-21 in the 2011 edition of the Ashford Wheel Magazine.  If you are a paid subscriber and member of the Ashford Club, you will be receiving your edition of the glossy magazine shortly, worldwide.  If you haven’t subscribed your local Ashford dealer can request free newsprint editions of this wonderful magazine, full of patterns and tips for weaving, dyeing, felting and knitting, sometime in January or February.  Stop by the Joybilee Farm studio next summer and I ought to have issues on hand to give away.

The Saori jacket was created by Sarah, my 18-year-old daughter, and myself from a 1 kg. bump of Ashford merino/silk roving in Peppercorn and 300 grams of additional merino-silk colours.  It was handspun and then woven, in plain weave, on a 20 inch and a 12 inch Ashford knitters loom, a portable rigid heddle loom.  The jacket was draped on Sarah, pinned and then sewn without a pattern — Saori style.  Made to fit Sarah, the model in the magazine is a good 3 sizes larger and so the jacket doesn’t drape as well as it should.  But don’t let the picture dissuade you from attempting to recreate this one-of-a-kind, soft, and stunning Saori jacket.

Sarah receives compliments every time she wears her Saori jacket and many people have asked to purchase it.  It’s not for sale.  If you want one you’ll have to invest about a hundred delightful hours to create it for yourself.  Joybilee Farm sells Ashford merino-silk roving in 100-gram packages in several colourways.

Joybilee Farm will be at the 2nd Annual Slow Fiber Festival tomorrow (October 29, 2011) in Penticton.  Sarah’s and my Saori jacket will be in the slow fibre fashion show at 2 pm tomorrow, so you can see it up close and give it the weaver’s touch.

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Are you working on a collaboration?  What’s the result?  Leave a comment and join in the conversation.