Weaving Western Sakiori: A Modern Guide for Rag Weaving

Want to do everything in here but i will limit myself to what I already have cut & see jow it looks

Interesting history of rag weaving in Japan, and a weaving book with an original and different point of view. As for the weaving instructions, I found enough help here to immediately take an old Japanese rayon tunic dress, cut it into ribbons, and weave a Sakiori scarf to my satisfaction on my rigid heddle loom. The advice on what yarns and weaving techniques will soften the drape of Sakiori is great. No one wants to make a scarf that feels like a rag rug.I also appreciated the advice on how to calculate the yield from found fabrics and recycled items. This supports Robinette’s ecological point of view and aligns the Western Sakiori weaver with historical Japanese practice.I am not an experiaced weaver: I’ve never touched a four shaft loom, but I find AmandaRobinette’s four shaft instructions easier to understand than Knisely’s in his book on Rag rugs.Whether a weaver will be “inspired by the projects in this book” depends on whether he or she likes the colors and the rags Robinette has chosen to weave. I don’t care for magenta, but with my own choice of weaving materials, I don’t have to use magenta.Robinette has a lot of interesting ideas. A motivated Sakiori weaver will find a great deal of carefully presented advice in this book.

I have been very interested in utilizing no longer wearable or usable linens and garments, giving them a second life instead of going into land fills. Weaving old fabric strips is an ancient craft, practiced in Europe and Asia extensively, but perhaps less known here in the USA. although rag rugs are not unknown. This book attempts to fill the need and educate us in the ways of traditional weaving with cloth strips, in the Japanese style.However, the book falls short in several important areas. While there is considerable attention paid to esthetic ideas, history and thoughts on cloth, there's not nearly enough practical instruction. There are few pictures or explanations on how to prepare fabric strips for weaving, basically cutting or tearing. Turning garments into weaving strips isn't an exact science, of course, but more general guidance and examples as to how to proceed would have been helpful.As for the actual weaving, many projects are shown but are nearly impossible to replicate, as one's own rags will certainly be different than those shown. Worse, there's little explanation as to how to join strips, whether prior to weaving or during, except for a tee shirt rug, which has useful photos. Then there are the references to using a "floating selvage", with little explanation as to how, why or even what it is. It's suggested weavers may want to split their rag ends in the warp so as to reduce bulk while weaving, but how to do it is left to the weaver's imagination. There is one page devoted to using a rigid heddle loom, and that is mainly about tension and bulk considerations. As for floor looms, there are tie up and treadling diagrams for each project, but you're on your own figuring them out.I would have given this book 3.5 stars had I been able. It encourages and inspires giving Sakiori a try, but falls short in practical instruction.

Very nice patterns and photos.

totally satisfied, going to try a new project

It's a very nice book, well written, with good photos and directions.

I was excited to see this book as I love the idea of using rags in weaving but don't have an appropriate loom for doing rag rugs. Thinking this would inspire me with more creative ideas, I was disappointed that there is nothing all that unique about the projects presented here. Many of them are downright unattractive to me. You may get more useful technique information on preparing and handling rags from other rag rug weaving books. The one technique that is covered well about sakiori is the part about using one or two picks of a thinner yarn between rag picks. The brief section on the history of sakiori was interesting.

Great ideas for recycling material and reducing landfill.

Thought this would help with Saori weaving plenty of ideas and tips although aimed ar Rigid Heddle.

Gorgeous photos, plenty of detail, inspiring projects