Opps forgot about my visit to Gilmore looms in Stockton

Since my post yesterday I have learned that Jill of Saori Santa Cruz posted our visit to her studio on her Ravelry group page 'weaving the Saori Way '  check out the pics of Melissa and me at her studio.
http://centeringwithfiber.blogspot.com/2016/01/saori-weaving-clases-mommy-and-me-and.html
Correction to my last post our class mates were Aylissa, the mom and Dahlia was the little ones name. Dahlia is only 6 years old.

the Mini Wave loom

How could I forget about Gilmore Looms? On our way to Manteca CA for Christmas we stopped at Gilmore looms owned by Bob and Judy Allen in Stockton CA. I have been wanting to buy a Mini Wave loom from them and thought I should check out the looms. Sorry no pics of the workshop here I was anxious to get to Christmas Eve and family.
We had a great visit with the Allen's and were given a tour of their studio, looms and workshop. They bought Gilmore looms a few years back 1997 from the man who inherited the company form E.E. Gilmore who patented the first Jack loom in 1933. What an interesting story and the wood working facilities are mostly original and very nice for working with Maple wood.
Judy a long time weaver and seamstress took time away from her grandchild to visit with us for a few minutes. Bob Allen was very interested in showing us the rest of the workshop. Bob is a retired Elementary School Teacher who loves working with wood. He builds one large loom a month, but has a number of other looms that he has invented and is producing some of them, like the Mini Wave.
He also has a table loom that is functioning like a floor loom with tie ups and another that is set up like a AVL that runs with cards. These would be too costly to produce so they are just for Judy to weave on. Another issue he is running into is the lack of good quality parts for his looms. Soon he will not be able to purchase some of these parts.
He also showed me some Dory mini boat shuttles he is making to add a bobbin to a inkle loom beater. these are for sale at local weaving conferences and on line at http://www.gilmorelooms.com/Home.html
I am very excited to try out the mini wave and will post more once I get it warped and ready to weave. It is basically an inkle loom that can hold lots of yards and can also be used as for card weaving something that I became interested in after making the cords for my linen bread bags.

Bob Allen was a very interesting wood worker his only experience before this adventure was the construction business. If you get to Stockton CA it is worth a visit to his shop.
Until next month happy weaving !

Saori Weaving and California Visit December 2015

Jill Nickolene Sanders

This December I traveled to Benicia California to help care for my new Granddaughter Evie Marie for the month her mother Klaire went back to work. What a treasure that was to be invited to care for this precious little baby girl. It was great fun but I found when Evie slept, it was a good idea for Grandma to sleep also. Bob came along to help out by making dinner most nights for all of us and holding Evie when I needed a break. We had some of our weekends off so we toured a bit. Sorry, I had to add this pic of my granddaughter.

 The Singing Weaver Nadine Sanders

While we were out there we had lunch with Nadine Sanders and her husband Huck at their lovely home in Sabastopol. CA. It was fun visiting with Nadine and finding out all the changes in her life since I last saw her in Kansas at the Midwest Weavers Conference in 2013. We were planning on going to Scotland with her again in April for an Alumni Tour. Sadly it has been cancelled.

Nadine "the singing weaver" and Huck sang a few Christmas songs for us. They met at the Mendocino Music Camp and were married in August 2015. She made us a wonderful Minnesota lunch which was well worth the drive up to see her.

Hand Knit Gnome met us at the door.

 SAORI WEAVING: 

our classmate Dalhia 6 was weaving away when we got there.

I also met up with Melissa Matson and we traveled to Felton CA to attend a Saori Weaving Class on Sunday Dec 27th. What fun that was! I contacted Jill and set up a date to visit her studio and she suggested we take the intro to Saori class. Two hours of weaving for $40 was not such a bad deal! Since we had to drive 2 hours to get to her studio we thought the class would make it worth while.
We took a few wrong turns and drove though some uncharted woods thanks to the GPS. But we did arrive on time for our scheduled class.
Jill Nickolene Sanders was eager and waiting with our looms all dressed and ready to start.
 A young mother and her daughter were already weaving away. Jill owns Saori Santa Cruz http://www.saorisantacruz.com/ weaving studio up in the hills outside of Santa Cruz. Jill has been weaving for many years and is also a seamstress. Note her colorful garment and wild glasses. She got into the Saori weaving in order to bring weaving to the general public. Check out winter 2015 issue of PLY magazine and Ravelry groups for more about Jill.

 Melissa and I were given looms set up to fit our height, with warps already on. After showing how easy it is to warp these looms, we began our adventure. Because we are experienced weavers she showed some fun techniques to start off. We did a little Clasp weave and chose colors at random. I tried to choose colors at random, but the weaver in me wanted colors that went together or I liked.

After some fun chatter and checking out her studio we wove away until Jill brought out her Comb reeds. This was a new experience for me as we changed reeds while weaving without cutting off or retying anything. The comb reed is inserted into the beater after removing the first reed and letting it hang on the warp behind the beater. The comb reed has a removable top bar so it can be insert from under the warp and warp threads moved over in one direction at random intervals to create open areas in our weaving. What fun that was, it has lots of potential.

reed removed ready for comb reed

We wove away for our 2 hours while Jill filled us with fun stories and some more techniques.
Once our time was up she showed us how easy it was to cut off our weaving and preserve the rest of the warp by clamping it into the front beam. All ready for the nest weaver to arrive. As you can see lots of smiling faces.

Melissa at her loom

Mary at her loom

Aylissa showing off finished weaving

Melissa and Mary's finished weaving

 We also got to finish off the twisted fringe with a handy tool called the 'Lacis Power 4 ply' . No more braiding or twisting for me. This is a remarkable tool for making fringes on scarves or other items. Had to have it! Jill also uses patterns from the Saori pattern book, which are quite nice looking garments, although the book is in Japanese... the pictures are clear. Saori Shitatenohon' See Jill's website for more information or to purchase these items.

Our Fashion Show at the end of class.

white wool shawls by Jill

Saori Hat

Hand spun wool garment just felt so good on.

wool one shoulder shawl with glitz and some blue very beautiful

great vest but not for sale!

Jill used Habu steelwool or silk yarn to make this one.

Good bye Saori Santa Cruz - I hope to return.