Experience the tranquility of Kyoto’s artisanal scene with a visit to Setsuko Torii Knit Works. Join me on a journey through this serene space, where Torii-sensei and her assistant, Ms. Izumi Shigemori, graciously shared their expertise during an inspiring workshop.
In the heart of Kyoto, Setsuko Torii has been crafting her own brand of knitwear since 1992. In 2012, she realized her dream of opening her own shop and atelier, Setsuko Torii KNIT WORKS. A year later, Setsuko Torii CO LTD was officially launched, marking a milestone in her journey as a designer and entrepreneur.
During our workshop, we delved into the intricate art of Japanese knitting, guided by Torii-sensei herself. With patience and warmth, she imparted her knowledge of techniques and decoding Japanese knitting patterns. Together, we embarked on creating a unique vest, meticulously designed by Torii-sensei for our workshop.
What sets this workshop apart is not just the craftsmanship, but also the materials used. The vest we crafted features a blend of tradition and innovation, with special yarn crafted from a nylon core wrapped in Japanese washi paper, delicately held together with silk mohair.
Our journey took an unexpected turn when we realized we forgot our knitting needles! In a scramble to continue our workshop, we made a quick stop at Yamaguchi Chuubei Shoten, a historic craft store dating back to 1819. This haven for handicraft enthusiasts provided us with the essential tools we needed to dive back into our knitting project. Though our visit was brief, the warmth of the staff and the wealth of supplies available made our impromptu stop a memorable part of our Kyoto experience.
As an extension of her passion for knitting, Setsuko opened “Itonokura,” a charming yarn shop nestled in a traditional Japanese storage house behind her main shop. Here, she hopes to foster a community of knitting and weaving enthusiasts, inviting visitors to immerse themselves in the beauty of Kyoto’s machi-ya shops.
Join me as we explore the intersection of tradition and creativity at Setsuko Torii Knit Works, where every stitch tells a story of craftsmanship and connection.
Setsuko Torii Knit Works & Itonokura Website: https://setsukotorii.jp/
Yamaguchi Chuubei Shoten Website: https://www.e-syugei.com/
[Applause] oh good morning Paige here with Mabel I’m at next faab today the video you’re about to watch is a recap of our knitting workshop with setso Tori setso Tori is a knitwear designer and a a pattern designer a handknit pattern designer based in Kyoto Japan um her
Studio is just a treasure of her ready to wear clothing as well as well as her the Yarns she uses to produce both her ready to wear and her hand knitting patterns we had a wonderful day with her as you’re about to see where we learned to interpret Japanese knitting patterns
And we worked on a vest pattern that she had developed just for our Workshop enjoy the Video so here we are at SEO t her studio for our knitting Workshop uh day four of our trip so really excited for [Laughter] [Laughter] this isn’t this fabulous G it’s so at the back of setso Tori’s studio um is where she keeps her ready to wear collection we had so much fun trying on all these items so we are at setso Tori sensei’s um studio and today we’re going to be
Learning to read the Japanese pattern to make this uh top that she designed for our Workshop so it’s made with this Japanese um nylon core with uh Washi paper held together with one strand of silk mohare and so beautiful I’m so excited for this and that’s what it looks like so it will
Have a little bit of warmth but it will be sort of just really the seam is a um exposed SC Expos I was turning so that’s what we’ll be doing today very much looking forward to it oh good morning morning welcome to my shop I’m and she’s is Mig she is my
Assistant she studied in knitting in in England very nice I’m study knitting in K okay I can speak Japan and K B very okay very so she’s very good at um the Kyoto dialect okay okay so shall we start the yarn we were using was a nylon core
Wrapped with Japanese Washi paper held together with a silk mohir and you can see the big black spool are the two uh wound together onto one cone so it makes it easier to work [Applause] with you are quing or casting of two or more stitches you can only do so at the
Beginning of a r but even when casting of stitches with white symmetrically you need to cast off the stitches at the beginning of the next to on the other side yeah okay yeah so these are just same yeah we went through the pattern line by line um and
Also discussed how to correctly knit the Salvage um and then then we got to start Knitting So we didn’t bring the correct needle sizes in fact we didn’t bring any needle sizes at all so we have to buy some um and which is good because we’re using Japanese needles on the Japanese pattern and some of the sizes don’t quite match up to the US sizes so that’s what we’re
Doing here at this craft store so the name of the store that we’re at in kto is y GUI Chu um and it’s like a general craft store so they’ve got supplies for sashiko and Coan and knitting and a whole bunch of other crafts and then they’ve got some ready to already made
Things that are also for sale so we thank them very much for the needles that we did not bring with us thank you very much Yamaguchi Chu one once we were back at the studio with the correct needles we got started and you can see that it was um fairly easygoing um the larger needle size definitely helps with that you can see that the Washi paper yarn and the silk mohir hold on to each
Other nicely making the work go smoothly all right so she says like where the um the shoulders join the neck that um you actually go right into that Stitch oh so you make it less it’s just less visible well it’s also less of a um stress point there then
Okay of course we didn’t finish our projects in the one day we had there but Tori Sensei had made an example for us to show us how we needed to seam up the shoulders and the side seams This project actually had exposed seams and it was an interesting technique where you lay one piece over the other and then you Stitch it up going through both Layers so we’re finishing up here with setori we’ve um we all made vests or were making vests and uh we learned how to read Japanese patterns and to sort of interpret the instructions um so it’s been a wonderful day here in this beautiful studio um a really
Inspiring place to work thank you so much so that was our dayong knitting workshop with setso Tori it was wonderful it was inspiring to work in such a Serene and creative space um and really get to take time to get to know tares Sensei and her assistant um isumi
Son it was just wonderful um we are planning and registration is now open for our 2024 craft tour to Japan where we’ll be at s kotor’s Studio again so visit the description below to learn more about that um and there will be a link to registrations on our website
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