Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

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Random creativity

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I thought I’d share with you a few of the things that have kept me creatively busy this week (and no, obviously blogging has not been one of them!)
A little weaving cotton.

A little dyeing cotton.

A little watercolour painting.

A little cloth dyeing.
And a little photography.
Not bad for one week hey? I squeezed a fair bit of sewing in too, but that is unfinished.
How about you? Did you get any time to be creative this week? What did you do?

From teacher to student

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                                                                                             Image credit

“Oh, so you were a teacher before you became a Mum?”


“You must have a teaching degree, right?”


“Which university did you go to?”

If you’re a home educating Mum you’ve probably heard these statements or almost identical ones at least a hundred times – I know I have.

The questioner’s face falls into a sort of bewildered disappointment as I reply in the negative. I’m “just a Mum” after all, so my choice to educate my children at home does not seem legitimate to the average person.

Is a university education always all it cracked up to be? If an individual spends 4 years and thousands of dollars at university in order to become a teacher, does that mean they are a great teacher? Does it mean they know everything and are capable of passing that knowledge on to each child who walks through their classroom door? Certainly, in my experience (all 13 years of it in state schools) that has been far from true.

I don’t consider myself to be smart. I have a lot of skills and a few God given talents, but have always been just average when it comes to academics. I’m pretty poor at maths. I’m OK in English. Science is not my forte. And history, well I just find it really hard to retain all that information.

I went to university to do a Bachelor of Early Childhood. I left after 8 months. I hated it. It was boring, confusing, annoying – like a slightly older version of high school and I had had enough of that. I couldn’t stand being taught to care for a child that was only viewed as a child, with predictable thought patterns and behaviour, completely ignoring the beautifully created individuality of each child as a person.

Why I am I telling you all this? Because my IQ or ability to perform academically have nothing to do with my aptitude for home educating my children. I don’t consider myself a teacher. I do consider myself a student. I learn alongside my children, we share knowledge, we pool our skills and most of all, we enjoy each other’s company, living this wonderful life together!

So you see, an institutional qualification is not necessary to home educate successfully. Much more important is a strong faith, a big heart and a huge smile!

Weaving on a rigid heddle loom

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I know a lot of you are fascinated by the idea of weaving but are unsure about the whole thing and whether you could actually do it yourself. So, I thought I’d share some of my latest project (my second) with you to help de-mistify the process.
First you set up the warp. This involves clamping the loom and the warping peg to a table, tying the ends onto the warp beam, and then around the warping peg.

This is what the warp looks like when it’s all set up. I have used 2 colours for this project, but you can use one colour or many, it’s versatile!
In my mind, the warping is the “hard” part (and not all that hard) and the weaving is the “easy” part (which has it’s own challenges but is repetitive and relaxing). By weaving one inch red and one inch blue for the weft (the horizontal part) I was able to achieve squares (because I had already set up the pattern in warping by using the same 2 colours).
After cutting from the loom and knotting the ends to prevent unravelling (you can also hem stitch the ends) your project is washed, dried and ready! This is a sweet little table cloth for the cubby house which has been a great practice project. Next to come is a mat for the floor, and I may even try some different techniques – the rigid heddle is just full of possibilities!
So, what do you think? Are you interested in weaving? Perhaps you weave already? I’m looking forward to teaching this art form to my girls, I think they’ll love it!

Knit and weave

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Lots of yarn activity here lately! I finished a Rainbow Dress using my hand dyed yarns in 10 ply. I love the look of it but I’m not sure how much wear she will get out of it now that the weather is warming up. Being 10ply, it’s pretty thick and heavy. As others have said, it will make a great long tunic next winter.
I’ll absolutely be knitting this pattern again, perhaps a cotton one for the warm weather. The pattern is by Tikki.

And this is my first ever project off my new rigid heddle loom – a stash busting scarf. I intentionally used a wide variety of yarns to see how they perform differently for weaving. 

I learned so much from this project, and it doesn’t look nearly as rough as I expected for a first piece. I discovered that hand dyed and handspun yarns are perfect for weaving šŸ™‚
My joy of all things yarn is not showing any signs of slowing and I’m very happy to say that my hand dyed yarns are selling really well. I’m waiting on my next order to arrive so I can start dyeing again, there will be cotton too šŸ˜€
The spring weather is so fabulous here at the moment and there is so much good, productive work to do. I hope you’re enjoying it as much as I am.
God bless!

Apple cinnamon porridge

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Soak the oats overnight in water. I always soak extra so I have leftovers, so soak as many as you want according to the number of people you’re cooking for. When ready to cook, add enough milk so that your oats look like this, almost covered. You can go mad like my husband does and add, like a litre of milk, but this means you’ll be stirring a long time. I prefer the shortcut method!
Cook over a low heat, stirring to prevent sticking.
In a separate saucepan, melt 1 tablespoon of coconut oil and throw in 1 chopped apple (any type really). Stir, then put on the lid over a low heat. Keep checking and stirring intermittently. When the apple has softened, add a sprinkle of cinnamon and a tablespoon of brown sugar (optional). The apple doesn’t have to be stewed, just softened – it takes under 10 minutes.
When the porridge is cooked, spoon into a bowl and drizzle with honey (once again – optional). Top with the apple and a little cold milk.
Enjoy!

My new loom

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My new Ashford 60cm weaver’s loom, ah, it was worth the wait! After getting over my initial fear of setting up for warping (which wasn’t all that hard after all!) I’ve started on a stash busting scarf. Basically, I’m using up all my bits and pieces of yarn in order to practice.
Here is the first section. I’ve used a purple 8ply wool for the warp.
And for the weft I’m using up all sorts of bits and pieces from my stash, mostly that have been left over from other projects. I’m finding that handspun is perfect with its gradual colour changes. 
I have my loom set up next to my sewing table at a large sunny window and am really enjoying the weaving process. After the warping, the actual weaving is calm, straight forward and repetitive. I don’t find the repetition boring, as there is constant progress and it is a quiet and thoughtful activity. I particularly love watching the colours merge.
I can’t wait to finish the scarf and start on my next project, I have lots of ideas and also some requests (apparently the girls need a pretty rug for their cubby house).

3 ways to save money today – volume 5

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1. Menstrual products
Perhaps not a topic that many want to discuss publicly, yet something that many (dare I say most?) women waste money on every single month. A couple of years ago I switched from tampons (cringe!) and commercial pads to menstrual cups and cloth pads. Wow, what a difference! The cloth pads I make myself and they are easy to wash, comfortable, customisable according to your flow needs and last a really long time. They don’t go into landfill either.
If you’ve never tried or even heard of a menstrual cup (like me a couple of years ago) I recommend you start researching! At $40 – $70 each they might seem expensive but with proper care 1 cup can last years. If the idea of using one seems strange to you, might I suggest it is far less strange and much more hygienic and practical than a soggy old tampon. Sorry, I know that’s gross, but that’s exactly my point! Some brands of cup are DivaCup, The Keeper, Lunette and there is even an Australian made one called Juju.

2. Loyalty rewards
If you tend to frequent the same places for shopping, check out their loyalty reward programs. I do our grocery shopping predominantly at Coles, so I use the Flybuys program. Basically, I get points just for shopping at Coles and the points I convert into gift cards. It’s really worth doing and costs nothing.

3. Eliminate use of dryer
It’s a bit of extra work and organisation to live without a dryer, but unless you live in a very cold and wet climate, you can live without a dryer. And save lots of money in electricity šŸ™‚

*Disclaimer – These posts are based on my own personal opinions. I do not receive any payment for these opinions and it is not my intention to promote any particular product.