Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

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The Simple Life

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It’s quite a popular topic nowadays, the “simple life” and how to obtain it. Do some people spend so much time pursuing this so called simplicity and their ideal of what that is that they miss the point entirely? 


Is the simple life about living the dream or living the reality? The dream for me is a country property and earning a good income through a  handmade business. The reality is suburbia, traffic, very little time to devote to a business of any kind and a very limited budget. But that’s not the point, right? 

The point is, what can I do right now to live the simple life given my circumstances? 


I was pondering the simple life and what simplicity means to me. It occurred to me that one of the most rewarding parts of simple living is that you can take very little and turn it into something 
special.

Home made bread for example. Usually 4 ingredients. Inexpensive, ordinary ingredients. Add time, love, technique and you have something awesome.

Weaving is another example. With threads and a loom I can make the most beautiful variety of things.



Soap making? Once again, very few ingredients. A bit of time and attention and you have a whole batch of creamy, natural soap for your family.


That property in the country may or may not ever happen, in the meantime I will try to be grateful for all I have and all I can do. And if it does happen, I guess I’ll be well prepared šŸ™‚

Madam Tickleberry’s tea party

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The little one and I had some special time alone recently – a rare occasion. I decided we needed to do something really fun.

I can’t tell you how much she loved this. The letter in the cubby house mailbox, dressing up, the character changes, the secret preparations and then the fun of decorating and eating!

There were no rules, I just gave her the biscuits, different colours of icing and some lollies. No, the biscuits aren’t home baked but it was way too hot for baking.

Perfect to enjoy with a milk shake at the end.

We polished off our special time with a very long Enid Blyton reading session with no interruptions from other children, she had all my attention. She loved it.

It’s not an easy task, particularly if you have a large family, to allow one on one time, but I feel it’s something really worthwhile. You get to spend time with one child, they get your full attention (a real novelty in this house!) and you enjoy each other’s company in a way that feels really special, it’s like a mini retreat!



Clasped weft table runner

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More of a table centre piece, it doesn’t quite have the length of a runner. This is the piece I wove for my recent rigid heddle clasped weft video tutorial.


I dyed the cottons specifically for this project. I wanted a good contrast between the variegated rainbow and the blues.


I love the clasped weft technique, the finished product and the process of randomly incorporating lengths of colour.


I hemstitched whilst on the loom so that the piece would sit flat on the table.

If you like this piece as much as I do it is available to purchase in my Etsy shop. And if you want to give the technique a go yourself please take the time to watch my video, it’s not as scary as it looks!

Knitted kitty

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Isn’t it funny how you can put a project aside for a while and it becomes difficult to pick it up again? I started this kitty last year, got the head and body finished and then just didn’t feel like picking it up again.

Over Christmas the weather was very warm and I was very tired. The whole family was tired. So we spent quite a bit of time watching movies and documentaries together and keeping things quiet. I get restless hands if I just sit and watch something, so it was the perfect time to pick up a bit of knitting.

It didn’t take me long to power through the rest of the pieces, and when she was finished I felt she needed a dress, so got straight onto the sewing machine, no pattern, no fussing around (no excuses!) and whipped up the dress in no time.

She’s pretty cute without the dress too šŸ™‚

She was promptly gifted to my 8 year old because she is the only one who doesn’t have a knitted toy from me yet. They now share the same bed and kitty is never far away, yes, she loves her!

Now for the pattern details – Girl Cat by Little Cotton Rabbits. If you are not too confident with knitting, these patterns are really great, step by step, lots of photos, very well written. Most of the patterns come with instructions for knitted clothes and the designer has plenty of other gorgeous little animals to choose from.

So, what’s happening next year?

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I don’t know, I really don’t. Of course I have hopes, dreams, aims, goals, but I have learned (and it’s taken a really long time) that life is easier when you let God do the planning and you do the following.



At the moment, I would love to further my business. I’d like to wake up, have a shower, some breakfast, maybe walk the dog and then sit down to my loom and weave. And just keep weaving until I wanted to do something else – probably some dyeing. I’ve tried to work more on being a “real” artist for years and failed over and over. But I don’t feel too sad about it anymore.  Because I’ve come to a realisation.





Being a real artist is not my real job. Being a wife is. Being a mother is. Being a servant of God is. These are the things that God is calling me to first. Everything else has to wait, and this fact is good and right. He gives me time here and there to work on the things I love, but only after my other duties for the day are fulfilled.





Maybe one day I will get to work full time on creative stuff. Or maybe God has other plans for me – whatever the case all He asks is for me to listen and obey, and with His grace, this is what I intend to do.

That awesome feeling!

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Of finishing a project and finding that you love it! Remember this post? My, how things can change.

So, the blanket was woven on 4 shafts with my hand dyed Australian 4ply cotton. I used a twill variation for the pattern.


It’s actually quite thick and heavy, so definitely better suited to cooler times than we are experiencing at the moment! (37 degrees today).


My little sweetheart was good enough to model it for me, even in the heat. 

This blanket will be in my Etsy shop in the near future, so look out for that if you like what you see šŸ™‚

Cutting handwoven cloth, one method

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Cutting a length of cloth of the loom is so exciting! But then what? If you’re not leaving a fringe you have to finish the fabric somehow, and if you’re cutting into it you may be afraid of unravelling. This is a great, easy method to use for either finishing to hem or if you need to cut into the fabric.

Firstly, once off the loom, the fabric needs to be wet finished and dried before you consider cutting.

When you’ve determined your cutting line (whether it’s at the end of the fabric or somewhere else) cut a length of light, fusible interfacing the length of the cut and about 2 inches in width. It must be the fusible type or this won’t work. Iron it so that your cutting line is roughly in the middle (so you have half of the interfacing on either side of the cut line). For me, the cut line was where the end of the woven fabric met the beginning of the fringe. Cover with a pressing cloth and iron until fused. 

The underside of the fabric now looks like this, nothing is really visible from the front side.

 Using your cutting line as a guide, serge right across. Can you see where the fringe begins and woven cloth ends? That was my guideline for serging. If you don’t have a serger, a zigzag stitch on the sewing machine will suffice, but the serger definitely does a superior job. Janome is a reliable brand if you are in the market for a serger.

Now you have a neat serged edge. The threads are completely secure and haven’t moved in the serging process due to the interfacing fixed in place. From this point you can go on to use your fabric according to your plans or begin to hem.

To finish the fabric with a hem, I fold over the serged edge once and iron down flat.

Then a second fold to enclose the serged edge and interfacing, press with the iron once again and pin in place if you wish.

Sewing the hem can be done by machine or hand. I used my machine with a straight stitch, close to the folded edge at the back. My machine is a very simple and straightforward Janome, although mine is an older model you can see something similar here.
Voila! Easy peasy and all secure, no loose or displaced threads and the interfacing gives extra support when hemming!


I have a Youtube video covering this topic for your further research.

Great Expectations

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I planned to weave a baby blanket. I spent weeks planning this project, first visually in my head, then on paper with measurements and particulars, then in the dyeing. I researched weave structures and matched colours, choosing the contrasting colours I thought would best show off the somewhat complex pattern. I spent a lot of time planning this blanket.



Then came the warping, the threading, the sleying, the tying on. Hours and hours of work. Finally, I got to the exciting part – the weaving! I began weaving with great anticipation, concentrating on the sequence to ensure no errors. After a few inches, I got up and stood back from the work, as I always do, to view the emerging pattern with pleasure.


And I hated it. 


It’s busy, it’s thick and textured, it looks messy and the pattern is barely discernible because of all the colours. To say I was disappointed would be a grave understatement. I felt like cutting the warp off the loom and shoving it in the bin. Instead, I went to bed.



Contemplation set in. I remembered a talk I had heard some time ago by a holy priest. He talked about expectations and how we get upset when things don’t turn out “just so”. He talked about expecting ABC and getting XYZ. He illustrated how readily we lose our tempers, get offended or grow angry at the smallest things. I chuckled when I heard this part of his talk – it was so true that people are selfish and expect the very best all the time. People. Me. 


You know what? I’m going to soldier on with this project that I hate. I’ve already learned a heap of new skills and tricks with warping, threading and colouring. Now I get to practice weaving a pattern I haven’t woven before and is actually the most complex one to date for me. I get to practice weaving the full width of the loom, I haven’t done that before either. 


When I begin each weaving project, I pray for God’s blessing on my work. I pray also for the future recipient of the project. Prayers are never wasted, even when it seems we don’t always get what we asked for. 


It may be that you ask for ABC but instead God blesses you with XYZ.