Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

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Making for cold weather

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We’ve had a cold snap this week, Winter is really here. My oldest girl has nearly worn out her handmade tops, so it was time for a new one. The beautiful navy floral print is a gorgeous Stenzo knit from Zebra fabrics, it’s so incredibly soft. Other prints from Crafty Mamas.


The loom is always dressed these days! For this scarf I used hand dyed merino and also my hand dyed, handspun. Simple placement of colours gives such a great effect!

Thin stripes of solid colour paired with a variegated handspun makes a party of colour dots, I love it.

This is a sampler I’ve been working on. I thought it was about time for me to see what this rigid heddle loom can do, I’ve been lazy with all this plain weave! Using Jane Patrick’s book “The Weaver’s Idea Book” I’ve tried out about 8 different patterns using pick up sticks and it’s really not hard!

I posted this photo on the Facebook rigid heddle weaving group, encouraging members to have a go at making patterns and the response was huge! It seems I’m not the only who was stuck in the plain weave comfort zone.

I’ll be utilising some of these newly learned techniques to weave a scarf to enter in the Royal Melbourne Show weaving section, can’t wait to get started!

New woven items

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I wove this cowl with my handspun and 4ply Australian merino.

It’s so light, yet so warm!

I love how the colours compliment each other.


And another slouchy rainbow poncho. This one is reversible- this side has a fringe and handmade porcelain button.


And this is the other side.

From the back!

Both items are available now in my Etsy shop.

Meanwhile, I’m already weaving my next project and loving it!

Fickle

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I’ve definitely caught the weaving bug now that the weather is cool and often rainy. The loom is very well dressed these days! 
Sometimes I lament that I seem unable creatively to stick to one thing for long – as the title of this post suggests, I am very fickle! I become obsessed with doing something (weaving right now) for a length of time, and then it’s on to the next thing. 

This can have benefits – I do come back to things, they don’t get abandoned entirely, unless I really don’t enjoy it. I’m fairly multi skilled and most, if not all of those skills can be used together. However, I often think it would be really wonderful if I could keep the focus on just one or two things and really build that skill to a high level. It seems that the need for change and newness are just part of my restless nature.

I’m still taking photos but the photography passion has subsided a little too. Sigh, such a pity. I’ll keep going regardless, I still have much to learn and many improvements to make.

The rain brings fresh inspiration and life to the garden. We have lots of plans for renewing the garden.

The mexican orange blossom is so pretty in a vase with it’s dark, lush leaves and dainty, sweet flowers.

Plenty of lemons on the tree, but no eggs from the chooks! I just find that when there are lemons around I always want some eggs as well.

The classic and dainty foxglove.

How about you? What’s happening in your part of the world? How are you finding the gradual change in seasons? What are you working on? I’d love to hear from you!

Only half way?!

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It’s a little bit sobering to spend hours on a project and only be half way through. I don’t know what I was expecting, but weaving a 3.5 metre in 4ply takes a really long time! Now I really hope the project works out as I envisioned! 
I begin to think that more than one loom is a really super idea, I have more projects I want to get on with! 
Anyway, here is a work in progress shot of the looooong project. 
Hopefully I’ll be back before too long to show you the finished project.

Woven poncho finished

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So, the poncho is finished! The hand dyed combined with baby pink yarn worked perfectly.

The yarn is all 8ply, which gives a lovely, light, yet warm feel to the garment.

At this point my little model decided that Mum had really taken enough photographs already.

We escalated into silliness.

And you know you’re pretty much done when it gets to this point!

Anyway, I’m super happy with how the poncho came out, it was a big experiment for me as I made the design from scratch. Now the question is whether to make more for the Etsy shop, what do you think?

Super Marshmallow Banana Apple Fluff cake!

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My 9 year old daughter decided it was high time for her to write a new cake recipe. She has made her Apple choc cake so many times and wanted something a bit different. This is what she came up with – the Super Marshmallow Banana Apple Fluff Cake!

1 cup SR flour
120 grams butter, melted
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup whole milk
2 eggs, whisked
2 tablespoons rolled oats
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
1 tablespoon honey
1 banana, mashed
1 apple, chopped into smallish pieces
5 marshmallows, chopped in half
slivered almonds for topping

Preheat oven to 170 (C). Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl. Add milk and eggs and whisk in. Combine melted butter and honey, whisk in. Add the mashed banana, apple and marshmallows and stir with a wooden spoon. Pour the cake batter into a lined and greased cake tin, scatter slivered almonds over the top. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes, checking the centre with a skewer for doneness.

Please let us know if you try this recipe, my daughter loves to receive feedback. Also, please post your questions and let us know if we’ve missed anything important!

Break the rules photography

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Photography is so much more artistic than I ever knew before. Once you have a reasonable amount of the technical knowledge, the rest is up to you. This is what I really love about photography – the artistic freedom coupled with technical skill. It’s so exciting and challenging!


What I wasn’t prepared for when delving into the art of photography is all the so called “rules” one must follow in order to achieve “good” photos. The rule of the thirds, posing rules, lighting rules. I have found something much more useful than rules. Experience. Passion. Experiments. 
Some will look at one of my landscapes and say “but you haven’t used the rule of thirds” or “your horizon line isn’t precise” and “it’s over/under exposed”. 

When I look at a photo I’m led by the feeling it gives me. Do I love the image? Was capturing the image a positive experience? Was it fun?
If I can say a definite YES to these questions, then my motto is:

Go ahead and break the rules!

Are they doing enough?

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It’s usually on days when I’m feeling discouraged that I get that panicky feeling about the children and their education. Are they learning? Are they doing enough? Am I doing enough with them? I know that they’re happy at home and that homeschooling is a perfect fit for us, but I do find myself gripped with doubt at times.


This morning I was feeling a bit this way. I decided to write a list for each child and write down what they did within a certain time frame. I started around 9am and finished around 1pm.


5 year old daughter:
*Spelling and writing
* Helped to make bread, figured out weighing flour on her own for the first time.
* Read books.
*Kinetic sand (hours later, she is still playing with it, making all sorts of “treats” for her “shop” and other imaginative games.

7 year old daughter:
* Online maths program, learning money.
* Worked on editing her latest stop motion on the computer.
* Read books on her own.
*Played with kinetic sand with her sister.

9 year old daughter:
*Worked on a puzzle of the world with her brother.
* Free drawing and colouring in.
* Animal feeding.
* Reading on her own.
*Online maths program – graphs and area measurement.
* Knitting practice.
*Joining in the kinetic sand game.

14 year old son:
*Working on a puzzle of the world with his sister.
* Helping his sisters with maths and other study tasks.
* Spanish program.
*Online maths program – decimals
* Film and media studies.
* Bible study.

In addition to these lists are all the other tasks that they do every day like meal preparation, cleaning their rooms and keeping the house tidy, prayer, outdoor play and exercise and so many other things that are a regular part of daily life for us.

Hmm, I think they’re doing pretty well! Maybe next time you’re feeling inadequate, you could try writing down what the children are doing and you will realise that it’s more than enough!

Simple photography backdrop

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Our garden is a great location for photography portraits, but, having just arrived at Autumn, it’s a little dry and not looking it’s best. Being a natural light photographer, I wanted to head outside but I was also wanting something a little different for a portrait session with my littlest sweetie pie and her fluffy friend.
I grabbed my favourite bed sheet, pegged it on the clothes line and we were in business! If it’s a breezy day you will have the challenge of the sheet moving (which you can see in the right corner here) in which case you could possibly weight it down with something at the bottom. I kind of like the feeling that the blowing sheet gives to this photo though.


Next, your editing program can be used to achieve a variety of looks still using the same backdrop and different poses.


A plain sheet would also work well if you were looking for a plain backdrop with natural light, but I think the pretty floral one suits my little sweetie just fine, don’t you?