Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

4 shaft weaving

New towels for our new home!

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I had two reasons for warping up my floor loom for some new towels recently.

With our house moving date looming closer, I felt the need for a “sanity project”. While all of my yarns and equipment were being packed away, I kept a few cones aside so that I would have something to weave during the in between time of packing up house and moving to the next one.

*This post contains affiliate links. Please see my disclosure policy for further details.

I also wanted to have some brand new kitchen towels to adorn our “new to us” kitchen, as all my current towels are ageing and starting to look a little shabby. I wanted special new towels for our special new place. This project turned out to be special in another way, but I’ll tell you about that shortly.

I chose one of my all time favourite drafts for kitchen towels, a 4 shaft twill on M and W threading. I love the design and I love the resulting fabric so I didn’t have to think too hard on that one!

The threading for this draft is not difficult and the tie up is a regular twill tie up – all things that I’m very familiar with and that make the process easy for me. I used my Louet David 2 Floor loom (link is for the new David 3), which has 8 shafts but for this project I wove on 4 shafts.

Having woven kitchen towels with this draft before, I was also sure of the yarn I wanted to choose. My favourite weaving yarn for soft and absorbent tea towels is 8/2 cottolin. The cottolin I use is 60% organic cotton and 40% linen. It’s a great yarn for those who want to incorporate a little linen but want something that is a bit easier to use than 100% linen.

For the warp I used:

Maurice Brassard 8/2 cottolin in Blanchi

For the wefts I used (one colour for each towel):

Maurice Brassard 8/2 cottolin in Charcoal

Maurice Brassard 8/2 cottolin in Magenta

Maurice Brassard 8/2 cottolin in Royal

Maurice Brassard 8/2 cottolin in Brick

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Tips for working with cottolin:

  • Cottolin sheds a lot of fibre whilst on the loom. It is a more course yarn than just cotton on it’s own, which is very smooth. I sometimes opt to wear and apron while weaving and try not to wear anything black! The shedding nature may be irritating to some who are sensitive, it’s not a big problem for me but does make me sneeze sometimes! It also means that you will want to vacuum your loom when your project is finished or even during the project if the tiny stray fibres bother you.
  • It feels quite stiff on the loom. I remember the first time I wove with cottolin, I felt disappointed that the towels felt a bit rough. A hot machine wash was like a touch of magic – the towels softened up and the pattern came together beautifully. This is another thing that I love about cottolin, it softens more with each wash.
  • Your first one or two uses of your towels to dry dishes will not be optimal. The cottolin can leave small fibres on your dishes initially, and the towels are not as absorbent as they could be. Don’t lose faith! With a bit of use and a couple of washes, they will become a huge asset to your kitchen!

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C

I tried some different techniques in the weaving of these towels, to help counteract some of the issues arising as I wove.

Firstly, I doubled my floating selvedges – something I haven’t done before. My reasoning for this was that for the towels I’ve woven in the past, the first place they would start to wear down was at the edges. A doubled floating selvedge gave a more defined, and stronger edge to the fabric.

Secondly, I switched to beating on an open shed. It is very much my habit to beat on a closed shed, but my beats were feeling a little stiff and the weft wasn’t settling as nicely as I would like. As soon as I switched to open shed beating, everything settled down and became much more fluid. Lesson learned – Don’t be stuck in your ways, be open to experiment from project to project as needs dictate 😉

And thirdly, when hemming my towels, I decided to also hem the long edge. I have never done this before, but as I already mentioned, the edges are susceptible to wearing and I think this single turned hem will make a difference. Time will tell, but perhaps I will make this a regular technique for my towels.

Hemming the long side of the towel with a single fold hem.
Finished hems. The ends of the towel have a double fold hem.

I mentioned that this project turned out to be special in another way. My husband has been interested in having a go on the floor loom for some time now, so I decided the last towel of the warp would be a good opportunity. I wasn’t too worried if it didn’t turn out well, as it was just for us.

Imagine my surprise when he took to it like a duck to water, quickly declared that it was “fun” and promptly finished off the second half of the towel I had started on! After giving him a few basic pointers, he surprised me with how quickly he picked up the steps. Now he is very interested in weaving more and even learning how to dress the loom. Victory! 😀

If you love this pattern draft as much as I do, you can find it on page 88 and 89 in Anne Dixon’s Handweaver’s Pattern Directory – a most excellent book and awesome resource for 4 shaft drafts.

I also recommend Patti Graver’s Next Steps in Weaving for weaving at this level.

If you’re interested in getting started in floor loom weaving, check out my Introduction to Floor Loom Weaving, my Follow Up Floor Loom Weaving, or save by purchasing a bundle of the two courses together.

I made a little video to compliment this blog post to help you feel confident about cutting your hand woven fabric. I explain my 3 Key Ingredients to cutting without fear:

If you have any questions about my towel project or using cottolin, let me know in the comments below!

Until next time…

Happy Weaving!

Monk’s Belt Magic!

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Sampling can be a sensitive topic among weavers. Why, when it takes you so long to set up and weave a piece, would you subject yourself to dressing your loom “just for a sampler”? 
Believe it or not, as a newer weaver, those were my thoughts exactly. When I read or heard a teacher recommending sampling before beginning the actual project, I would secretly snicker to myself “yeh, right, as if that’s ever going to happen, I just want to get to the REAL weaving!”


But if there is one thing that weaving has taught me over the years is patience! Oodles of patience. And, I’ve messed up enough times to know that, at least for some projects, sampling is a super good idea.

*This post contains affiliate links. For more information, please see my disclosure policy.

So, that brings us to my recent Monk’s Belt sample. Monk’s Belt is a very old weave structure and has been used in a variety of ways, according to time period and types of looms available. 


My sampler used 4 shafts and 6 treadles. The threading is quite simple, as you thread in blocks, which means there is plenty of repetition. My warp is 8/2 cotton, sett at 20 epi. The finished sampler measures 7 x 44″. Tabby is used throughout.

Monk’s belt designs are usually instantly recognisable, due to the bold, geometric shapes created by series of floats (these are where the block threading comes in). My aim in doing a relatively long sampler was to give myself plenty of time to experiment with treadling, but especially with yarns. I started out with yellow, mercerized cotton. I quickly found that this was not ideal, as it tends to sit quite straight as a float, rather than blooming and blending with itself. I also found that a single weft was not sufficient to make the pattern pop, so for each subsequent yarn type, the weft was doubled, to a much better effect.
The blue in the above photo is bamboo, which I found to be one of the most optimal yarns due to the thickness, sheen, softness and beautiful bloom.
The multicoloured weft above is hand dyed tencel, which gave a lovely effect, but like the mercerized cotton, doesn’t quite stack up in the “bloom” department. 
Bamboo again, and you can really tell the difference, it’s as though it was made for this! I had been following some standard treadling, but for this one I started branching into my own treadling, writing it down as I went.
I had been using single colours and decided to try 2 colours for the blue/green part above. I love the effect of 2 colours! Technically, I was using 3 colours if you include the purple (warp colour) I used for tabby.
Ah, silk! I combined orange and magenta 60/2 silk and my own treadling pattern for this one. Even though the silk is very fine, as a doubled weft it gave very good coverage. The blend of colours is also very eye catching.
For this one, I went back to my green bamboo for the pattern weft, but instead of using my purple 8/2 cotton for tabby as I had previously, I changed to my 2 strands of silk. This gives the effect of cute, luminous dots among the main pattern.
I have had some gold chenille sitting on my shelf for a while, and thought “aha!” Perfect time to try it, this will look brilliant. Except it doesn’t! I had pictured something quite sophisticated looking, but instead got strange. furry caterpillars that look slightly “off” in colour.
Not that I mind, this is the beauty of sampling – now I know that I don’t like chenille in a block weave!
The blue at the top is bamboo once again, but this time I swapped out the purple tabby for green bamboo. It gave an interesting effect but the green bamboo was a little too thick and kept my weft floats apart more than I would like. However, the texture is pretty cool and really changes the look of the weave.
The versatility of Monk’s Belt is awesome. Because you are set up for plain weave (tabby) as well as the pattern, you can break them up and just use the pattern as a border if you wish. I think plain weave towels with a border such as the one above would be really striking.
More treadling and yarn experiments, there is just so much you can do!
The big test was how the fabric would feel after wet finishing. I suspected that it would be quite stiff and more suited to cushions, bags etc. But, happily, I was wrong. The fabric softened up wonderfully and has a lovely drape. It looks great on the back too. It struck me that a sampler like this, with a bit more length, would make an amazing scarf!
I hope you enjoyed this post. I have made a companion video just for my Weaving School members, where I go over this blog post in more detail. If you are a member already, you will find the video HERE.
If you wish to join up, I would love to have you! Monthly  , 6 monthly and Premium memberships are available and include hundreds of hours of classes, access to a private Member’s group on Facebook, giveaways, live videos and a wonderful community of weavers.
And, just before I finish up, I have a couple of book recommendations for you. These are affiliate links, meaning I get a small commission if you click through and purchase, but I do actually own and love these books.
The Handweaver’s Pattern Directory by Anne Dixon.
Anne has a couple of pages on Monk’s Belt, different threadings and treadling options, as well as excellent photos to show you how the weave looks.
A Handweaver’s Pattern Book by Marguerite Davison
Marguerite has quite a few pages on Monk’s belt with a lot of different drafts. The drafts in this book can be a little more difficult to read if you are not accustomed to reading older drafts.
Until next time…
Happy Weaving!

Baby Blanket Project

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I finished my baby blanket just in the nick of time, the day after my gorgeous new nephew was born. I already knew the baby was a boy and chose the colours accordingly. 
 
I told Nicky from Thread Collective what I wanted to weave and she recommended Venne Organic 8/2 cotton. I’m so glad I went with it, it may be a little more expensive, but for good reason! It is soft but I didn’t have a single broken warp thread, it was strong and just lovely to weave with. 
*This post contains an affiliate link. Please see my disclosure policy for further information.
 
 
I warped with the royal blue. I’m not sure why, but I started discovering errors from this point on. Too many distractions perhaps?
 
Error 1: I missed a part of the threading sequence in one spot. 
The fix: I had missed threading 3 heddles, so I made the missing heddles out of tapestry cotton and inserted them in place. Then, I measured out the missing warp threads, threaded through my string heddles, and weighted them over the back of the loom. Not ideal, but it worked!
The weighted threads.
Error 2: I re-sleyed the reed 3 times (yes, 3!!) because I kept missing a slot or doubling up. This was really frustrating as I just wanted to get weaving at this point. Even after the 3 re-sleys, I still ended up with one slot doubled up with threads. So, the blanket has a fault running through vertically. Rather than go back and re-sley again, I decided to just live with it!
My idea for weaving was to experiment with the weft, initially I thought I would do one shot of turquoise and one of green. I didn’t like the way that looked though. I experimented further (this is why it’s always great to warp a little extra for sampling) and decided on 3.5 inch stripes of blue, alternating with 1 inch stripes of green. It has a nice balance.
 
Here you can really see the hearts, aren’t they cute?! This is one side.
And this is the other side. Originally I had planned to back the blanket with flannelette once it was off the loom, but in the end I couldn’t decide which side of blanket I liked better, so no backing. It will be a light blanket instead 🙂 
You can find a copy of this draft here. It is also pinned to my Weaving board on Pinterest.
The weaving draft is very easy to follow, both the threading and treadling follow repetitive, simple to memorise sequences.
 
The dimensions of the finished blanket are:
Width – 27.5″
Length- 44″
 
The approximate cost of the project:
I used almost a whole 250 gram cone for warp. For the weft, I alternated between the turquoise and green cones, using less of the green. I estimated the total cost at around $55AUD, which covers the threads, postage cost on the threads, sewing supplies and label.
 
What I learned:
*I don’t work well with deadlines. On one hand, needing to be finished by a certain date is a good motivating factor but on the other hand, rushing causes stress and mistakes. 
*I learned that I definitely want to work with Venne organic cotton again.
*I would also like to use this draft again and I think it could be adapted to all sorts of projects. 
*I already knew this, but this project reminded me that weaving with quality threads is expensive!
*Perhaps most importantly, I learned that, once again most mistakes or errors in weaving are totally fixable if you can just find or think of a work around.
 
If you are interested in floor loom weaving or are a newbie floor or table loom weaver, be sure to check out my Introduction to Floor Loom Weaving course to get you up and weaving!
 
This pattern draft is not from a book, but if you love to weave baby blanket’s, I recommend 
Hand Woven Baby Blankets by Tom Knisely.
 
There is a huge selection of blankets, from 2 to 8 shafts and many different yarns and colours. It’s a lovely and inspiring book. 
 

Towels just for moi!

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 I recently completed a project that I undertook just for me. Most of my weaving is for classes, patterns or customers, so to set aside the time to weave something for myself was pretty special!


As you may already know, I make bread for my family. I use kitchen towels to cover the rising dough and to cover the finished loaves as they cool. Perfect! Bread towels were what I needed!
I warped with 22/2 cottolin in natural with a red cotton stripe to accent.

Then I decided on M & W threading and some 2/2 twill variations.


I changed up the colour for each new towel so that some have bold patterns and others subtle.


For this one I changed both the colours and the treadling for a feature border.
To finish off, a little embroidery.


I am very happy with my new set of towels. Being hand woven with quality yarn, I know these will last many years in my kitchen.

How about you? Do you find that you’re always weaving or making for someone other than yourself? Perhaps you want to follow my lead and put aside some time to make something special just for you!

Overshot uh-oh!

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I tried overshot on 4 shafts for the first time. I put on a massive 8/2 cotton warp (my first mistake – too wide, too long!) thinking I would have a couple of table runners or plenty of baby blankets by the time I was done.
The threading was somewhat complicated, but I got through that and started weaving.
I don’t know, maybe I just don’t enjoy weaving overshot or maybe it’s a bit of inexperience, but this project became a struggle.
Some threading errors became apparent and then the breaking warp threads started. My progress was slow, very slow!
The errors stick out like a sore thumb, but I still wanted to share these photos, firstly to share the disappointments and imperfections, but also in appreciation of the pattern, which is actually pretty cool. The above piece was woven with black bamboo for the pattern and white bamboo for the tabby.
The back of the same piece. 
This was my favourite piece, I used a hand dyed, variegated tencel for the pattern and a mercerised cotton for the tabby.
The back of the same piece.
And this piece I quite like also. I used a thicker hand dyed cotton (8ply) for the pattern and a white bamboo for the tabby.
 
So, what did I learn from this humbling experience? That I’m not as good as I thought I was? Definitely. That my slow progress on the floor loom is starting to frustrate me? Uh huh. That I want to do something about it? Yes!
I’m not giving up, I’ll keep trying and I think that, for now, that is the best I can do.

Project patience

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I am working on the most beautiful shawl. After a run of towels I felt the need to weave something really beautiful. I love shawls, the drape, the practicality, the loveliness, so it wasn’t a hard choice. I had this stunning tencel that I had hand dyed ages ago and wound into a warp ready for a scarf.



But, I changed my mind and decided I needed it for the shawl instead! Plenty of time and unwinding later, I was ready to wind a shawl warp instead. The warp went onto the loom like a dream, in fact tencel itself is rather dreamy.


The threading is the part that takes me the longest and I’m hoping my speed will increase eventually. After pusing myself to work late one night, I finally had the reed sleyed and the warp tied on. I was ready to weave!
Except I wasn’t.
I had put the reed and beater on backwards. Yes, I actually did that! Untie the warp, unsley the reed, remove it, turn it around, re-sley the reed, re-tie the warp and presto, I really was ready to weave this time.


I chose another hand dyed tencel that I thought would contrast well and began. Uh oh. The tencel I had chosen for the weft was variegated. The pattern got lost in the busy-ness of the warp. I realised this was a possibility when I chose it as weft but decided to chance it anyway. It took me a couple of inches of weaving to realise it wasn’t going to work. Enter un-weaving (not nearly as fun as weaving, trust me!)


So…. (this is starting to read a bit like a drama and it sure as heck started to feel like one!) I chose a lovely mercerised cotton in Peacock as the weft and away I went. Ah, much better.
Then I realised. Some selvedge warp threads had broken and fallen away from the reed. When had that happened? I had no idea, but it was definitely a problem! My selvedge on that side was looking quite un-perfect. 



Fortunately this was a fairly quick fix and I was back into the weaving. I’m about a quarter of the way through now, I wonder what other treats and surprises the next three quarters has in store for me!

Weaving twill towels and a fluffy “assistant”

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I’ve been having a bit of fun with some towels this week. I warped with a natural cotton and threaded for twill. This is just one twill variation.


Once you’ve threaded in twill, there are a lot of variations to try. This one is extended twill with a black weft.

Straight up twill with a blue weft.


And here we have extended twill with red weft.

This is what I came across this morning. Note the chewed thread in the mouth. I posted this on a weaving group on Facebook and set off a whole series of naughty kitty photos, it was very amusing. It seems that looms are a magnet for cats! Thankfully the cloth was not damaged, I just had to cut the affected thread and start a new one. Could have been a lot worse!

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 🙂

Cutting handwoven cloth, one method

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*This post contains affiliate links
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.