Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

weaving

I’m a silly sausage!

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What?! 6 months since I last took the time to post here?! Outrageous!
But let me explain.

Just over a year ago I uploaded a couple of weaving videos to Youtube. I was just interested in sharing, considering I don’t actually know any real life weavers, I suppose I was welling up with excitement at all my weaving discoveries. And sharing is fun!


So, what happened? Well, very unexpectedly, the videos were well received. People started subscribing to my channel and talking about them in Facebook weaving groups. And they’re still subscribing and talking!


All of the enthusiasm and positive feedback inspired me to make more videos. The rest, as they say, is history! 


I now have two Youtube channels. One is free to watch, the other is on a paid subscription basis. I started the paid channel because many (most) of my videos take hours in the planning, filming, editing and instructing. Plus the cost of all the materials. I have made the channel affordable and aim to have a huge library of videos available to subscribers, as well as exciting projects, techniques and the occasional giveaway. It’s the place that I’m happy to give away my weaving secrets šŸ™‚ I’m really pleased that many have joined this new channel and hope that it grows over the next year. 


Growing the dream. 
All of the above has allowed me to hope a little more that my dreams may be possible. I may eventually be able to move past the “pocket money” stage of online teaching into the “actual income” stage. I may be able to start teaching real life classes.
And ultimately, one day, I may be able to have my own teaching studio. Big ask, I know!


in 2017 I’ll be putting a lot of work into my paid channel. Doing videos for both channels this year has been rewarding in many ways, but in addition to my homeschooling commitments I have found myself a little burnt out and suffering some niggly health conditions at this end of the year. I feel I spent way too much precious time sitting at the computer! So, the paid channel will be my main focus next year. 


If you haven’t seen my channels yet, you can find the free one here and the paid channel here.

I hope you had a most blessed Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all!


I’ll try to make it here more often, really I will…



New weave along series!

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I’m so excited to be announcing my very first weave along! Officially it started a couple of days ago but participants are welcome to join in anytime. We will be making a lovely tote bag and instructions will be given from start to finish. I’ve been wanting to do this for ages and considering the response I’ve had on Facebook, lots of other enthusiastic weavers are loving the idea.


The introductory video can be found here and if you subscribe to my channel you can keep up with all the other videos as we go along.

There is also a very active Facebook group you can join to discuss the weave along, share photos and trouble shoot as necessary.

Hope you can join in the fun!

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™‚

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!

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!

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.