Kelly Casanova Weaving Lessons

weaving

Another video tutorial

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This video is all about achieving neat edges while weaving, I hope it helps someone out there.

It’s a long time since I bought new fabric and Spotlight was having a 30% off sale so I couldn’t resist! My eldest daughter has a birthday in a few weeks, so I have plans šŸ˜‰

This is my current weaving WIP – a merino scarf with a pastel gradient warp and solid grey weft. I started out weaving in plain weave with black yarn but hated the result, so I “unwove” and restarted with the grey and a warp float pattern – so much better! 




Hand woven hand towel sets

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These are what has been keeping my loom busy recently. Quite a lot of work, but worth the trouble!


Each set is woven with Australian cotton and included a hand towel and face washer.

I had the idea of doing gift sets for a while but wasn’t sure about the execution. I wanted them to be lofty and luxurious, so I doubled the warp threads for the towels and it worked a treat!
I wove mostly in waffle weave, adding the texture and aesthetic appeal I was hoping for. I have a tutorial for working waffle weave here.  This tutorial is now also on Rigid Heddle Weaving.com

These are a few extra face washers and teapot rests, I just love the colours and textures.


The towel sets are available in my Etsy shop now.

My first video tutorials!

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I’ve taken the plunge and made a couple of video tutorials. I get so many questions related to the rigid heddle loom, I thought it easier to show rather than tell. Yes, I cringe a little at my own voice and despite my best efforts, I do seem to sound rather “school teacherish” but hopefully the videos will be helpful to someone.

Scarf off the loom

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Another week, another item off the loom! This one took a little longer (a lot longer) than I had envisioned, but I’m overjoyed with the result and that is what is important.
I started with some 4ply merino that I had dyed in a rainbow gradient for the warp and teamed it with grey merino for the weft.

The pattern is 3/1 weft float, which was easy to work but was a significant time investment. This is the back side of the scarf (remember, when weaving patterns you get the additional surprise of seeing a different pattern on the underside!)

And this is the top side. See all those little grey floats?


I love the scarf and the colour arrangement has given me ideas of using a tencel or silk yarn for a real shimmer.
Available for sale in my Etsy shop now.

So, next project? You bet I have one planned already, in fact, I have a whole queue of them! Towels. Experimental towels. Stay tuned šŸ™‚

New ideas and new stuff for weaving

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Lots of new things happening for me with weaving! I’m still experimenting with pick up sticks. This pattern is a 3/1 weft float and uses just one pick up stick. I paired a grey weft with a gradient warp and I’m just loving the effect!

Some new 10ply cottons from Bendigo Woollen Mills arrived today, I have some interesting plans for them in the form of towel and face washer gift packs – we’ll see if they turn out first though! 

Also newly arrived from Petlins, I splashed out on a new heddle for the loom plus some 8/2 cotton. This is the finest heddle you can get for the rigid heddle loom at 12.5 dent and the cotton is also fine – I have tea towels in mind but I think weaving this fine will be time consuming. It’s disappointing that I can’t use Australian cotton for this as I normally would – as far as I can tell there are no Australian weaving cottons. 
So that’s my weaving taken care of for the foreseeable future, one project at a time šŸ™‚

My favourite place at home

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Rhonda from the Down to Earth blog has been showing her favourite place at her home and has invited readers to do the same, so I thought I would join in!

This is what I call my studio, but in reality is a corner of our second  living room. We are very blessed to have two living rooms. It is right next to a large window, which is important because it’s a darkish room. 

This little space houses my sewing machines, weaving loom and spinning wheel as well as a lot of odds and ends that are regularly used. The less regularly used things are put away in various hidey holes around the house.

What I love about this space is that it’s mine! That’s not to say that the table is not a dumping ground for all things that “need fixing” (oh, so many!) but generally the space is reserved exclusively for my creative work. It’s also a functional and versatile space. I couldn’t list the number of things that I do here, but with my love of fibre and textile arts, you can probably use your imagination šŸ™‚

Yes, I dream of having a larger space or a proper studio one day (there is the issue of where my next loom is going to go!) but I am so grateful to have a dedicated space where I can find what I need and don’t have to move things around too much. 

I’m looking forward to seeing your favourite spaces too. I must confess, Rhonda’s front verandah looks like a dream come true! 

Hand woven shawl, poncho, wrap???

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I had this fabric sitting around and wasn’t sure what to do with it. Yesterday, inspiration struck, I tried some pinning, then some sewing and finished up with a beautiful, warm and drapey garment that I’m quite taken with!

Here is the back view.

I said to my husband “if I was thinner I could wear it with a belt”. He said “wear the belt anyway”. Awesome husband šŸ™‚ 

It’s a versatile piece – it can be a wrap, a poncho, a shawl, it’s pretty cool!

And what would a photo shoot be without Lou (aka Noodleberry).

I posted the garment on Facebook and a lot of people want details, so I will try to recall what I can!

The cloth: Woven in 2 panels 140cm x 50cm (one panel was slightly longer)
Both panels were hemstitched on the loom.
I used 4ply merino (grey) and my hand dyed handspun in the warp for the stripes.
I used a 10 dent heddle on my rigid heddle loom.

The construction: I lay one panel on top of the other. Taking the top panel, I made a full twist in it (like a mobius scarf). Woven fabric is reversible, so both sides look good, major bonus šŸ˜‰
Leaving a neck hole, I pinned the panels so that they would be joined for 24cm. I tried it on numerous times, adjusting the pins to get a good fit. Then I sewed the panels together on the sewing machine, pressed the seams open, then topstitched the seams down to strengthen them. 
Apart from wet finishing the fabric and cutting the fringe straight with a rotary cutter, that’s about it.

If you have more questions, ask away!


Weaving sampler

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I’ve always avoided doing samples of just about anything, I’m a “just get me to the good part!” kinda girl! But I finally bit the bullet and decided to warp up the rigid heddle loom with cotton (so I can sew them into dish cloths and make the sampler useful). Armed with Jane Patrick’s “The Weaver’s Idea Book” and a couple of pick up sticks I just leafed through, picked a pattern I wanted to try and started.

What a surprise! Weaving patterns is not hard. I repeat. Weaving patterns is not hard! Why did I have this in my too hard basket for so long? Most of these patterns were made with one pick up stick, then once you’re used to that it’s easy to introduce a second stick.

Above you can see a honeycomb pattern, some lace variations and some grouped and paired warp floats. Unfortunately I didn’t write down the patterns as I went, so lost track of a few. 

As I wove pattern after pattern I realised just how many patterns are possible. Hundreds. 

See the diamond shapes? I did a little surface embellishment with different coloured cottons and a tapestry needle. So effective!

Some more surface embellishment on the orange weave here, just tying in little knots for fun. The pink and blue you see here is a windowpane weave, which is gorgeously textured. 

And now for the super cool part. Flip your work over and you have a completely new set of patterns – yes, most of the patterns are reversible and look different on each side. 

The back of the honeycomb weave becomes a series of curved weft floats.

The back looks just as good as the front but totally different!

I’ve learned so much from weaving this sampler and it was well worth the time investment. 
I discovered things like if you’re weaving different patterns on one piece you need to be aware that individual patterns will have their own draw in rates, so you need to be aware of that unless you want wonky edges.
I learned that my humble rigid heddle weave is capable of much more than I gave it credit for and I still have plenty more to explore.
I learned not to be so afraid of trying something new.
I learned that making great cloth is not hard and is fun and interesting.

So, now I’m settled on a pattern to use for the scarf I’m doing to enter into the Melbourne Show. I’m working on it right now, can’t wait to show you when it’s finished!