This basket sits at the end of my sofa to hold magazines and newspapers. To get the interesting twill design in the colored area, you weave basic over-under until you are ready to do the color. Then take your stakes and cut each stake lengthwise to create 3 small stakes. Do your twill weaving. Then bring the three stakes together again and finish with over-under weaving.
here...
and here...
We're home. I'd prewritten all my blog posts this past week as we have been on vacation. We packed up our pop-up camper and went camping for a week in Branson, MO. We went to Silver Dollar City for 2 days, scuba diving, saw a couple of shows had so much fun and just relaxed. Currently, I've got laundry running and am finishing putting things away. When all is back in order, I'll write more about our trip next Saturday. Hope you have all had a great week and that you are starting your summer off right.
This is part c of our three parts that explains how to lash the basket and how to finish the lashing. While the basket is still damp I continue to demonstrate singeing the basket hairs. As I stress in the video, do NOT burn your basket hairs if you have already stained your basket. It will go up in flames fast.
Baskets of Blessings,
Nancy
This is the second part, part b, of lashing on the rim. The final segment on this is tomorrow.
Baskets of Blessings,
Nancy
I tried hard to get a good photo above, but the reed is dyed in pink, red, and then has some natural in it.This video, part a, is the first in 3 parts that explains how to lash on the rim. Parts b and c will be shown this week on Wed. 27th and Thurs 28th.
Happy Weaving and Baskets of Blessings,
Nancy
This pattern is called "Arrow Twill Basket" and it was written by Karen Wheeler. Karen sent me this pattern and had me test it for any errors for her before it was published. The rim is lashed on with waxed linen. The dyed reed is a variegated reed called "Spacedyed Reed." In this week's Tip Technique Tuesday, I'll explain how you can create your own Spacedyed reed in custom colors. The twill design on this basket is beautiful. If you are new to weaving a twill basket pattern, it is very important that you use the exact number of stakes the pattern calls for. The creator of the pattern has made his or her design such that the pattern should flow smoothly around the basket. If you are a stake shy or one stake too much, you will alter the design and that is will be frustrating.
Today I would like you to meet my cyber friend Paula from Crop Notes and Crafts.
Devona at Clever Nesting has given me permission to post this photo and a link to her tutorial on how to make a coiled basket. This is not just any coiled basket though. It is super cool because it is made with plastic grocery sacks and an old VCR tape. I am all for recycling and seriously, don't we all have a hundred plastic sacks collecting as well as some old VCR tapes that no longer work. What a great way to recycle. Also, what a great way to practice making a coiled basket. Isn't this what they're calling up-cycling because we are making something better than before?
1. Weave your basket and then at the top, twine for two rows. Tuck in EVERY stake. Cut your round reed according to the length on the pattern. Mine are 22". Insert the round reed as in the photo under the twining. There is one piece of round reed for every stake and they are looped to the next stake. Make sure all your ends are even at the top. This gives each stake 2 pieces of round reed. These 2 pieces are held together and are now counted together as one spoke.
2. Start with any spoke and take it behind one spoke to the right and to the outside of the basket. Move to the next spoke to the right and take it behind the next spoke to the right and to the outside. Each spoke to the right does the same in its turn.
The last spoke standing goes behind and through the one that is already in place.
3. Again, start anywhere and take any spoke over and through the spoke to the right and to the inside of the basket as show above. Move to the next spoke to the right and do the same. Continue around the basket with each spoke in its turn.
In this video, I show you how to put the rim in place. You can view all my videos in order on my Youtube channel at Basketmaster's Weavings Videos.
Happy Weaving,
Nancy
22 kids on a trampoline. I thought for sure the legs on it would break, but they didn't. It was a very nice group of kids, all well mannered. What you can't see in the photo is we had 100 glow sticks in different colors and these kids made amazing pictures with them.
Katie wanted a tiered cake which I made for her. It took 6 boxes of cake mix.
There was music and room for dancing on the patio. The kids were having a great time, but we felt like we needed to turn off the music at midnight. Our poor neighbors were forewarned so no complaints about the loud commotion. Things ended at 12:30 am. Hubby and I were so ready for bed at the end of the night.
There are people who have been blessed with so much talent and creativity. Have you been to Etsy to see some of it? That is http://www.etsy.com/ . Etsy has some beautiful baskets and related handmade products for sale by some talented artists and crafters. Here are just a few of this week's attractions. The links to each artist's Etsy shop are listed below in order. Some of these people do work in other mediums and make incredible creations in addition to basket weaving.
When I first learned to weave baskets, this is the second book I purchased. It has over thirty basket patterns. The baskets are more traditional in nature, meaning that these are older, more historical style, functional baskets. It is full of beautiful photography as well as illustrations.This book is comprehensive and beautiful. It has explicit instructions. If you are a brand new beginner, there are some easier basket patterns just for you. Once you have mastered the basic weaving skills, the instructions on the more advanced baskets patterns in this book will help you be successful in weaving a beautiful basket.
One of my favorite things about this book is that it has such a wide variety of patterns. I hope you gathered that from my list. Each basket is unique from the next.
"The Basket Book" by Lyn Siler is a book that should be on every weaver's bookshelf.
Happy Weaving,
Nancy
(After)
(Before)
So, his birthday was approaching and I wanted to do something really special. He went out of town on a week long business trip and I got to work. I moved everything out and painted. I enlisted in the help of my in-laws and got his desk and book shelves assembled as well as put in a ceiling fan. I hung curtains and bought extra curtains to cover the garage shelving. You see, in the corner, my reed is stored on garage shelves. I was able to relocate my table to another part of the house, but had no place to move the reed. It needed to stay, so I wanted to make it look nice. I used the extra curtains and sewed them to the right length. I attached velcro to the top of them and adhesive velcro to the garage shelving and I covered the garage shelving with matching curtains. It looks so much better and when hubby is working it is out of site for him.
(After)
It is easy as pie to unvelcro and revelcro the curtains to get to my reed.
Below you can see my maple strips are stored in drainage tubes from the hardware store.
The full pounds of reed are stored in tubs.
I store my scraps in some plastic drawers. I know plastic is not ideal, but I make sure the reed is completely dry before I put it in them. I used to store my reed scraps according to color. Now I've found that storing it by size works better for me. If you open one of those bins you will find all kinds of colors in that specific size.
This is my reed storage system. By the way, Mike was extremely surprised to see his birthday present, and very VERY happy with it. As they say over at We are That Family, "This really works for me!"
Dear Friends,Dear Friends,
This video explains how to cut and tuck the stakes on your basket. Remember you can watch this and all of my videos in order on my Youtube channel at http://www.youtube.com/user/basketmasternancy
I hope you all had a happy Mother's Day yesterday. I didn't get to sleep in, but then again, I never do so I'm used to it. Mike got me a Nikon Coolpix camera so I spent most of the day reading the manual to it. We went to church in the evening and then out to dinner.
What did you do for Mother's Day?
Love and Blessings,
Nancy
Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers out there. God Bless all of you!
It has been a busy month for our oldest daughter Katie, who is about to turn 16. She has been taking scuba lessons and as a family we went camping last weekend to Santa Rosa, NM where she completed her open water dive and received her certification. She has joined the ranks of her parents as a diver. A little FYI about Santa Rosa. They have a sink hole called the Blue Hole. Many divers come here, and at least this weekend, the visibility was great. It has a constant temperature of 61 degrees so a wet suit is necessary. (I'll confess, I really only like to warm water dive.) There is speculation that the caverns under Santa Rosa continue all the way to Carlsbad Caverns and that this sinkhole, once cavern, is somehow connected. Mike went and dove with her and her class while I stayed at the campsite with our other children. Katie was a "happy camper" literally once she had finished all 5 dives.
Dear Friends,
Cathryn has a website called The Wicker Woman. It is a great resource and has articles related to basket weaving, caning and wicker furniture care.
Take note of her beautiful antler and ribbed baskets. You will find patterns for some of these on her website.
Be sure to visit her blog as well as her website and don't forget to link up and follow her. The knowledge that she shares with us all in her areas of expertise are invaluable. Thank you Cathryn for sending me these great photos to use here.
Photo by J.H. McGibbney taken in 1968
Here is a photo of a swing handle and two small ears that go with the swing handle. The small ears get woven down into the basket and the loops of them go through the holes in the big handle. The loops are just above the basket so this enables the handle to swing back and forth. If you've broken an ear, it is possible to just buy a single "U" handle to replace it. You might have to sand the new small "U" handle to make it thinner to fit in the hole of the swing handle. If you've broken your swing handle, heaven forbid, you can use the small ears as handles themselves, as a handle on the back of a wall basket or use both at the ends of a bread basket or smaller muffin basket.In today's lesson we cover splicing a weaver. There are times when you run out of a weaver before weaving around the sides of your basket. The key when that happens and you have to splice is just make sure all your ends are hidden within your weaving. You will see in my video how I do just that.
Happy Weaving and Baskets of Blessings,
Nancy
I love this basket. I taught this basket years ago as an intermediate/advanced class. It has so many beautiful techniques to it. The title of it is, "Sampler Basket Indiana State Fair Basket 1988". The author of this pattern is Suzanne Hickey. It uses an 8" x 12" D handle. Believe me, if you weave this one you will receive lots of Ohhh's.... and Ahhh's.....
My garden is going in. I planted 11 tomato plants 1 eggplant and 5 pumpkin plants that I started indoors from seed. I have many more plants still inside but I just think they are too fragile to move outdoors yet. Take a look here at my rhubarb! (by the way, I'm waiting for my rhubarb to turn pink. Do you think it should have by now?)
My front door has brought so many smiles to our faces. You see, the plant just to the left of it I swapped out artificial Christmas poinsettias and replaced them with pink roses and other flowers. A small finch built a nest in those artificial flowers and layed 4 eggs. I now have four little birds.
Can you see those tiny baby birds in the nest above?
