June was a bit of a weird month. I did not set out with a specific Morning Make in mind because I knew I was having surgery in the early part of the month and my recovery time would keep me from making. At first, I just continued with the watercolour paintings of the previous month. Then, post recovery, I grabbed a woven basket kit from Flax and Twine to play with.
The Calliope Basket is one of the raffia basket weaving kits from Anne that I purchased after my previous basket making endeavours. I was curious to try a different material and process. As I expected, it was relaxing and meditative to do this.
The kit is well stocked with more raffia than you will need, a strong needle, snips, and both paper instructions and access to a video. I had enough raffia to make two baskets (that ended up nesting, but that was purely by accident) with some leftover for another. I’m sure that if I had been able to keep my weaving more flat, more platelike as per the instructions, I would have gone through a different amount and only made one. To be honest, I’m not sure what exactly I did to make it more round than flat, but I am not complaining. If I had asked Anne at Flax and Twine she probably would have sorted me out.
The kit comes with a choice of colours in your raffia so you can coordinate with your decor, if you like. We like blue in this house so I chose this deep indigo.
I won’t lie, I want to learn all the basket weaving. There are so many designs, techniques, and styles from around the world. I am definitely not done exploring. The kits from Flax and Twine have definitely opened up a world of suggestions.