Weaving Cane and Reed

When weaving a cane basket you will only want to keep the cane *touching* each other at the sides, *tight* but not necessarily hard packed.


Also I've found that weaving the bottom say from left to right or right to left, has a tendency to *bunch* the middle spokes in the center of the basket. So to prevent this, I weave from the middle to the outside of the basket, middle to right, then middle to left or visa versa. This gives me a much nicer center to the basket bottom. Keeping the cane just so it is touching the next piece of cane in the bottom, also gives me a much more square bottom, which becomes important when turning the corners.

The round reed weaving requires a very very tight weave. Your fingers will hurt when you have finished this type of basket. This basket needs a very tight weave all the way through. Also the reed as it passes over your fingers will leave *rub* sores, so I keep plenty of bandaids handy. Since your hands are always wet, the bandaids will continually fall off, but for the protection of the fingers, you'll need these.

The cane is much easier on the hands when working with it.

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