30 - 45 minutes • ages 8+ • see final page for tips & adaptations
You will need:
• Cardboard from cereal or cracker boxes (easy to cut but strong enough to hold some tension)
• Yarn/string, various colors
• Ruler • Pencil • Wide popsicle sticks • Forks • Scissors
Vocab:
• Loom: /loom/͞ ; noun; a frame or machine used to weave upon or with.
• Warp: /wôrp/; noun; the threads on a loom over and under which other threads (the weft) are passed. (see photo to right)
• Weft: /weft/; noun; the crosswise threads which pass over and under other threads (the warp).
Step 1: Make the loom.
Cut the cardboard to the size you want your final weave to be.
Step 2:
Make a line across the top and bottom of the cardboard about ½” from the end. Measure and snip to the line every ¼” or ½” (bigger intervals for thicker yarn like mine) across both ends. Your loom is done!
Step 3: Set your warp.
Cut your first piece of yarn long enough to zigzag between each snip, top to bottom across the entire loom. (refer to photo in definitions)
At the top left and from the back to front, wrap yarn around the first tab once.
Run the yarn down to the bottom left snip, around the back, and then to the front through the next closest snip. Run the yarn up to the second snip to the left, around the back and forward through the next closest snip.
Continue to do this across the entire loom, making sure you have an even number of warps (so you might have to NOT string the last one).
Wrap the yarn around the bottom right tab once again, like you did to start, bringing the yarn to the back the final time. Your warp is done!
Step 4: Make a shuttle.
This is what you will use to pull your yarn through the warp.
Snip up the middle of one end of your popsicle stick (It only takes a tiny snip and the stick ends up splitting more on its own). Your shuttle is done!
Step 5: Start the weft.
Cut your first piece of yarn to weave with. Notch it into your shuttle.
Start weaving near the top center of the loom. Bring the shuttle up from the back about 1/3 of the way across the warp. Go by over, under, over the warp yarn all the way to the end. Pull the yarn through, but leave about 6” out of the warp.
Push the yarn to about an inch from the top of the loom with the fork. (The tines can fit between the warp!)
Step 6:
Bring the weft back through the warp the other way. If you went OVER the last warp on your last pass, you’ll go UNDER the first warp (the same one) the other way. You’re weaving!
After every few passes push the weft snuggly to the top.
Step 7: Change colors. (optional)
Leave another 6” tail of yarn in the middle of a warp row, heading towards the back of the weave.
Start a new color in the same way you started the first (with a 6” tail), wherever you left off (again going over or under, whatever is opposite of the way you ended).
Step 8: Cutting the weave from your loom.
Cut the ends of the warp off your loom. You want an even distance of yarn on both halves you cut.
Once the entire weave is free from the loom, tie the end pieces of warp together, two at a time, in a double knot.
Tie the first and last yarn around the last warp in a double knot around the last warp they are woven through. Your weave is complete!
Tips:
It is easiest to keep the width of your loom about the same length of your shuttle.
Don’t pull the yarn too much or your weaving will get an hour glass shape. Hold the yarn at the last warp string as you tug it snug the other way (refer to photo in Step 6).
To keep the tails of started/finished yarn out of the way, tape them to the back of loom.
End/start new colors at varying places within the center of your weave to keep it looking even.
Fun variations:
If you want to tie the weave to something to hang it on (like a dowel), leave a couple extra inches of warp at the bottom, and tie it right to the hanger.
Use wefts of different thicknesses Thick, fluffy or thin yarn, string, ribbon, strips of material, anything, sticks, wire, etc.
Adaptations for younger kiddos:
Make warps 1” apart.
Practice the pattern “over, under, over, under” with their whole bodies (or at least their arms!).
Paper weaving can be done by using strips of paper as the weft. For this, you’ll use a new piece of paper for each pass across the loom.
Ó Grünewald Guild www.grunewaldguild.com