Blogger / 7 June, 2021 / Nanny Anita

Weaving for Kids: How to Weave on a Cardboard Loom

Earlier this year I made a picture weaving busy bag, and as it was such a success I thought we should try actual weaving on a cardboard loom. EC and YC were thrilled with the idea of making little blankets for their favourite teddies and Sylvanians.

Make sure that you follow our activity board on Pinterest for more ideas.

You will need:

• cardboard
• wool
• Plastic needle or a straw
• Scissors

To make the loom:

Measure out how big you want it to be. A good size to begin with is 5in by 8in, but for younger children you may want to it smaller; we went with 2in by 4 in.

On the top and bottom sides mark out every cm, again you can make more marks by having a smaller distance between them. For mine I went with 1/2cm gaps, but for the children’s I went with 1cm gaps.

Make a small cut at each of these marks, this will keep the wool in place.

To make the warp (the vertical strings) take a length of wool and tape the end to the bottom corner.

Run the wool through the first slit that you made by that corner, the wool should now be at the front of the loom.

Bring the wool up through the top corner, opposite the slit it came through. The wool should now be at the back again.

Bring the wool back through the second slit, the one next to the one it just went through. Now bring the wool back to the bottom and repeat what you have done at the top.

The front should look like this.

When you get to the last slit, tape the end of the wool down.

The back of the loom.

To make the needle;

If you don’t have any plastic children’s needles then use a straw. I made a slit in one end and at the other I cut it at a slant to make a needle.

Weaving

The process is very simple it is simply over, under, over, under etc.

When you are starting a new piece of wool make sure you leave some hanging out, you will tie these all off at the end.

When you reach the end of your line, make sure you start the new one the opposite way to how you have finished. For example, if your wool finishes UNDER the last warp, then you will begin the next line going OVER it. If you do it the wrong way, you will simply end up undoing your last line. It is very frustrating when you do this, trust me, I did this loads of times while doing my one.

notice how EC’s weaving is pushed down so that you can’t see the warps.

When you have finished a couple of lines, push all of the down together. The tighter they are pushed down the more secure it will be.

Don’t pull too hard on the wool as you weave, otherwise your finished piece will be thinner in the middle. Try to keep them slightly loose (but not too loose) on the outside warps.

Finishing of the weave

Make sure that you weave all the way to the very top, even when you don’t think that you have much space left.

Before taking it off the cardboard, tie all the loose ends next to each other together and cut the ends short.

All the wool has been tied either together or to itself.

Undo the tape and tie the warp sting ends to the ends of the wool used for weaving.

YC’s finished piece in her Sylvanian house.

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