Elementary Art: Weaving

Hi Everyone! I hope this blog finds everyone safe and well. I wanted to make a project that might take a little more time to complete. We all seem to have a little more time to offer so I thought it would be nice. The last few years I’ve taught a summer camp at The Huntington Museum of Art. I’ve realized how much kids love to weave. I never would have thought that but it’s true. This project is a little complicated for the really little ones to do but you’ll be surprised how many of your kids enjoy projects like this. It is a good start to weaving at a young age. There are no needles required, which is nice. I hope you all participate and enjoy!

Materials:

These are the materials you will need for this project:

-Yarn

-Cardboard (If you don’t have any cardboard you could even do this project using a paper plate)

-Scissors

-Large Circular Object

(The rest is optional for the end)

Trace

Use the circular object you've found and trace it onto the cardboard.

Great!

You should have a large circle.

Cut

Cut that circle shape out.

Perfect!

Okay now this is where it gets tricky.

Odd Numbers

You want to cut slits into the cardboard circle. If you put an even number of slits it will show your lines. You want to make sure it is an odd number so your over and under weaving runs smoothly.

Making The Loom

You can use any kind of yarn/string for this step. I like to use a thicker option for this part but anything will work. You will start by sliding the string through one slit. Bring it all the way across the circle to the the opposite side. Continue that until you have wrapped it around every slit. You will notice with the odd number we cut, the string will look like it is on the wrong side. It is exactly where it needs to be!

Tie It

You will take that last string and loop it around the middle. You want to tie it down around all of the string in the middle section. This will secure all of the string in place.

Start Weaving

You can either tie your yarn to the middle string or just tie it to one of the lines coming out from the middle.

Over/Under

To weave, we want to go over a string then under a string. Repeat that over and over!

It's Getting There!

You will start to see your circular pattern show up.

I Ran Out

When you run out of the yarn you cut (or simply want to switch up the colors), you can tie another string to the end of that one.

Tie It Together

All I did was tie the two ends together.

Change Colors

You can change the colors as often as you’d like.

Are We Done Yet?

The cool thing about this project is you can be finished whenever you want. You can finish and come back to it later as well.

Finished!

If you wanted to add some pompoms to your project, you can glue them down. If not then you are finished. I hope you enjoyed the project. Stay tuned for more!