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Lately I’ve been obsessed with yarn crafts. It all started with this YouTube video which resulted in this awesome oversized scarf. Then I moved on to embellishing my flip flops. Now I’ve upped my game and decided to try my hand at weaving. I’ve seen so many amazing projects lately that I could resist no longer. My very helpful husband made me a loom and I got busy weaving.
Weaving was actually much easier then I thought, although it certainly took several hours/days to complete. It’s the perfect craft project to do while watching your favorite movie or TV show. I decided to hunker down and watch a few of my favorite period dramas, like Marie Antoinette and The Duchess.
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Making your own loom is surprisingly easy. You just need a few supplies and capable hands.
Loom supplies:
- Thin scrap wood
- Nails
- Staple gun
- String
- Ruler
- Saw
To make the frame, cut the wood into four pieces. Arrange each piece into a square or rectangle shape and secure the corners with staples. Next hammer large nails into the frame, approximately half inch apart. Finally, wrap thin string around each nail, tying the ends to the most outer nail head.
Now that you’ve made your loom, it’s time to pick-up supplies for your weaving project.
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Weaving supplies:
- Assorted yarn (colors, textures, thicknesses)
- Large needle
- Fork
- Scissors
- Copper pipe, wooden dowel or stick
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Although you can start weaving from any direction, I began at the bottom. First, I made the hanging tassels. Then I cut a piece of yarn about five feet long. I tied one end to the most outer string of the loom, securing it in place with a knot. The other end threaded the large plastic needle. Then I began weaving over and under until I got to the end of the string. Use a fork or comb to remove any gaps. If you need more string, tie the new string to the old string and continue weaving, hide the knot on the backside.
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Once you’re done with that color, tie it to the loom and then hide the tail on the back of the wall hanging. The easiest way to do this is to pull out one of the stitches (loops), thread the tail through the needle and then pull it through the loop.
Ideally you will weave all the way until you get to the very top of the loom. However I made my loom a bit too long, so I decided I was finished 3/4 of the way up. Usually you would simply take the string loops off the nails and feed a rod through the loops. I didn’t have this option so cut the strings and tied them around the copper pipe, hiding the ends behind the wall hanging.
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I love how the wall hanging turned out. Some of the interesting features are the step pattern, making some of the yarn ends visible and leaving a gap of just string between yarn layers (I love this peekaboo effect).
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This project was fun, however I did make some mistakes. Here are some helpful tips to make weaving much easier:
- Make sure to choose a thin string for the loom, otherwise the yarn will have a hard time laying flat.
- If you’re weaving with light colors, choose a light-colored string for the loom. And vice versa for dark colors.
- Don’t be afraid to experiment with different color combinations, patterns and the size of the yarn.
- Don’t pull the yarn too tight as you weave, otherwise the shape of the wall hanging will change.
- Weave the entire length of your loom, otherwise you will have trouble casting off.
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Interested in trying your hand at weaving? Here are some great tutorials & inspiration:
- Weaving Class: The Basics – A Beautiful Mess
- Weaving Class: Creating Shapes and Getting Fancy – A Beautiful Mess
- DIY Woven Wall Hanging – Honestly, WTF
- Tapestry Weaving – Bloesum Living
In case you want to pin the project to your DIY board:
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So what do you think?
xoxo,
Andi