Take a trip back in time, when hand-weaving was a way of life in the Highlands, and follow our steps below to create your own hand-woven patterns!
First thing’s first…buy a loom kit. We are fans of the Hardwood Easy Peg Loom Kit, which is also great for kids. It includes yarn to get you started, but you can always go to your local craft store to pick up yarn that better suits your project. A small loom will provide the perfect-sized pieces for you to decorate seasonal gifts, coasters or art to hang on your wall. The best part is, your little citizens can use their imagination to create a one-of-a-kind design too!
Time to get started on your DIY hand loom design. First, wrap your loom. Using cotton string, tie one end to any corner peg and loop this string around each peg, keeping the string tight…up and down and up and down until you’ve reached the last peg on the opposite site. Tie the string tight around the last peg and snip, leaving two or three inches. To get the look of the designs in our catalog, use colored yarn for your warp. To create narrower designs, you don’t have to warp the entire loom.
Next, thread your needle. You can use one piece of yarn or you can weave with the yarn doubled — this will speed along the process. Now, you’re going to weave! Start on one side, going over and under the wrap thread until you’ve reach the other side. Repeat this process to get back to your starting side. Here you have your first two rows!
Following our prop stylists, after we weaved 10-12 rows, we pushed the section closer to the middle of the loom and spaced out the rows a bit for a more organic feel.
Here is where you can get creative (if you haven’t already!). Using a new color of yarn, begin your next section above or below the first section. We used a double threaded yarn for this step and began skipping 2, 4, 6 on the warp on each side, creating a triangle shape (Hey! It’s close to a triangle…).
Because we have the patience of 3 year old, we decided that this would be our finished product. But with a little more patience, you can achieve designs as fabulous as this one (crafted by one of our own in-house artists!).
How amazing are her designs! What will you come up with? We can’t wait to see…
