3 ways to weave

One fun thing that we're involved in as a family is something called 'Messy Church' which is a family fun morning at Church in the school holidays with lots of Messy crafts and activities around a Bible story theme (more about Messy Church here).  I was asked to find an activity for the 'younger play area' and so seized the opportunity to do something that we haven't done at home yet as Bud isn't that interested in and Champ is only just able to do - Weaving!

The first way to weave is making a box loom!  I found the idea for this searching pinboards and the original post is from CraftyPod, but their version is a lot more sophisticated!  I took a nappy (diaper) box and cut some slits in it with a knife then looped yarn around to create a loom.

This close up gives you a better idea of what I did.  To make it a bit smarter I then wrapped the box with cheap wrapping paper so it looked a little nicer.  You then just loop yarn or ribbon through the loom.  I don't have any photos of it in use, so if you try it out let me know how it goes.  I'm going to make another one for the boys, maybe a bit smaller next time with a shoe box, I'll keep you posted!

The next way to weave is paper plate weaving, again another pinboard search which led me to fem manuals.  I took a paper plate and cut a slit every inch or so and made a hole in the middle.  I threaded yarn through the middle then out to the edge and back again into the middle until every slit had a piece of yarn threaded to it.

Then you weave the yarn or ribbon around the plate, which makes a lovely pattern.  This one is a bit fiddlier for younger kids, but really pretty if they can do it with a little help.

The last version is super simple and comes from Putti Prapancha.  If you're interested in more weaving or threading ideas this is a really great post as it includes lots of other crafts.  This was very quick, cheap and easy, it's just holes on a toilet roll.  To make it even easier you could make the rolls shorter so that threading from the back is less tricky.  It's also a lot easier if you wind a little tape around the end of the yarn.

So, there you have it three ways to weave!