Still in a state of lack of mojo for large projects. Got an email from Harrisville Designs for something or other, and wandered over to take a look — thinking I might stumble across a simple rigid heddle weaving project. Instead, I noticed the potholder loom. Hey, perfect! I need some new potholders and this is a small project that’s even easy enough for kids — sold!
I wanted something large enough to be actually useful, so selected the larger ‘Pro’ model. I never had one of these looms as a child, so had no notion of whether it was actually easy to use — but why let that stand in the way! I eagerly awaited delivery, and got to work as soon as it arrived. And, a short while later (although a longer time than I would have imagined) I ended up with this —
Not entirely square, but a certainly useable potholder. The 10” loom yielded an approximately 8.5” potholder. It was easy to set up the warp - the ‘pegs’ of the loom seem to be high enough to hold the loops securely. Weaving the weft loops through seemed harder with the tool provided (it would catch on the fabric loops), so I mostly just used my fingers until the last few loops which were too tightly packed and the tool became necessary.
The instructions with the loom seem fine, and include several charts for different patterns. The kit includes enough multi-colored loops for 2 pads, a tool for pulling the loops through the warp, a crochet hook for binding off and a metal loom. I bought extra loops (one bag white, one bag black) because I wanted to make pads with that color scheme.
So, why let kids have all the fun — perhaps potholder weaving may be in your future too! Take a look at Piglet’s Potholder Patterns to see lots of fun, interesting designs.