Hands-On Crafts: Weaving in Circles

Whether children are intrigued or repulsed by spiders, they generally agree that spider webs are truly fascinating. This month’s craft takes from a spider’s web to bring a fresh and fun approach to weaving with yarn. Rather than a square or rectangular loom, a circular loom is used to create a unique round knit that can be used around the house or simply put on display.

Once the circular loom, a simple paper plate with a few additions, has been prepared, this project becomes very mobile and great for keeping little hands busy when they may otherwise wander into mischief, like at the doctor’s office, a restaurant, the car, or even at home when mom is busy!

Web-o’-Yarn

Ages: 6-13

Skills Required: cutting, weaving, tying

Materials: paper plate (8 or 9 inch), scissors, pencil, tape, embroidery floss, yarn

Ready, Set, Create!

1. Prepare the paper plate to be the loom for the weaving project. Cut an odd number of slits, about a half-inch deep, around the edge of a paper plate. If you make a slit about every half-inch around a 9-inch paper plate, you should have 29 slits. The slits should be somewhat evenly spaced, but do not need to be exactly the same distance apart. Then write a number at each slit.