The Ins and Outs of Weaving

What in the world is weaving? Let's learn a little bit about weaving and its uses, as an art form and for everyday use. Do you have any woven items in your home??!

Weaving is a process of connecting threads or other material perpendicular to each other. An example of perpendicular lines is a vertical line on top of a horizontal line. Weaving is most often done with some kind of string or yarn, but today I'm going to show you how to use paper, like in the image above! Ready to get started?

Wild Rose's Weaving

Before we get started let's read this

book about a young girl Wild Rose, who learns all about weaving from her grandmother. Rose's grandmother uses weaving in its more traditional form, creating an image with all of her colors.

As you listen to the book, try to notice new words. What words do they use when talking about the process or steps of weaving? Do you recognize any? Click on the book cover to listen to the story!

Let's learn more about some of our new weaving words that we heard in the story!

Weaving Words

What words did you hear in the story? Loom is one of the first words they introduced. A loom is any machine or device that holds one set of threads to help you weave!

Looms can be made out of anything and be any size! Some can be held in your hand and some are larger than a person and are more of a machine you operate to create weavings!

Check out the different looms below! These are all made out of wood but we can make even simpler looms out of cardboard or even paper! See how they all hold the threads that go up and down? Those threads are called the warp. they are the vertical strings that the looms hold nice and tight so that the colored pieces can be woven through!

The colored pieces of string you see in the pictures are called the weft. Strings for the weft are woven through the warp strings to make patterns and pictures! These weft threads are usually colored, while the warp threads are typically thinner, white pieces.

Ready to Weave!

Let's get our paper ready and start weaving. We're going to use paper to create a loom, our warp pieces, and our weft! You can use copy paper or construction paper to start!

Before you start on your own, watch the video below for help on getting started! Then check out the examples below for some extra guidance as you work on your own weaving!

Click the video below for step by step guidance on getting your paper loom ready, creating your warp, and weaving your weft pieces under and over the warp pieces!

Start your Weaving!!!

While you work you can always watch and pause the video or check out this handy template on the right!

Remember, the weft (my yellow pieces) are what you weave through the warp. Make sure you start with the opposite movement for each line. On the right, the third row would start with what?

If you said OVER, you were right!

Make sure you treat each warp piece separately, and you don't go under two in a row! If that happens, just pull the weft piece out and try again!! Good luck!

Want to do more?!

I'll be adding fun weaving projects in the next few weeks to show you how to create awesome projects with your new skills! Check back later for more weaving fun! Share with me your first weaving practice; I would love to see what you've created!! Have fun!