Weaving Loom – Basic Yarn DIY Wall Hanging

This simple weaving loom wall hanging is perfect to add a fun flare to your gallery wall or as a statement piece to hang in your home. You can easily customize the weaving by picking colors of yarn that suit your home.

Now you don’t have to worry about scrounging around a store for the perfect item to add to your walls; you can just weave it yourself! What’s even more perfect is you only need two supplies to make this lovely wall hanging: yarn and cardboard! As simple as that! We will show you how to make a handmade loom out of cardboard so you can make as many weavings as your heart desires – just maybe don’t display them all in one place!

 

Materials you’ll need to Weaving Loom:

• Yarn in various colors
• Cardboard rectangle about 10in by 14in depending on the size you want your weave
• Wooden dowel
• Ruler or measuring tape
• Scissors
• Optional: needle

How to create the loom:

1.Start by making your loom by cutting out a sturdy piece of cardboard to the size you want your loom to be. For reference, our cardboard loom is about 10in by 14in (however our actual weave is about 8in by 14in).

2.Next make ¼ inch tick marks on the top and bottom of your loom (the shorter sides). You want to make sure there is an even number of tick marks and that the tick marks roughly line up s at the top or bottom of your cardboard loom. If ¼ inch seems too small for you, pick a different measure, just be sure to be consistent across the top and bottom.

3.Once you have your tick marks in place, gently make a straight and small cut into each of them, again making sure you have an even number of cuts.

4.After you have cut into each of the tick marks, you can thread your loom with yarn. Take the end of some white or plain colored yarn (note: this will show through slightly so we recommend a light or white color yarn) and start by inserting it into the first tick mark slit on one end at the top of the loom (it doesn’t matter which end you start on). You want to make sure that you insert it with about half of the looms length of string dangling out the back so you can tie this off later.

5.Next take the string and wrap it over the loom and into the slit parallel at the bottom the loom, so you have a vertical line of yarn. Loop the yarn around the back of the weave and then insert it into next available slit from where you started and repeat this process until you have filled all your slits.

6.Finally, take the dangling tail of yarn on the back of your loom and tie this to the last string that you inserted to create a diagonal line on the back. This will keep all your strings tight and in place.

How to create the weave:

1.Now that you have your loom ready, it is time for the fun part: weaving! Cut off a generous amount of the first color of yarn you want to use. If you have a needle,you can thread the yarn into a needle to make the weaving process a little easier, but it is not necessary. Take your string and thread it over then under, over then under the warp threads on the loom in a straight line all the way across the loom. Once you get to the end, you can simply repeat the pattern on the next row starting with the opposite of what you left off on: e.g. if you left off on going under you will start by going over for the next row. You want to make sure not to pull the string too tight on the edges or else your weave will be start to pitch in on the sides, so keep the string nice and loose on the edges.

2.Continue weaving your loom using this process. Once you are done with a color, simply cut off any excess string, making sure to leave about 2in of extra string hanging off the end (you will clean this up at the end). Add a new color following the same directions. It is fun to play around with different colors, textures, and sizes of yarn to create a more dimensional weave. You can also play around with different shapes by not bringing the yarn all the way to the other side, like we did with the triangle.

Tying off the weave:

1.Once you are finished with your weaving, then it is time to cut it off. Take scissors and cut across the white string on the back of your loom.

2.Next, starting at the top or the bottom, gently pull the first two white strings out of the slits in the cardboard (these should be next to each other). Tie the two loose strings together snug with the weave and repeat these steps all the way across your loom. Repeat this tying with the strings on the bottom as well.

3.Once your weave is free from the loom, the next step is to tuck in all of the extra strings on the sides. This step is where a needle comes in really handy! To do this, simply flip your weave over so you are looking at the back of it and take one of the extra strings and discretely weave it into the back of the weave. You will want to flip the weave back over and make sure you can’t see it from the front side. Do this with all of the extra string on the sides.

You will also do this with the white strings that created your loom (the warp threads) by tucking them straight up and into the bottom of the weave (pictures below). ONLY do this with the strands on the bottom as you will need the strings on the top to assemble the dowel for hanging!

Hanging your weave:

1.Now that the extra yarn on the sides and the bottom of your weave are nicely tucked away, you can hang your new weave. Using a wooden dowel that is slightly longer than the length of the weave, place it at the top of your weave. Take each of the white loom strings and gently tie the wooden dowel in place by tying the white strings around it.

2.Once each string is tied around the dowel, you will weave the excess long white strings into the top of the loom and then cut off any excess.

3.Lastly, take a new strand of white yarn and tie it to the wooden dowel on both ends, creating a loop so you can hang your masterpiece! All you need now is a thumb tack or a nail to hang it up!

We hung ours with tape because our walls were just painted and weren’t allowed to put a thumbtack in them!

Now you can decorate your home or apartment with your own lovely fiber art! It might seem complicated at first, but once you get the hang of it it is a lot of fun and you might end up with an abundance of wall hangings you don’t know what to do with!