How to Make Loom Potholders
Loom potholder weaving is a great project for kids. Potholders are quick to make, colorful and useful. It’s a project even small children can handle with minimal adult supervision. Kids learn to manipulate the loops, which helps with eye-hand coordination, and they can be creative with their color patterns.
Purchase looms and loops at craft and hobby stores or order them online. Looms are made of either plastic or metal. Plastic loom pegs can snap over time; metal looms have a longer lifespan. Loops are available in cotton, wool or nylon. Cotton and wool are preferable, as nylon can melt if exposed to heat during use.
Things You'll Need
- Loom
- Loops, cotton or wool
- Weaving hook, included with loom
- Crochet hook, size K or similar
Instructions
-
-
1
Hook a loop over one peg on the top of the loom; run the loop down to the corresponding peg at the bottom of the loom and hook it over that peg. Repeat this for all the pegs across the top of the loom. These vertical loops are called the warp loops.
-
2
Begin weaving the potholder by pushing the weaving hook over and under the warp loops at the top of the loom. These horizontal loops are the weft loops. Make sure to go over and under the two strands of each warp loop, not each individual strand. Hook a loop on the end of the weaving hook and pull it through the warp strands, hooking each end of the loop on the pegs on the side of the loom.
-
-
3
Begin weaving the next weft loop by inserting the weaving hook the opposite way the previous weft loop was woven, weaving under any warp loops that the previous loop went over, and over any loops that the previous loop went under.
-
4
Continue the process of alternating the over-and-under weaving of the weft loops until you fill all the pegs on the side with loops.
-
5
To remove the potholder from the loom, start at the upper right corner and work right to left, pulling the first loop from its peg, then pulling the second loop from its peg, inserting the crochet hook through the first loop and into the second loop, then pulling the second loop up through the first loop. With the second loop still on the crochet hook, pull the third loop from its peg, hook it and pull it through the second loop. Repeat the process of pulling the next loop through the previous loop, working around the loom, continuing the procedure around the corners. The final loop left will be the hanging loop. Pull it through the previous loop twice to prevent it from unraveling. Your potholder is now finished.
-
1
Tips & Warnings
If the loops are too small and don’t fit from peg to peg on the loom, don’t force them. They may break the loom pegs on plastic looms.
The flat weaving hook that comes with the loom usually has a large hook at one end for weaving and a smaller hook at the other end for finishing the potholder. Use whichever end is most comfortable for weaving the potholder.
Kids may need help removing the potholder from the loom. It takes a few practice tries to get the sequence down. The process is similar to chain stitching in crochet.
A size K crochet hook is the size that works best, but a size larger or smaller will work just as well.
You can wash cotton and wool potholders, but they will shrink if dried in a hot dryer.
