Later, if your child is interested in weaving more than potholders, I found this interesting loom that makes so many more things than a potholder. It also uses
any kind of yarns: novelty yarns, faux fur, colorful, mohair, ribbons, trims, etc.:
Butterfly Loom
Examples made from Butterfly Loom
Complete Butterfly Loom technique on YouTube
It's actually a simple technique. Instead of weaving under and over the cotton loops, you wrap
any kind of yarns around the Butterfly Loom and then KNOT each intersection. There are many different types of looms, so you can make different things and in different sizes.
I actually didn't buy a loom.
I wanted to do a test first to see if I liked the loom. I copied and pasted a picture of one of the looms into a Word document and then enlarged the picture to a suitable size to use as a template. I pasted it onto very thick cardboard and cut out the whole cardboard loom. I then followed the
YouTube video instructions above.
Since cardboard is bendable, I was able to slightly fold the loom enough to get the finished piece off and still be able to reuse the loom a few more times. But, I also found that if I used very stretchable yarns, I can simply stretch & pull them off the notches. No need to fold and "butterfly" the loom in half.
Making the looms out of cardbord would be a great idea for scout troops, where funds are limited and it's only a one or two time project.
For kids, I guess the spacing of the notches, which creates huge holes between the interwoven yarns is a good idea. You don't want to have to knot too many intersections, or the kids will become bored as it may get tedious for them. Too many intersections may be overwhelming. (Except, how many potholders did we make as a kid and still didn't get enough of weaving them?
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As an adult, myself, I found the holes in the finished piece way to big. Yes, it may be great for one or two "lacy" type shawls. But, I found it rather limiting. I'd prefer a tighter-woven weave, like half the size with the yarns closer together, similar to a real potholder weave. For more advanced stuff, I realized in making a loom out of cardboard, I could adapt the size of the notches by take my photo editor and adjust the size & spacing of the notches, just by shrinking the length of the loom (so there were two notches in the space of one, and adding another loom onto the end to fill the space, thereby changing the size of the holes between the intersections. I hope that makes sense.
If your child really likes the idea of making things with a Butterfly loom, making and adapting a cardboard one with notches adapted to suit you is something to keep in mind.
For a scarf, instead of using their rectangle loom, I'd also just make a very long loom out off cardboard from the side of a box a refrigerator was packed in, to make a nice long 4 foot cardboard loom, rather than having to join smaller sections together.
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