Recycled Crafts: How to Make a Cardboard Loom

Here at Recycled Reads, we’ve been experimenting with all things plastic yarn, aka plarn. Which is why we had to least attempt a loom, made of upcycled cardboard. Your loom can be any size cardboard, depending on what you want your final product to be. In this post, we’ll show you how to make your loom, get started on weaving with the plarn, and give you some resources to continue your weaving adventure!

Supplies:

Piece of cardboard (we used  6″ x 9″ size)

Xacto knife

Ruler

Plarn

Yarn needle

Step 1:

Along the top and bottom edges, measure out notches every 1/4″. Make all notches 1/2″ long.

Step 2:

Make a knot at the end of your plarn and put it through the first notch on the left hand side. The knot should keep it from slipping through the notch. String the plarn down to the adjacent notch at the bottom. Wrap the plarn around the back of the loom to the right and bring it back to the front through the next notch. String it up to the notch on top, repeating the front to back wrapping technique.

  

Step 3:

When you finish wrapping all the notches, anchor the plarn in place by tying a knot in back to the original knot you made to begin with.

Step 4:

To start weaving, take another piece of plarn, about 3′ long, and leave a 4″ tail. This will be woven in later. Take the plarn and weave it in under and over, as shown in the photo.

You can use different colors, or continue in one color. When you have reached the end, take the yarn needle and thread the tail, weaving it in along the sides of the piece.

Carefully take the piece off the loom, cutting each loop and making a double knot on each one to keep it from unraveling.

Here are some good resources available at the library to help out:

Creative Weaving by Sarah Howard

Weaving Made Easy by Liz Gipson