Rediscovering childhood crafts

I suspect most kids of my generation (and earlier, and probably later) have used a "loop loom" to weave potholders. (Linda Collier Ligon, in an essay about teaching children about weaving, implies they are probably the most satisfactory introduction - for one thing, it's not TOO difficult, and for another, the finished product is genuinely useful. In fact, I'm pretty sure my mom still has a couple potholders I wove as a child, nearly 40 years ago now)

I had been thinking about these on and off for a while. I'd look at them in craft stores and go, "No, you don't need another craft, and anyway, you have sufficient pot holders." And also, most of the craft-store ones I've seen are plastic, which has a couple of drawbacks (the green plastic one I used as a child, while it boasted "Hi-Lo Pegs" (which formed a sort of primitive heddle that made the over-under easier, except you had to move the loops from low to high position or vice versa every row), eventually wore and several of the pegs snapped, making it no longer usable.

So I looked around for a better choice. Amazon had a Harrisville Designs kit, which had several things to recommend it - made in the US by a long-time company, it was metal, and it came with cotton loops (I am quite sure the loops from the kits of my youth were synthetic; in fact, I think a couple of the potholders I made wound up with melted spots when something really hot touched them). Also, because I tend to go overboard when it comes to crafts, I bought the "Lotsa Loops" refill kit at the same time.

It came today.

Making potholders is ridiculously satisfying.



These are my first two efforts, together they took less than an hour. A rainbow theme using most of the different colors, and a houndstooth pattern that  more or less matches the counters and wallpaper in my kitchen. (The instructions with the kit show how you can get different patterns depending on how you pick colors. Even though I KNEW it was going to do houndstooth, I found myself chuckling with delight as the pattern appeared). A person could probably also do a sort of tartan plaid if they tried.

When I was a kid, the weaving was the big thing (and I remember it taking HOURS, but then again, I don't remember having the nice metal hook that you weave through the warp loops and then use as sort of a shuttle to pull the weft loop through....I remember the painstaking under-and-over using fingers). Weaving was the big thing then, and also the loops were in VERY random colors (I wonder if they were offcuts from a hoisiery factory, I remember them having that texture) and it was hard to plan designs because you only had a few of each color. Here, there are only 10 or so colors, and lots of loops of each color - which is good, because for  me now, planning the design and watching it emerge is the fun part.

I highly recommend the Harrisville Designs kit. The loom is sturdy, it comes with the hook to pull loops through and a crochet hook for finishing the edges. The instructions are very clear and it shows both an alternate finishing method and suggests for the old traditional binding-off method, you secure each edge back to the loom by one loop as it's finished, so the whole thing doesn't just pull off. I didn't do that with the first potholder and it makes binding off a LOT easier and neater if you do anchor each edge...

Also, the loops are quite heavy cotton jersey and seem like the potholders will be very sturdy. The instruction sheet shows other uses for the squares....sewing them together to make placemats or small floor mats or "sleeping bags" for small stuffed toys. (The kit IS aimed at children....)

I may make a bunch of these up and randomly include them with the Christmas presents of people I know who like to cook....