A few weeks ago we talked about the Knifty Knitter Straw Weaver, a gadget that sells for about $3 and is used to weave belts, bracelets, purse straps and other narrow pieces. While we recommended the weaving tool because of its ease of use and reasonable price, we also mentioned that we were going to try and make a homemade version of the weaver so that we could use thicker yarn, and that we’d let you know how our experiment turned out.
Upon surfing the Web to see if instructions for making a straw loom were already available, we found a number of sites featuring how-tos for making drinking-straw looms. The instructions were pretty much alike for the most part, and our own homemade loom follows the basic steps, but we suggest checking out the various procedures before making a loom of your own.
To make our version of a drinking-straw weaving loom, you’ll need only plastic drinking straws and masking tape. We used regular gift-wrap tape for our sample as we were out of masking tape, but the online instructions call for masking tape and we agree that it is the more user-friendly choice.
As we mentioned earlier, the main reason for trying a homemade loom was to make using chunkier yarns an option. To that end, the wider the straws, the better; however, this time around we couldn’t find the very wide straws we had envisioned, even though we know they’re out there.
And so, for our practice run, we went with a package of multicolored party straws found at Safeway. Our straws have bendable ridges in them, but we recommend that you use straws without this feature for best weaving results and ease of threading when it comes to the carrier yarns.
To begin the loom, take four to six straws and place them side by side on a piece of masking tape long enough to wrap around the straws. Leave a little bit of space between each straw, about the width of the yarn you’ll be using.
For our sample, we positioned the tape at the bottom of the loom, but online instructions positioned the tape at the top. Our idea was to follow the Knifty Knitter idea of a removable holding bar and to remove the tape once the weaving process is under way.
When the straws are secured in place with the tape, you’re ready to begin threading the carrier yarns.
Cut a length of yarn for each straw, making it twice as long as your finished piece will be. Fold the length of yarn in half and, using an afghan hook or another long, slender hook, pull the yarn through the straw.
Make a large knot at the top of the straw so that the yarn won’t pull through. An option presented in some of the online instructions is to tie all of the carrier yarns together at the top, but that won’t work for our version as it will close off the top and make the weaving impossible.
Thread all the straws in the same manner, leaving the long ends of the carrier yarns extending out the bottom of the loom near the tape.
Begin the weaving process by weaving yarn over and under the straws, back and forth across the loom.
When you’ve completed 3 to 4 inches of weaving in this fashion, carefully remove the tape and continue weaving.
Gently pull the straws up so that the weaving slides down toward the carrier yarns, making sure to leave at least 1 inch of weaving on the straws at all times.
Continue the weaving process until you reach the desired length for your project. Cut the knots off the tops of each carrier yarn and remove the straws completely from your work.
Tie off the ends by skipping the first fringe, tying the next two, then the next two, and so on across. Tie the two end fringes to the fringe next to them after that second fringe has been tied to the third. The pattern is to secure the weaving by having one thread from neighboring “tubes” tied together to prevent unraveling.
Some final notes:
You can use and few or as many straws as you wish to make the desired width of your woven piece, but we find that four to six works well for most items.
And be on the lookout for larger tubes to use in place of the straws to accommodate chunkier yarns you never know when inspiration will strike.
While finishing this column, we just happened to glance out the window and spied a set of wind chimes with six tubes that appear to be the perfect size for working with heavy yarn. We have lots of chimes, so one set won’t be missed at all.
Contact Jonetta Coffin at jrocoffin@aol.com.
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