How to make a Mat with handmade Loom!

 Fariba / Patterns & Projects / June 17, 2015

Hello everyone.

In this video I am going to show you how to make a mat with a handmade loom.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vg_F4fYe1I&ab_channel=watchknitting

Materials Needed:

For this you will need a flat box, which you can find it from any grocery store for free, a hook, some nails, scissors, a thick yarn, a pencil and a ruler.

First of all you need to draw a rectangle on the box. Because it is going to shrink after you pull out the mat from the loom your mat would be about 2 cm smaller than what you expect. So draw your rectangle 2 cm bigger than what you expect to get. I draw my rectangle 40 cm in length and 30 in width. The mat that I am expecting to get would be 28 in 38 cm.

After you draw the rectangle you divide each side of the rectangle one cm by one cm and you mark it on the box.

Now you punch the nails on the marked cm’s halfway through escaping corners.

Now you tie the cotton string to the first nail on the top left side.

And then you connect it vertically to the first nail on the opposite side. You wrap it around that nail. Leave it a little loos because making it tight will shrink your project after separating from loom.

You keep connecting it to the opposite side and just wrap it. You keep warping until you reach the last nail on the right side.

Once you reach it, you do not tie. You lift the second string, and every one string after that, which would be the right side of each wrap you already made, and then you slowly let the cotton string through the lifted right strings by your hook or your hand. As you see in the picture string goes under the second vertical line and over the third one.

Once you got to the other side, you push the loose strings down towards the nails by the end of your hook to make it tighter.

After that, you wrap the cotton string around the first perpendicular nail on the left side.

Once you warped it, you gently pull the sting on the other side with your right hand and make them tighter as shown.

Once you finished the first row, you wrap it around the first nail on the right side, and repeat the the row but this time string goes under the first string, then you should lift the first, third and fifth vertical strings, and again slowly let the cotton sting through. Keep doing it until you reach the second nail on the left side. And then you keep pulling the strings down towards the nails to make them tighter.

Here you go, you reached the first step of your horizontal rows! you keep doing the same thing until you reach the last row on the top.

Because the last row is tight you can use safety pin.

You’re almost there!

Last but not least, you pull all the wrapped strings around the nails out by your hook gently.

You need to be careful with the right side loops, because they are loose and could come off easily. Your first wrap may come off as mine, but no worries!

To secure it, you pull the cotton string in the first loose loop to make sure it won’t come off again.

And now you can use the hook or your safety pin to pass the left cotton string in the rest of the loops.

Finally you are done, good job! But I am not done. I still have some string left. I have the option to cut it, or pass it through the loops once again. I  have some empty looking spaces between my loops, so I repeat it once more. I escape the first loop and insert the safety pin through remaining loops.

At the end you cut of the yarn or if you have more string left repeat the same method to hide the tail. I didn’t cut the remaining, because I want it to look nice, instead i tied it with the first loop above it, to secure it.

For the string left on the right side you cut it, and you can use the hook to hid it inside the other knots on the back.

Now you can use the iron to make it softer by the steam, but make sure it does not touch the fabric!

Vola, you are done! :)