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One of my all-time favorite stores, JOANN, is partnering up with the Children’s Miracle Network to use craft projects to build confidence in children and raise awareness and funds for local Children’s hospitals at the same time. And I’m totally here for it! Art and crafting is such a wonderful way to encourage and empower children. I’ve seen it mirrored in my own kids. Art class is one of Liam’s favorite subjects in school and Caleb uses art as a way to express himself. I started weaving just after Liam was born. It was a time in my life where I was learning how to be a new mom and moving away from wedding photography, so fiber art gave me a way to be creative in a whole new way. Liam’s been watching me weave for years now and he’s been asking for a woven wall hanging in his room. This project with JOANN and Children’s Miracle Network was the perfect opportunity to help him create a piece of his own.
JOANN has everything you could ever want or need for basically any time of craft project. If you’re looking to create a small wall hanging like we did, they actually have several loom options. We chose this one because it’s an all-in-one kit. So in addition to the loom, you’ll also get a couple of needles, a comb, pom-pom tool, hanger, shuttle and shed. If you don’t know all those terms, that’s totally fine – all Liam needed to use for his project was the loom, a needle and the comb.
If you’re making a woven wall hanging with your kids too, this is what you’ll need:
– Loom
– cotton yarn for the warp. This is the string that goes up and down vertically and is attached to your loom. It’s basically the interior structure of your weaving – you typically won’t see it in a finished piece, but it’s what holdes it together.
– yarn for the weft
– comb. This helps you pat down each row of yarn so that your weaving stays tightly together.
– something to hang your weaving on. I usually use sticks, driftwood, wooden dowel rods or copper piping, but feel free to use your imagination.
I like shopping for my yarn at JOANN because they have endless yarn choices. Liam wanted to use several different colors and had a specific pattern in mind, so we chose different colors of the same kind of yarn. For other projects, you can use a variety of different types, colors and thicknesses of yarn. I find that mixing and matching yarns like this is a fun way to add texture to your wall hanging.
Weaving can feel a little intimidating, but I promise that it’s so easy to learn! It didn’t take Liam long to get the hang of it. He says weaving isn’t taught at his school until he’s a little bit older, so we started with the basics.
First, I showed Liam how to warp his loom:
Next, he chose a base yarn. This eventually gets covered up by fringe, so color doesn’t matter much. However, I recommend using a same or similar color as your fringe will be just in case it peeks through. Since Liam wanted multiple colors for his fringe, we went with a dark navy blue yarn for the base of his weaving. I showed Liam how the yarn needed to go over or under each warp thread and then do the opposite when the yarn returned in the other direction.
Then, he learned how to measure and tie on his fringe by creating rya knots.
Once his fringe was on, Liam was ready to create the body of his weaving. He decided to use different colors to create two triangles. This gave him a chance to weave with each color for a little bit before switching to another.
One of the things I love about weaving is that as long as your weaving stays together, there aren’t really a lot of rules you have to follow. Most weaving mistakes are easily fixable or can be left without being really noticeable. Liam loved having total creative freedom as his weaving took shape.
Although Liam’s loom kit came with a hanger, he chose a piece of driftwood I had.
I helped him take his weaving off the loom and then showed him how to even out his fringe.
Then, he picked out a spot on his wall to hang it.
He’s completely over the moon about his woven wall hanging and can’t stop talking about this project!
Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals® raises money for 170 Children’s hospitals around the U.S. and Canada that support the health of 10 million kids each year. Donations to Children’s Miracle Network go to local children’s hospitals to fund important healthcare services and life-saving treatments as well as research, pediatric medical equipment and child life services and more.
Donate to your local Children’s hospital at the register every time you shop at JOANN. As a family who has utilized some of the services our Children’s hospital offers – and as the wife of a first responder who knows how blessed we are to have a Children’s hospital in our city – I hope you join me in supporting what JOANN and Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals are doing together!
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