The Craft Yarn Council has been doing The Great Yarn Challenge for several weeks now, and it has been fun to submit knitted, crocheted … AND WOVEN projects for each weekly theme. However, this week, woven contributions seem to come to a screeching halt, since the “Stitch Your State” challenge asks for a 7″ x 9″ rectangle. That’s not a typical pin loom size … but I decided that this should not be a reason to stop the dedicated pin loom weaver!
The traditional Weave-It weaving method can be easily adjusted to almost any size, and when I asked a few loom makers who make custom looms (Joe at Wunderwag and Brian of bigfam15 on Etsy), they did not hesitate to step up to the task. Please note that I also made some sample looms myself, but we will not make/sell these looms.
If you don’t want to buy a loom, below you can find full size templates available for download, so that you can make your own loom! All you need is a piece of wood or a frame, about 8″ x 10″ in size, and wire brads (for example 18 gauge for regular or wide sett, or 16 gauge for wide sett), at least 3/4″ long. Tape a template to the wood, then hammer a pin in each black dot. It does not have to be perfect to function, pin loom weaving is very forgiving!
If you would like a slightly thicker weave, of thicker yarn, you can use a template that I specifically designed for this project. The loom has wider pin spacing to accommodate Weight 5 “Bulky” yarns.
Here is some handy weaving information and resources for both looms …
| Loom | 7″ x 9″ regular sett | 7″ x 9″ wide sett |
| Download template | Download the template for 7″ x 9″ regular sett | Download the template for 7″ x 9″ wide sett |
| epi (ends per inch) | 8 (like the Zoom loom) | 5.3 (similar to the Skipper looms) |
| Wraps | 8.5 | 6 |
| Total yarn needed per rectangle | About 30 yards. | About 20 yards. |
| Yarn weight | Weight 3 DK or 4 Worsted | Weight 5 Bulky |
| Compare to knit gauge | Yarns with a knit gauge of 20-22 will work best | Yarns with a knit gauge of 12-14 will work best |
| Warps/Wefts available for pattern development | 55 warps x 71 wefts | 33 warps x 47 wefts |
Each rectangle is almost as big as four classical 4″ x 4″ weavies, so be prepared to do some weaving! Make sure you wind the first three layers loosely, so that the weaving doesn’t get too tight on the last rows.
Please crochet one round of single crochet around your finished weavie. That will make it easy to use them with other rectangles when the volunteers at WUA assemble the blankets.
I suggest that you start anywhere along a side. Crochet one single crochet into each yarn turn along the edgings. For each corner, crochet up to the corner, work two chain stitches, then continue with single crochet in the first available yarn turn of the next side.
Did you know … You can contribute to Keep America Warm with finished blankets in any size. This means you can use up your stash of weavies and turn them into comforting blankets. (We may use this option in future projects!) You can find more information on the Warm Up America website.
While I call it “Weave America Warm”, I like to extend it to “Weave the World Warm”. In other words, don’t feel excluded if you are anywhere else in the world. Blankets are needed everywhere, and I’m sure that you can easily find a way to give if you cannot or don’t want to contribute to WUA.
I hope that this is only the beginning of making rectangles for Warm Up America. It might be a little bit tight to get things going in time for this week’s challenge, but we can always weave to keep America warm. Please ask any questions that you may have in the comments section below!
“Yarn tasting” means sampling new yarns and talk about them, discuss the new patterns for those yarns … and prepare for a great season of scrumptious warmer weather knitting and crocheting. Most importantly the goal is to have a good time together.
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