Monster Magnet

With the kids being home-schooled I've been really trying to up my involvement in their activities. We've baked bread and made homemade butter, have done many Mad Libs, gone to the Salt Lake City Information Center, studied Imbolc, watched episodes of Ghostwriter, practiced our handwriting, worked in workbooks, planted onions in reused yellow cups from Dickie's, hula hooped tons, we've been reading Save Queen of Sheba together, and have had our hands in some crafting.

One of our crafts we did together (well, mostly Violet and I)  was weaving a rug made out of old T-shirts, using a hula hoop as a loom.

Hula hoop Rug Weaving

Old shirts that were lying around my house, and clearance finds

I've had a few people request instructions on making said rug so here's roughly what we did:

You'll need:
-Scissors
-hula hoop (I used an old one I picked up at K-Mart a few years ago, cost about $5)
-about a dozen T-shirts (I used old ones lying around the house, and $1 finds in the clearance section at Old Navy)

Steps:
1- Pick out a hoop for a loom.
2- For the wrap, cut 1"-wide loops from the bodies of the tees (I found using Men's XXL from the clearance section at Old Navy), removing the hem and stopping at the sleeves. I read online that 11 loops work the most ideal, I used 8, but the next rug I make I will do the 11 loops (this should take about 2 shirts).

The beginning

3- Stretch one wrap loop over the hula hoop. Add and secure a second loop, perpendicular to the first. Repeat, filling in the spaces. 

4- Push together two loops at the top of the hula hoop. This creates an odd number of spokes in your wheel, which allows the overunder pattern of the weft to alternate with each new row. Secure the first weft loop to the center of one of the spokes (you can use the double spoke that was created) by wrapping it around then looping it back through itself.

5- Begin weaving the weft over and under the warp spokes, forming a tight spiral. For now, treat both parts of each spoke as a single unit, weaving over or under the two together. As you work, push the weft material toward the center of the hoop and keep it just snug. If you pull too tight the rug will deveolop lumps and/or bends. When you reach the end of the piece of weft, add a new loop by threading it through the end of the first and back through itself.

6- When your rug is about 8" across, begin treating each warp spoke as two individual strips instead of a single unit, weaving over or under each strand instead of going over or under the doubled spoke. This will improve the structure. When you get to the two warp spokes that you pushed together at the top of the loom, separate them. Treat one of the spokes as two individual strips, but continue to treat the other as a single spoke-- this will help maintain the odd number of warp spokes.

7- When the rug is the size you want snip open your weft loop. Tie the ends around warp spoke, and tuck ends into the rug-- cut the warp spokes off the hoop one at a time. Tie the ends in pairs, then trim them to make a fringe, or tuck them back into the rug.

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Our finished rug

While looking up how to write this blog (we free styled what we did on our own, I had a pretty good idea of what I was doing due to what I learned in the Idian Education Program), I found a lot of helpful sources including this one.

I also googled 'hula hoop rug weaving instructions.' And, that turned up a lot of helpful information.

I am really looking forward to making our next rug with a bigger hoop. It should be a lot of fun, especially now that we have the first rug under our belt.