Product Description

Sarah Swett has loved weaving since the age of eight, when she made magic carpets for her teddy bears. Now, as a professional tapestry weaver and knitwear designer, she shares the joy of creating beautiful woven items with a new generation of young crafters. In Kids Weaving, the only weaving book written specifically for children, Swett shows how to make 15 fun, inexpensive, colorful projects -- including friendship bracelets, a rag doll, a fashionable chenille scarf, magic carpets, and funky hand-woven shoelaces -- many of which can be completed in an afternoon.

With clear, step-by-step instructions and bright, helpful illustrations, Kids Weaving teaches children (and adults too!) how to weave using everything from their hands to cardboard to an easy-to-create loom made from simple plumbing supplies. Throughout the book are fascinating features about weaving around the world; special projects like weaving a hideout from sticks, branches, and wildflowers; and stories of famous characters such as Penelope, the clever weaver from The Iliad and The Odyssey. The third in STC's Kids Craft series (following Kids' Embroidery and Kids Crochet), this delightful, easy-to-use book brings one of the oldest craft traditions to creative children everywhere.

A step-by-step format and bright illustrations ensure successful results for children of all ages

All of the projects are inexpensive to make

The only weaving book written specifically for children

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #54116 in Books
• Published on: 2005-10-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 128 pages

From School Library Journal
Grade 3-7-Swett introduces this craft with a simple weaving of a checkerboard note card-a task requiring two pieces of paper and a pair of scissors. After mastering the technique with several different small projects, she explains how to weave a hideout out of sticks and vines in the yard. She demonstrates techniques on a cardboard loom and progresses to skills for weaving on a pipe loom. These projects show the whimsical and the practical, the useful and the decorative aspects of the art. Hartlove's excellent-quality, full-color photos depict children enjoying the craft in many different settings-inside on rainy days or out in the sunshine by a lake and in a canoe. In addition, the helpful step-by-step drawings clearly depict the processes and techniques. As the book continues, the types of weaving and projects get progressively more difficult but are explained so well that novices could accomplish the most difficult tasks with ease. The author includes the history and folklore that surrounds the art and talks about different types of weaving done around the world. Sources for supplies and a list of recommended reading are appended.-Cynde Suite, Bartow County Library System, Adairsville, GA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Sarah Swett, a professional tapestry weaver and knitwear designer, has traveled throughout North America teaching tapestry weaving, design, and knitting. Her weavings have been featured in solo and group exhibitions throughout the country and appeared in the magazines American Craft, SpinOff, and Interweave Knits, and the book Knitting in America. She lives in Moscow, Idaho. Visit her website at www.sarah-swett.com.

Lena Corwin is a textile/graphic designer and illustrator. She is the illustrator of Kids Crochet (STC) and has worked for Calvin Klein, Jill Stuart, Elle Décor magazine, and many others.

Customer Reviews

Good projects, good instructions
This book is great if you want a book that has interesting, useful projects, clear instructions, and beautiful photos of kids and their weaving. The starting projects are loomless, involving weaving paper ('checkerboard notecards'), twigs ('fairygarden planter'), pliable tree branches ('hideout'), and what looks like a kind of six-strand braiding of embroidery floss hung from a pencil ('friendship bracelet'). From there you graduate to use of a cardboard loom to make a small wool pouch (I did this one) and to weaving cloth strips to make Japanese Rag Warrior dolls. (These, by the way, really do look like dolls my boys would play with.) Following that, the book details how to construct a stand-up loom from pvc piping and fittings, thick wooden dowels, and tongue depressors, and comes complete with heddle bar. I made mine for a cost of about $20. This pvc loom will handle a band of weaving up to 5" wide. From this loom (dubbed 'inkle loom') you can make these projects: inkle strap shoelaces, tapestry dog collar, a belt, a 43" long scarf, doll-sized pile carpets, and, by sewing woven strips together, a kente cloth blanket. The book also includes information, about making your own fiber dyes, different ways to set up the inkle loom, what is 'fulling' and how it is done, as well as bits of weaving history and lore. I got 'Kids Weaving' from the library six weeks ago. I meant to photocopy only a few pages for use introducing weaving to a small homeschool co-op. But when I began to see that it wouldn't be just a few pages, that's when I realized that I should just buy the book. Nearly all of the projects look like something we would do. That's rare.

What a find!
Lots of GREAT ideas!!! Some are quickly done while others are more involved. This is the best book I have found for doing weaving with children. The PVC pipe loom is a terrific idea and inexpensive enough for each child to have one of their own to work on.

wonderful book
This is a great book for novice weavers. I have made the small treasure pouch and put together the pvc loom. The instructions are clear and simple, the photographs are lovely. I bought this for myself and my daughter. There are projects large enough to hold the interest of older weavers and small enough for young weavers with shorter attention spans. I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to make my next project.