How To Make Wrapped and Woven Decorations

by | Nov 10, 2021 | gifts, making

circle loom and stand wove with pride flag colours

Weaving on a little circular loom is a great way to use up those last bits of yarn. The ones that you keep because it’s lovely yarn but there’s not really enough to do much with? They’re perfect for a project like this.

clear perspex parts of circular look decoration and stand
Our circular loom kits come in 4 parts. Working from the outside in
  • stand for small circular loom
  • large circular loom
  • small circular loom
  • base for stand

The large circular loom can be turned into a decoration to hang on a tree or window.

large needle, small circle loom, cream 4ply yarn
To start you’ll need the small circular loom, a needle with a large eye and a couple of meters of come thing to wrap round the loom. If you want to add more colours you’ll need those too. Even a meter of yarn goes a long way, and the yarns don’t need to be the same thickness. Go with what pleases you.

Follow the same instructions for the large circular loom.

You can use almost any yarn to wrap the loom. In the image below I’ve used a fine fluffy Moonbroch laceweight yarn and a sturdy linen. The yarn in the how to pictures is a 4ply bfl alpaca.

You can choose to stop once you’ve wrapped the loom. This gives a more open appearance and would look beautiful in a window. You can also weave, adding texture and colour.

four circular looms, two wrapped with fizzy pale blue yarn, two wrapped with silver linen
It’s a great chance to play and see what you like the look of. Multi coloured yarns would look amazing as would more textured yarns, so if you’re a spinner this would be a lovely way to use up any precious leftovers.
small circular loom showing start of yarn wrapping
To get started, hold the end of the yarn at the back of the loom towards the bottom. take the yarn up and forward though the first notch after the hanging hole. Then wrap the yarn through the 13th notch after the one you’ve just come through, this time from front to back.

This is the only place where the instructions for the large loom differ – work through the 18th notch not the 13th.

Take the yarn up the back of the loom to the first empty notch to the right of the handing hole and go through this , then back to the first empty notch to the left of the wrap on the bottom.

This sounds way more complicated than it actually is – and if you go wrong it takes seconds to undo and try again.

small circular loom showing wrapping with yarn and moving of starting end
Keep wrapping yarn round the loom, moving one notch round each time. When you’ve worked six or seven wraps round make sure that the starting end is at the bottom of the loom underneath the hanging hole. This makes sure it’s in the right place when you finish wrapping.
small circular loom wrapped with cream yarn showing start and end of yarn
Keep going until all the notches are filled. Your working yarn will be on the front of the loom and the start of the yarn will be at the back.
small circular loom, showing where to pull front thread through to back of work
Take you needle and use it the thread the top (front) yarn through the gap underneath the hanging hole.
small circular loom wrapped in cream thread showing both ends on back of work ready to be knotted
Turn the loom over so both yarns and now on the top. If you want to keep weaving with the working yarn then cut it so it’s a meter long. If you’re finished with that yarn cut a 10cm tail.
small circular loom wrapped with cream yarn, ends tied in a knot
Knot the two ends together in a reef knot. The end(s) can then be tucked into the centre of the wrapping between the two layers and trimmed.

If you don’t want to add any weaving you just need to add a hanging thread and you are done.

Weaving is fun. Give it a go.

Both of the circular looms in this kit have an odd number of notches. That means that as you weave over and under the wraps you can just keep going and you don’t need to worry about changing direction at the start of a round.

small circular loom wrapped with cream yarn showing needle going over and under threads to start weaving
Once of the things I love about these little looms is that you can weave a different design on each side. When you look at each wrap you’ll see that one layer sits above the other with a small gap in the middle.

We’re going to start weaving just using the wraps on the top layer. Thread up the end that you left and start weaving under one wrap and over the next one.

small circle loom wrapped with cream thread and with cream weaving
Keep going and very quickly you’ll see the weaving start to appear. Keep pulling the working yarn as you weave and it will coil beautifully into place.
close up small circle loom wrapped with cream thread and with cream weaving
If you look closely you can see where I’ve started to go wrong – there are threads from the last two rounds going over the same wrap instead of one going over and one going under.

Mistakes are blissfully easy to correct. Gently pull the working yarn towards the edge of the loom. This gives you space to pull the yarn back. You might need to do this a couple of times to get back to where everything is right.

There’s nothing that says you have to go with simple over 1 under 1 pattern. You can go over 2, 3, 4 or more – and under the same or a different number of wraps.

As you come lose to the end of your working yarn, finish by going over a wrap. Take your needle under your weaving (stating clear of that bottom later of wraps) and secure your working yarn. As decorations don’t ned strong joins I take the needle under the weaving and pull the working thread up through the middle of this. The working thread can then be trimmed.

To join in another colour you can either start weaving and leave a yarn tail which will be secured by the next round, or you can catch the end through the back of your existing weaving to secure it in place.

Keep weaving until you are happy. Turn the loom over and weave on the remaining set of wraps. If you weave a different design this gives a lovely effect as your decoration spins.

The larger loom needs an hanging thread and you are done, andthe smaller loom is ready to be added to the stand.

small circular loom and stand showing hoel for hanging thread and top notch
To finish your decoration string 10cm of thread through the little hole. Take one end over and one end under the stand and tie a knot in the notch. Sewing thread is great for this – it’s also what I used for the wraps.
small circular loom hanging in stand and showing foot slotted in at right angle
To finish slot the base in place and enjoy.

The rainbow version was worked with two round of Britsock in each colour , yarn held double.

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