Almost every kid owned this potholder loom at some time. They’re still available for just a few bucks at many craft and toy stores. I picked one up the other day and since then I’ve created a small rug for my mid century marvel, and now I’m working on another:

Simple weaving projects using a plastic potholder loom. Photos by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

The top one was created with a regular 90 degree by 90 degree pattern. For the one in progress, I’ve incorporated 90 degrees x 90 degrees x 45 degrees, just to see how it looks. This one will also end up being a rug, most likely. I plan to create another weaving using a lightweight thread next, so I can have a table runner for my mini kitchen.

Here is another picture of the completed rug, when it was in progress:

Dollhouse rug, in progress. Photo by Holly Tierney-Bedord. All rights reserved.

The advantage to using a 90 degree by 90 degree process is that you can easily squish the lines of thread together to make the appearance as tight as you’d like. With the one I’m working on now, the threads running at a 45 degree angle prevent me from having that option. I’m going to have to keep filling in the gaps with more thread, instead of being able to just smoosh them together.

This loom is great because it’s cheap, light, and small. You could use it (in your human-scale life) to make small wallhangings for your home, coasters, little weavings to set a potted plant on, etc.