Weaving

In ancient Greece, you couldn't just drive to your local Jo-Ann Fabric's to pick up a couple yards of fabric. Everything was made by hand! Women would spin their own yarn from wool and use it to weave their own textiles.

Unlike Penelope, your students will have 45 minutes (instead of 20 years) to work on their weaving, so they will have to bring their weaving home to finish.

Procedure

Give each student a loom board, 2 straws, a yarn needle, a comb, scissors, and 2 small skeins of yarn.

Take the straws across the top and bottom of the loom board and trim to the width of the board. This will lift your yarn off the loom back and make it easier to weave.

Use the first color of yarn to create your warp (the up-and-down yarn).

Cut a piece of the second color of yarn about the length of your arm span. This is your weft (the left-to-right yarn). Tie one end to your yarn needle. You will use this as your shuttle. Tie the other end to one of your warp threads.

Use your shuttle needle to begin weaving, going above one warp then below the next warp. Continue the above then below pattern for all warp yarns until you get to the end.

To finish off your weaving, snip the ends of your warp threads and tie them off.

For a visual demonstration, see Magistra Roy's video on weaving at the bottom of the page.