Rainbow Loom Upcycling

Have any of your kids caught onto the Rainbow Loom craze? My son got a Rainbow Loom from his relatives staying in America. We initially didn't know what it was until he got the package and eagerly read the instructions. It is a basically a weaving loom made of pegs and that comes with a crochet-like hook. You weave small rubber bands onto the loom to make bracelets and necklaces. From what I have seen on Youtube, if you put your mind to it, you can even make key chains and even a bag!  It is addictive, but I am not so keen on the usage of rubber bands. I was also thinking what would happen to this loom once the craze was over. 

I decided to use the Rainbow Loom for my upcycling, and start weaving with it. The outcome was better than the normal weaving technique I've used as it produced a knit / fish-tail look. 

So here's how it's done. 

Update 19/1/2014 - I almost snapped the plastic hook that comes with Rainbow Loom, so I changed to a metal one that's used for crochet. Step 1
Get your t-shirt yarn (see tutorial), Rainbow Loom and hook ready. Remove 2 rows of the Rainbow Loom. 

Step 3
Decide how many pegs you are going to use.  I used 7 pegs.

Step 4
Tie a loop in the yarn and hook onto one of the pegs. 

Step 5

Weave the yarn in between the pegs. 

When you reach the end then weave in and out back towards the beginning. Repeat this process again - you will have weaved four times across the pegs, and if you look carefully from the front of the loom, each peg should have TWO layers of yarn.  This is important!

Step 6

Once you have done the weaving, take your hook. Starting from the last peg, take the bottom yarn and hook over the top yarn and place back onto the peg.   Repeat this with all pegs.

Step 7

Start weaving again until you have two layers of yarn on each peg.  This time you only need to weave to the end and back to create the two layers of yarn per hook. Repeat Step 6.

The back of the loom should look like this.

I noticed that it got harder to unhook the yarn as it was made from t-shirt material and it was tense in comparison to say, wool. If you're worried about snapping the Rainbow Loom hook, you can use a metal crochet hook instead.

Step 8
Repeat Step 6 and 7 until your weave is of the desired length. Then cut your weaving yarn away from your yarn ball; I left a length of about 7 pegs as I was weaving on 7 pegs.  Unhook the peg and thread the yarn into it, continue doing this until you reach the end.

So now I have a square patch, and I'm planning to get more done to make a big blanket!! If you're not good at knitting, I think this is an alternative method. No Rainbow Loom? Why not just use your fingers or make your own ? :-)

Happy crafting!