When I was little, one of my go-to crafts was weaving potholders out of cotton loops. My parents were happy to keep me stocked with loops because it was relatively harmless and inexpensive, and it kept me mostly quiet. Our house was fully stocked with potholders, as were the houses of all of our relatives and friends. I don’t know that I had a motto as a kid, but if I did, “No burned hands on my watch” would very likely have been it.
As an adult, I still had my potholder loom, and made potholders for our house every once in a while, and also made them very occasionally as gifts. The potholders themselves are very sturdy and last for years. They do get messy and stained, and though you can wash them, eventually they get shabby enough that they need replacing maybe once a decade or so. The loom was a heavy duty steel affair, which got steadily more beat up over the years. I have the sense it was not new when I started using it, and eventually, it just got too beat up and rusty to keep using. It got thrown away several years ago.
My recent set of potholders have been getting pretty shabby, and it was time to replace them. I poked around on the net a bit looking for a replacement loom, and it turns out Harrisville of Nightshades yarn fame has potholder looms in two sizes, and cotton loop packs in an array of colors. My Mom got me a loom and a box full of loops for Christmas!
I spent the rest of Christmas day weaving Christmas themed potholders 🙂
The loom itself is very solid – sturdy and metal. The pegs curve out slightly at the top so the loops stay put. It comes with a big crochet hook for finishing up the sides and a sturdy metal hook for weaving. The loom and the loop sets also come with weaving pattern suggestions, and there is a pattern generator on the website as well. Of course, you can always just goof around and weave whatever pattern you want. After a day of breaking in my new loom, I wound up with this:
It was a day of nostalgic fun, it kept me relatively quiet, and now we have nice bright new potholders for the Christmas season!
Did you get any fun toys for Christmas?
Quite A Yarn 
Great fun! I got a few of those mini block kit where you create cartoon characters. I have 3 mini’s and one big Pokémon Evie. I cannot wait! Have a lovely day x
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Those sound like fun!
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Yay! What a thoughtful gift! I have to say, those potholders look pretty good.
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They are pretty good potholders!
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How fun! These are so pretty! I used to have one of those when I was little. I bought my daughter one a few years ago. I loved making pot holders!
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It’s a fun craft, and the potholders are actually pretty good!
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I used to love making those!! I might have to look into it if there are two sizes. I hate the small size the original looms made. How fun!
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If you don’t like the original size, you would want to look at the Pro size – it is a couple inches bigger 🙂
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How fun to do a well loved craft from your childhood. I use those loops for the ear pieces on face masks. They are so soft and do not irritate the back of ears even if worn all day.
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That is a really clever use for the loops! I will pass that on to my Mom – she is the sewist in our house 🙂
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I’ve never heard of or seen this before, you can buy small pin looms here, or larger looms but I haven’t seen this sort of kit with loops. It looks like a fun project and your completed ones look lovely.
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They are pretty fun, and definitely an easy project. Thanks!
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I remember those. I think eventually my mom replaced it with something else as we had potholders up the wazoo!
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They are addictive to make!
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