Room Weaving is one of the jewels in the crown of the Hogarth curriculum, and deserves its very own page here on the website. My artist sister Lully, one of Hogarth’s founders, developed this project the year we opened and we’ve done it almost every year since. When I run into “old school” Hogarth kids, they will invariably ask if we still do room weaving. It makes that much of an impression!
We usually do this project in April to celebrate the Week of the Young Child. Over the course of the week, the children will create a piece of installation art by weaving the room through this process-oriented project. Room weaving is a soft sculpture that changes the classroom environment into a work of art. Walking into the installation feels like walking into a painting.
Because the weave takes up such a big chunk of the room, the children spend most of the week weaving or decorating the weave. Room weaving provides a rich experience which works across the curriculum. The children use positional words (over, under, in, out, up, down), they follow directions (first you loop the ball of yarn around a chair, next you throw it over the rope), they weave cooperatively with a partner, and they sharpen hand/eye coordination and gross motor skills as they toss and catch balls of yarn. Most importantly, they have loads of fun!
Your child will need at least one ball of yarn for weaving. Yarn is typically sold in skeins, so you’ll have to roll the yarn into a ball. Please do not send in a skein of yarn with your little one. Miss Claire and I simply do not have the time to roll dozens of balls of yarn! If you’ve never rolled a skein of yarn into a ball, there are lots of instructional videos on YouTube. The first one shows you how to find which end of the skein to start rolling from.
The next video is pretty basic, and gives a good idea of how to actually do the rolling. Your child will need a fairly tightly rolled ball that will hold up to being thrown back and forth between your child and their partner. Loosely rolled balls fall apart rendering them unweavable. You’ll know it’s too loose if when you give the yarn ball a squeeze your fingers squish into it.
The woman in that second video is rolling a ball of yarn from a hank of yarn, rather than a skein. Most likely you’ll be using a skein, which you’ll find at Walmart and Michael’s Craft Store. Skeins look like this.
Be sure the yarn is on the medium-to-jumbo weight side. Some yarn is more like light string and doesn’t have enough heft for weaving. Medium-weight yarn yields a ball of yarn with 250+ yards of yarn length. Jumbo-weight balls of yarn will yield about 64 yards of weavable yarn, which means they’ll be used up quickly. If you choose jumbo-weight, your child will need at least three balls.
You’ll find the start of the skein on one side or the other. You want to roll from the inside of the skein which keeps the skein more stable during the rolling process. Give it a little tug and it will pull free, allowing you to start rolling. Please place the ball(s) of yarn in a bag labeled with your child’s name and send it in the week of April 1st, or before if you take care of it earlier.
If you want to send in an extra ball of yarn with your little one, we’ll make an emergency stash of yarn for children who forget theirs, or for passionate weavers who go through their yarn and their partner’s yarn quickly.
I will take pictures and videos for you to view at home with your child who I am sure will be thrilled to narrate. I’ll try to get a little something posted each day that week so you can see the weave unfold. You’re welcome to come into the classroom to take pictures and marvel at the weave after class on Wednesday, April 10th.
Still not sure what Room Weaving is all about? Check out these videos of some of my youngest students weaving up a storm. Enjoy!