I spent Saturday in Brooklyn as part of our local historical reenactment group, showing the public how we can draw inspiration from thousands of years of weaving history even when using very modern materials like our potholder loops and peg looms.
Alongside me were compatriots showing off their work with more historically-appropriate materials — dying, spinning, twining, braiding, weaving, sewing, embroidery and more.
So many people stopped by to see our work and learned about the many skills being exhibited, and I hope that a good number of them learned a thing or two, and maybe got inspired to pick up a new craft or dig their supplies out of the closet and give an old hobby another try.
A copy of the informational flier I put together for my exhibit is attached below.
Photo by Ranarr Blaskegg
Exploring Medieval Weave Structures Through A 20th-Century Fiber Art
Presented By Mathghamhain Ua Ruadháin (Known in modern times as Matthew Cavalletto)
Nearly a hundred years ago, the thriftiness of the Great Depression led people to “up-cycle” the elastic trimmings from sock factories, using small metal peg looms to weave them together into bits of household fabric — often used for potholders.
Making colorful potholders out of stretchy loops remained a common craft project for kids through the subsequent decades, and in recent years there’s also been a new wave of interest from adults who are revisiting this nostalgic hobby.
The chunky nature of these fibers means the details of the weaving structure are magnified, making it easier to see how the over/under pattern of weaving and the choice of fibers and colors combine to form different styles and patterns of fabric.
As a hobbyist project, I’ve spent hours reading history articles and archaeology papers that analyzed scraps of fabric dug out of caves and bogs and battlefields that were originally woven hundreds or thousands of years ago — and then using them as inspiration for potholders that echo their structures: plain-weave, so many kinds of twills, basket-weaves, waffle-weaves, double-weaves, and more.
Working with my wife Piglet, we’ve combined those historical examples with designs from modern pattern books for home looms and industrial production, and mixed and matched elements to explore a wide variety of fabric possibilities.
Making things out of string is one of the key developments of human history — a shared legacy of our whole species, stretching back a thousand generations to the Paleolithic — and we can find a connection to that heritage today, even in this humble and unassuming medium that some might think of as child’s play.
Her output is impressive — she seems to weave dozens of potholders every month, and posts innumerable photos including on- and off-loom shots — but what I love even more is her persistence in trying multiple variations on a design, sharing them all so you can watch the results evolve.
She might start by weaving a design from a printed chart or based on a photo she found online, and then she’ll make another version at a different size, and then in a different color palette, and then she’ll try combining part of one design with part of another, and before you know it she’ll have come up with some unique and wonderful results.
(I’ve fondly called her “the queen of the paste-up chart” after seeing striking examples of her work and realizing that she created them by printing out multiple copies of our charts then cutting them to pieces and taping them back together to create something unexpected.)
I’ve found her photo feed to be inspiring, and hope you will as well — check it out and see what catches your eye!
In the last couple of months, there’s been a boom of new woven-loop potholder designs created using double-weave techniques.
While I’m sure there are many ways of making these charts, I’ve stumbled onto one simple technique which I’m currently using to make double-weave charts, and wanted to share it here.
Start with any of the templates below, which form simple double-weave structures with a light layer in front and a dark layer in back. (The first has 14×14 white loops and 13×13 dark; the other two are all 14×13 or 13×14.)
Then go through and in any circled space you can bring the back layer to the front by coloring it dark and flipping the weave direction in that spot from | to —, or from — to |.
Then try weaving it to see how it turns out when you take it off the loom!
There might be a few surprises, but so far this technique has been pretty reliable… give it a try and let us know how it works for you.
And if you have a different technique for creating double-weave designs that you’re willing to share, I’d love to hear about it!
P.S. In case the above notes are not sufficiently clear, here’s a comment I posted to a recent Facebook thread, along with the quick sketch that illustrates using this template to make a chart with three black blocks on a white field:
if you leave the template exactly as I uploaded it, you’ll get a potholder that is light on the front and dark on the back. But if you go through and pick some specific areas, and for each circle in that area you color it black and change the direction of the weave marking, you now have a new chart that will come off the loom as white with some black areas.
In this version, the white areas serve as the background and the black areas are the figure drawn on top of it — but of course when you are weaving it you could switch the colors around and use dark colors for the white spaces on the chart and vice versa.
In the example below, I’ve colored in some of the circles and also (very messily) tried to indicate that the weave in those circles should change from over to under or vice versa — and when woven you should get a white potholder with three black spots on it — and the back will be black with three white spots.
I’ve just published updated versions of a few charts to correct errors; in one case it was merely a typographic mistake but in others I had reversed either the loop colors or the over/under weaving pattern in a way that garbled the charts.
My thanks to Allie Hoffman, Brie Zobel, Kathryn Kelly, and Teri Stratford for writing in to let us know about these issues.
If you’ve previously run into problems with any of the “Parallel Chevrons” or “Floating Double Circle” patterns, please accept my apologies and grab a fresh copy from the charts page so that you have the corrected version.
Unfortunately, occasional mistakes like this are hard to avoid in “live” projects like this, where we don’t have a separate editorial team or dedicated test-weavers to double-check our work — so we’re very grateful to those of you who are willing to try out the charts that are marked as “New!” and let us know when something has gone wrong.
If you spot a problem, please do drop us a line, either in a comment on the relevant blog post or by using the Contact Us form — and thanks for being part of our team!
Someone recently asked about the numbers of cotton potholder loops included in the various package sizes available from Friendly Loom.
I put together the reference list below based on the current prices as of June 2024. Each package size has a rated number of potholders it can make, which we can multiply to estimate the number of loops included, and the price per loop.
Package
Count
Loops
Price
$/Loop
Colors
Traditional / 7″
Mini
2
72
$9
$0.13
Multicolor, 34 Solids
Lotta
6
216
$20
$0.09
4 Multiples, 2 Solids
Party
18
648
$48
$0.07
4 Multiples
Studio
48
1,728
$100
$0.06
4 Multiples
Pro / 10″
Mini
2
108
$17
$0.16
Multicolor, 34 Solids
Lotta
6
324
$40
$0.12
4 Multiples, 2 Solids
Party
18
972
$90
$0.09
4 Multiples
Studio
48
2,592
$200
$0.08
4 Multiples
You’ll notice that there is a significant discount for volume purchases; the Studio packs are half the price-per-loop of the Mini packs, and the Party packs are close to that.
On the other hand, when buying the larger bags you’re limited to choosing from the four multi-color palettes they offer: rainbow (9 brights), botanical (7 pastels), earthtones (7 darks), and neutrals (8 beige/grays). And as they note, the multi-color bags don’t have perfectly even numbers of each color, and the proportion will vary from one bag to the next; in extreme cases you might get twice as many loops of one color than another.
Three colors are not included in any of the multi-color palettes and are thus only available in Mini packs: peacock, purple, and salmon.
Not shown on this chart art the “exclusive” colors: cayenne, sea glass, denim, skillet, lipstick, and lichen. These are sold in the “lotta loops” size (enough for 6 potholders) and cost an extra $1 (traditional) or $2 (pro) more than the other colors.
There are also “bundles” which contain 3 or 4 different solid-color “Mini” packs; these are mostly useful if you’re having trouble choosing color combinations, and most of them aren’t any cheaper than just buying the individual colors separately.
There’s also one “exclusive bundle,” called “spring thaw,” which includes two “lotta loops” bags, one of white loops and the other the botanical mix, which is discounted to a few dollars less than buying the two independently.
I hope this information helps folks make informed purchasing decisions!
Over the last year, Margie Duffy has created a collection of dozens of videos showcasing a wide variety of potholder weaving patterns and techniques. Some of the videos feature patterns found on our website, but lots of other creators’ designs are featured as well.
Her “weave along” format lets you watch as she works a project from start to finish, buoyed by her cheerful commentary, and because it’s shown in real time, you can weave your own at the same time as you watch the video, without having to repeatedly pause and rewind to keep it in synch.
You might find these videos especially useful if you’re trying to learn a new technique, like doing your first shadow weave or clasp weave project — being able to see someone’s hands working through the process can provide an “a-ha” moment that’s missing from just reading descriptions or looking at charts.
For the fans of split-loop twill, I’ve posted some additional charts including more zig-zag variations and some new traditional-size charts for designs which previously only came in pro size.
Twills and split-loop techniques have circulated in the potholder world since at least the Nellie Bee days, more than eighty years ago, both because they have been repeatedly imported from the wider world of weaving — where twill and varying weights of warp and weft have been commonplace since before the the invention of writing — and because they have independently been reinvented by uncountable numbers of people sitting at their loom and deciding to try something new.
As much as we appreciate the many people who have shared their work as inspiration for our community — I think the first time I ever saw a split-loop twill zigzag potholder was in a post by Susan Lockhart in the Potholder People group on Facebook back in August 2021, but a bit of searching turned up split-loop diamond and zigzag twills being sold on Etsy in 2016, and no doubt there are innumerably more examples I haven’t found — these designs are too simple and common to think that anyone “owns” them; they’re indisputably in the public domain and the shared heritage of humanity as a whole.
With the benefit of that foundation, there’s room for limitless creativity and craftsmanship — choosing colors and materials, combining multiple techniques, and incorporating your own effort and intentions into your work. We can’t wait to see what you create with these elements!
The center’s staff were incredibly welcoming, and we loved getting a tour of the facility with their director Ann Kollegger and geeking out about weaving structures with their designer Tara Patrina. Their studio space was really impressive, with numerous looms in operation as their artisans were hard at work creating impressive lengths of fabric.
Although most of their work is done on big floor looms, it was great to see that they also had a space in their shop filled with dozens of potholders woven by Gene Morris from the charts on our site.
We were happy to have the chance to help to support the Center’s programs by buying a sample of Gene’s work, which now hangs proudly in our kitchen.
For folks who are looking for 19-peg looms, or who would prefer a wooden frame, we found one being sold on Amazon that worked out pretty well.
There are multiple vendors selling these as “knitting looms,” but I think they’re all coming out of the same factory. The quality is pretty decent, especially given the price: you can have a 19-peg loom delivered tomorrow for $25, or for $18 if you don’t mind waiting a few weeks for it to ship from China. (The same factory is also making a 30-peg loom that might fit pro loops, but we haven’t tested it yet.)
Background
A couple of months ago I put together a list of sources for potholder looms by reading through multiple conversations in Facebook groups, which kept rehashing the same half-dozen vendors, and having done so I figured the list was complete — but then Piglet announced that she’d found an affordable new loom on Amazon that looked like it would work, even though it wasn’t explicitly labeled as for woven-loop potholders.
We had to wait two weeks for it to ship from China, but now that it’s here it’s turned out to be totally serviceable. I’m always a little cautious about ordering unbranded products from low-cost overseas vendors, but in this case it turned out fine, so I figured I’d write up some notes for anyone else who’d like to give it a try.
The Looms
Looking at the listings on Amazon is confusing, because there are numerous vendors all selling similar-seeming items with confusing descriptions, but after studying them for a while, I think I’ve confirmed that there’s a single factory turning these out (in three different sizes) and then a dozen different middlemen are listing them on Amazon with slightly-different awkwardly-phrased names and varying selections from the same set of promotional photos.
The looms are available in three sizes, equivalent to the “mug rug,” traditional, and “pro” sizes we use for woven-loop potholders. In addition to the pins along each side, these looms also have pins in the corners, which are generally not useful for potholder weaving, so I’ve counted them separately:
10cm (4″): 8 pegs per side plus 4 corners: 36 total.
20cm (8″): 19 pegs per side plus 4 corners: 80 total.
30cm (12″): 30 pegs per side plus 4 corners: 124 total.
Our Experience
We ordered the middle size, and confirmed that the distance between the rows of pegs was just a little bit over 7″ — perfect for traditional potholder loops. We have not yet tried the large size to confirm it fits pro loops — it might be slightly too wide. If you do decide to roll the dice and test this, please let us know how it works out![Update, April 22:] Thanks to Pamela for posting about her experience; she ordered the 19-peg and 30-peg looms and reports that the 30-peg loom is wider than the Harrisville Pro loom — around 11″ between pegs rather than 10.25″ — but confirmed that the “pro” loops do still fit across it, albeit with a bit of extra stretch which can make weaving slightly awkward.
The wood frame feels nice; well-rounded edges and solid-seeming joints. The pins are solid and have round ball heads that help to keep the loops in place. The placement of the pins is not perfectly precise — a few are angled just a little bit askew — but they’re still entirely usable. (I used a pair of pliers to nudge a few of them into better alignment with their neighbors, but this was more for aesthetics than any practical benefit.)
Product Links
As noted above, all of the below Amazon listings appear to be for the same product line, being produced in three sizes by a single factory but sold under multiple names and at different prices. They were all added to Amazon over the last couple of months starting in February.
Most of the items ship in 2-4 or 4-6 weeks. Most vendors ship for free, but one charges $3 for shipping. One vendor has shipped their products to Amazon warehouses in the US, so theirs are available via next-day Prime delivery. [Update, April 14:] The handful of looms that were in stock at Amazon warehouses have now been sold, so next-day delivery is no longer an option.
The table below is likely incomplete, and is just a snapshot of a particular moment; as with all such offerings, the prices, availability, and shipping times are all subject to change without notice, so be sure to verify the details before placing your order.
Note that I don’t have any special knowledge about these products beyond reading the Amazon website, and I can’t guarantee that they’ll suit your needs, but hopefully if you do run into any problems, or if one of the vendors turns out to be unreliable, Amazon’s refund policies should protect you.
[Update, April 22:] Thanks again to Pamela for pointing out that these same looms are available through Ali Express at even lower prices. Shipping is generally not included in the price, although several vendors will waive the cost of shipping for your first order, which keeps the total price under $20.
All three sizes are available from these vendors, and probably others:
As far as I can tell, all of these vendors are selling the exact same product, probably all coming off a single factory line.
As with all such purchases from unknown overseas vendors, there’s less assurance than from buying at a reputable local supplier, but I suspect that more than 99% of orders are filled successfully, and at these prices it’s worth taking a bit of risk.
