Fine Motor Skills: Paper Plate Weaving

Continuing on with our half term activities we discovered this post over at Pinterest for weaving using a paper plate.
Here is R's first attempt (she is eager to make more!)

Not bad eh? Especially if you read the sparse instructions on the original post for how to thread the warp threads.  

Here's how we did it.

First we chopped "spikes" into the rim of the paper plate.

Then we took a ball of wool for our warp threads (in this case we used white)

We tied one end of the wool to one of the spikes to secure it.

Next we took the wool across the front of the plate to the opposite spike.

Working clockwise we put the wool round the back of the spike then back across the plate to the next spike clockwise from where we started.

We continued going behind the spike and then across to the opposite one all round the plate.

We were left with a star shape of threads on the front of the plate and loops round the spikes (but no threads across the centre) on the back.

Next get your weaving thread - you could use a small ball of wool but we found a length threaded into a darning needle was much easier.  Tie the end of the thread to the warp threads where they cross in the middle of the plate to secure.

Weave away.

As an aside if you have an odd number of spikes (like we did) you may find that the normal over-one-under-one ends up with the same threads being on top or below on each round (if you look at the pink circle above you will see what I mean) either alternate as you add a new length to your needle, or plan it better than we did and use an even number of spikes!