RACQUET WEAVING

Weaving is boring  - Finn, age 3.

But wait! Its actually not! I think weaving with kids is just all about finding the right project to match the age and skill level so they don’t get bored and disheartened if it doesn’t work out.

After a few failed attempts with weaving at our place I finally nailed it with this one. Finn probably spent a full 45 minutes on which is basically an entire lifetime when you are 3.

We went with a totally abstract design but older children may want to experiment with a more tapestry style picture or solid lines of colours.

We bought our racquet at a charity shop for about $5, they are normally in pretty good supply.

What you need:

• An old badminton or tennis racquet. We found ours at a charity shop for $4 but you might have one lying unused at home.
• Wool
• Sticky tape
• Paint (regular acrylic or spray paint)

TO MAKE:

1.     Paint your racquet. We spray painted the strings chrome and then hand painted the racquet spearmint but feel free to use whatever colours you have at home.

2.     Cut about 10 lengths of wool/yarn. These can vary in length and but aim for around 50cm. We doubled ours up so that it was bulkier to weave with. HOT TIP: Wrap the end of the wool in sticky tape to make it stiffer and easier to weave for little fingers.

3.     Tie your first piece of wool onto the racquet and then weave in and out of the strings.  Under and over, under and over, under and over. Little ones will get the hang of this quickly especially if you encourage them to talk it out loud. Leave about 5cm and tie off.

4.     Continue with all pieces of string until you have finished.

5.     Hang up high to avoid the temptation for little people to hit things with it!