Fork Weaving - Yarn Creatures

The idea for these little guys came about accidentally. We were originally trying to create a sort of pom-pom bear, which ended up looking more like a dog, but not quite a dog either.

The children are calling them Yarn Yetis, and they're all the rage in our house right now. Everyone has to have one, except for T, of course. As a 14 year old boy, he's immune to the cuteness of the yarn creatures.

The best part of the Yarn Yetis, other than their obvious adorableness, is that they are quick and easy to make. It's a slightly more difficult fork weaving project than the flowers, or spiders we've made before - probably best for upper elementary aged children. But, younger children accustomed to fork weaving, might be up to the challenge with just a little bit of help.

To make a Yarn Yeti of your own, you will need yarn (only one color, but for the purpose of clarity, we used two in the pictures below), one regular fork (the longer the tines, the better), one baby fork (we used a 4 tined baby fork), scissors, a yarn needle, tacky or hot glue, and a pair of google eyes for each creature you plan to make.


You begin just like for the other fork weaving projects, by cutting a piece of string, and centering it between the middle tines of a dinner fork, only this time the piece of string should be about two and a half feet long.


Then, place the loose end of the skein of yarn next to the far tine, and holding it in place, weave the yarn back and forth through the tines...



...until you near the top of the tines. Cut the yarn loose...


...and tie the original piece of yarn around the weaving, through the center tines (you can hold the fork between your knees, if you don't have a friend to work with).


Carefully remove the yarn from the fork, and...


...pull the knot tight. Secure with a second knot.


Fluff out the loops of yarn, and trim the short loose ends. Leave the two long ends (shown in black above and below) alone.


Repeat the steps to make a second pom-pom, but this time, begin by cutting two lengths of string, one two and a half feet long, and one slightly shorter.


Use the second piece to drape across the top of the fork before you tie the first string around the weaving, then proceed as you did for the first pom-pom.


This will give you two pom-poms, one - the head, with two long loose ends, and the other - the body, with four long loose ends.


Now, your ready for the baby fork. Cut a short piece of yarn, and center it between the middle tines of the smaller fork...


...then thread one of the loose ends of the pom-poms through the outer space between the tines, and pull the loose end, so the back of the fork is tight against the pom-pom.


Weave the loose end back and forth through the tines, until you reach the top of the fork, or run out of yarn.


Tie it off, with the centered piece as usual, to create a small pom-pom attached to the larger pom-pom in the same way you made the larger one.





Repeat the steps for all six loose ends, until you have two pom-poms - the head, with two small pom-poms for ears, and the body - with four small leg pom-poms attached.


To connect the two pom-poms, push the loops apart at the bottom of the head, and the front of the body, to reveal the strings tied around their centers. Then, cut a short piece of yarn from the skein, and use the yarn needle to thread one end through the center body string, and the center head string.


Then, thread the other side of the string under the center string of the head, in the opposite direction from the first end.


Tie the two ends into a tight knot, to pull the head up onto the body, and secure with a second knot.


Trim the ends.


Pull a loop up from the back of the body, to make a sort of tail...


...glue google eyes on the face...


...and your creature is ready to join the herd. Ours have all turned out similar, but slightly different, just like the children who own them.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

Lumpy, Bumpy, Finger Knit, Pumpkin Coasters

A (age 10) and E (age 6) worked on another finger knitting project today (a younger child could probably take on, at least the first part of this project, but it might take several days, and require some assistance).

They started out, like normal for finger knitting, by tying a loop of yarn around one index finger...


...then making a second loop, with the yarn ball end of the yarn, in front of the first...


...slipping the first loop over the second, and off their finger...


...and pulling the ends tight...


...then, repeating until they had a few inches of crochet like chain. If you need a better how-to, for basic finger knitting, I suggest this video, on YouTube.


After they had about four inches of chain, they switched to orange yarn, by snipping the green yarn loose, and tying the new end to the loose end of the orange.


Then, they continued on, finger knitting with the orange yarn...



...until their chain was around four and a half feet long. They cut a long (nearly as long as their chain) tail, and tied it off through the last loop on their fingers.


Keeping the tail free, I helped them twist their chains, into spiral circles, starting at the orange end...


...and working toward the green. I placed a knitting needle through the holes in each coiled part of the chain, to hold the spiral in place...


...while the girls used a yarn needle, to sew the tail, back and forth, through the spiral...



...until it was all held, securely, together. They weren't real careful about keeping their spiral tight, once they pulled out the knitting needle, giving their pumpkins, the lumpy, bumpy edges.

They made a spiral stem, with the green portion of the chain...


...and secured it down, with a few additional stitches to the orange, trimming, and weaving in what remained of the tail...


...for finished pumpkin...


...coasters.


It's great to be a homeschooler.

Fork Weaving - Spiders

Ready for a little more fork weaving fun? How about making a spider?

It's pretty much the same as weaving a flower, but with the addition of a couple of extra, cut pieces of yarn, about 4-6 inches long, and some googly eyes.

Start, as usual, by centering one of the cut pieces of yarn between the center tines of a tall dinner fork (the ends will serve as two of the legs).


Drape the loose end of a ball of yarn ball through the far right tines of the fork, so about two inches worth of yarn is hanging down (this will be the third spider leg). Holding onto the loose ends, so they don't slip...

...begin weaving the yarn in and out of the tines of the fork, pushing it down to keep it tight, as you go.


Continue weaving...


...until the yarn almost reaches the top of the tines. Cut the end loose from the ball, leaving a tail, at least two inches long (this will be the fourth leg of the spider).


Weave, or loosely drape, the two remaining, cut pieces of yarn, across the top of the fork, with a couple of inches hanging down on each side (these will form the final four legs). Keep track of the original piece of yarn, placed between the center tines.


Holding the fork between your knees, to free your hands, grab hold of the loose ends of that original piece of yarn...


And, tie it around all the yarn, between the center tines.


Gently scoot the yarn off of the fork, keeping track of the loose ends of the original piece of yarn.


Pull the knot tighter, and secure it with a second knot.


Spread the loose ends out, four on each side, and fluff the center into a pom pom.


Trim the loose ends to the same length.


It should be looking pretty spider-like already.


All that's left is to glue on a couple of google eyes.



You could use hot glue for extra security, but we found tacky craft glue to be sufficient to hold the eyes on, even after hours of play. Little Miss Muffet has nothing up on the Polly Pockets in our house.


It's great to be a homeschooler.