The start of a new hobby for me and a DIY for you!

I need a new hobby like I need a new pair of shoes.  Which is to say, not at all.  But sometimes a girl can't help herself!  That was the case when one of the bloggers I follow on Instagram recently started weaving.  After her sharing just a few projects, I knew I had to give weaving a shot.  She purchased her lap loom online.  The kit that she purchased looked amazing and the quality of the loom and the yarn, I am sure is top notch.  I showed Ryan the loom, and he thought it was a bit expensive for me to get for a hobby I was just starting.  The more I thought about it, the more I realized he had a point.  So I began to look elsewhere online for lap looms to see if I could find a cheaper one.  I soon realized that we could probably just make one for way cheaper than any of the ones online.
 

In my research, I stumbled upon this blog which didn't really have a tutorial for making a loom, but gave a me a good idea of where to start to make one.  So last night, Ryan and I set out to make one together.  It was really pretty simple, and you don't need any fancy tools.  Just a drill, a hammer, nails and wood.

For the wood I found two 3/4" square, long piece of wood at Home Depot for I think $2.50 each.  They were next to the wooden dowels.  The nails we used were 1 1/2" finishing nails.  You could use any kind of nails you want, but the finishing nails don't have the wide heads.  My thinking is that it will be easier to remove the woven projects if I don't have to leave slack to get over the nail heads. 


First, we cut the wood to the desired length.  The long pieces, which are the sides of the loom, we cut to 17", and the shorter pieces to 14".  You can cut them however long you want to make the loom whatever size you want.  We used our miter saw to cut the wood at home, but if you don't have one, they will cut the wood to length at Home Depot for you.

Next, we marked where the nails would be placed on the shorter pieces.  We marked every 1/2" using a tape measure as a guide. 

Once we had each point marked, Ryan pre-drilled holes for the nails.  This ensured that the nails all went in straight and didn't split the wood.

After the holes were drilled, we pounded in the nails. 

After all the nails were in, we added the sides to loom.  We placed the top and bottom pieces (the pieces with nails) on top of the sides pieces.  Then we nailed one nail in each corner and then used a quick square tool to square the corners before added a second nail to each corner to secure the loom.

Ryan's was worried that it wouldn't be sturdy enough with just nails, but it is actually really sturdy.

I haven't started to weave anything yet since I don't have any yarn, but I am planning on venturing out tomorrow to find some. In the mean time, I have been looking at different YouTube videos to learn about all the different stitches there are.  I am pretty excited!  I hope to be able to show you something soon!

Just for fun, let's break down the cost of the loom.
Wood - $5.00 (2 dowels @ $2.50 each)
Nails - $1.30 for a box of 80 nails
Total cost -$6.30!

Not too bad! Perfect price to try out a new hobby if you ask me.   And now I can spend some of the money I saved on yarn!