Spending the evening in the company of my small friends, I took the opportunity to try an idea I’ve had pinned to my Pinterest board for several months.  I felt the moment had come to gather a couple of hula hoops and get weaving.

The instructions are clearly set out here with plenty of advice gleaned from experience.

We chose to use plastic bag “yarn” rather than finger knitting, because I wanted to give the method a try without too much time investment.  When you’re seven, it’s important to have success not only guaranteed but also pretty quickly achieved.  In no time at all, a sizeable and very satisfying circle of tightly worked weaving was being admired.

Older hands worked more quickly, with fewer mistakes prompting a need to undo a bit now and again.  The biggest challenge was finding a range of coloured bags – we’d have loved some pink, blue or purple ones!

An hour or so was enough for one evening, but the results were impressive and enough to be going on with.  Perhaps we’ll tackle finger knitting next time we’re together and use what we’ve learned from this prototype mat to create something a little more colourful.

It’s a great rainy day project, though!