Ice Cream Stick Weaving Sticks

I've been saving all my kulfi ice cream sticks for future crafting, and recently decided to turn some of them into weaving sticks.

Weaving sticks are entirely hand held, so they're very portable, and they're simple enough for young children to use (with some help with the setup). You can make woven strips of varying thickness (only limited to how many sticks you can hold in your hand), but here I've demonstrated the simplest two stick form.

For more ideas on how to use weaving sticks, I really recommend Playful Peg Loom Weaving, by Stephanie Fradette.

• old kulfi ice cream sticks, or scrap pieces of wooden dowel
• pin vise, or dremel-style multitool
• pencil sharpener
• sandpaper
• jojoba oil (optional)
• crochet cotton yarn
• needle and thread
• a selection of yarns for weaving

Mark a point around 1.5cm up on each stick. Drill a 1-2mm hole through the centre of each stick, protecting your work surface with some scrap wood or leather.

With the pencil sharpener, sharpen the dowel to a blunt point. Repeat on each stick.

Use the sandpaper to smooth the wood, and shape the end to a round point. Once all your sticks are sanded, you can very lightly oil them with jojoba oil, if desired. Make sure to rub away any excess.

Next, add the tails you'll attach your weaving yarn to. I didn't have a needle that would both thread my crochet cotton and pass through the hole, so I took an ordinary sewing needle, threaded it, and tied a small loop of thread. I then poked the needle through the hole in the stick, and threaded the crochet cotton yarn through the loop of thread. When you pull the needle and thread fully through the hole, the yarn should follow. Cut around 18cm off the yarn, and loop.

Repeat for all sticks.

You should now have a completed set of weaving sticks ready for use. The next steps will show you a simple way of weaving with a single pair of them.

For each stick, cut a length of yarn double your desired finished length, plus around 30cm. Fold it in half, and tie a lark's head knot between the yarn and your weaving stick tail.

Ideally you want to use a strong and smooth yarn for your warp. If you want to use a different yarn (like the thick, grippier unplied grey yarn pictured), I find your weft will slide onto it better if you bind tightly around the attachment point with some smooth, thin yarn or thread.

I began by loosely attaching my weft yarn to one stick using a simple half hitch. Feel free to tie a sturdier knot if you're worried about it loosening. Holding two sticks in one hand, I weaved the first weft yarn in a figure of eight motion around both sticks. Try not to strangle the yarn with too much tension - it will be harder to move the yarn down onto the warp threads if you do this. Holding the sticks a bit further apart can also help with this problem.

When you've filled the length of your two sticks with weaving, start sliding your figure of eight loops down off the sticks and onto your weft yarn. If you're continuing with the same colour, leave some of the loops still on the sticks. If you're changing colour, feel free to slide the whole lot down off the sticks, and onto the tails and then warp yarn. You can start new colours in the same way as before, with a half hitch or other knot.

Once you've woven your desired length, slide it all onto your warp yarn, and evenly distribute the tension. You should have 10-15cm of each warp yarn left on either side of the strip.

Cut the warp yarn free from the tails, making sure to leave the tails intact for your next project.

To finish off, knot your warp yarns together (to make a bracelet or necklace, tie your warp yarns from one end to the warp yarns from the other end, to make a continuous loop), and weave them in with a tapestry needle. You can stagger the points at which your yarn tails exit, to give less obvious bulk. Once you've woven in all the ends, pull on each one a little before snipping. The tails should disappear into your woven strip.

One speedy project you can make with your woven strips is a coiled coaster.

For this coaster I weaved around 36cm of one colour (grey), and 24cm of the multicoloured. After completing the strip, and weaving in all ends, I folded the strip at the colour join, and began sewing it in a coiled shape with a needle and thread (match the thread colour to the longer strip colour, which will finish on the outside) to form a spiral. Keep going until the coil is complete, creating a finished coaster.

For small children, you can adapt this project by giving them cardboard shapes to glue their woven strips to glue onto.