7 Easy, No-Knit Yarn Crafts
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The No-Knit Technique: Tube Knitting
How to make your tube knitter: (You'll need this to create the following two crafts – Soft Strands & Fuzzy Friends)
Wrap two rubber bands, each doubled over once, a few inches apart around a toilet-paper tube. Secure 6 ice-pop sticks, evenly spaced, underneath rubber bands. Leave about 3â„4 inch of stick above top of tube. Tape sticks to tube, using decorative washi tape. Remove rubber bands.
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Tube Knitting: Soft Strands
Soft Strands: These pretty striped necklaces come together with just your tube knitter and yarn—no needles required!
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Tube Knitting: Fuzzy Friends
Have your child tube-knit an entire zoo of puppets to outfit every one of his fingers. Or turn these cuddly cuties into stuffed ornaments, adding wildlife to a loved one's tree.
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The No-Knit Trick: Loom Weaving
To make a cardboard loom, take a piece of rectangular cardboard and fold the shorter ends back 1â„2 inch. Cut evenly spaced 1â„2-inch vertical slits into the folded ends, leaving 3â„8 inch between each slit.
A Touch of Fringe: Your kid can craft a woven wall hanging to rival the wildly elaborate ones that are all over Pinterest. It's a homemade gift that's right on trend.
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Loom Weaving: Yarn Bookmarks
They'll never lose their place with these loom-woven gifts that will bring warm thoughts every time the recipients crack open a book.
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The No-Kit Trick: Stitching
Impress Grandma and Grandpa with a hand-stitched card they'll want to display long after the holidays are over. These techniques are simple enough for tiny fingers to help out.
Cross My Frame: Attach an image to the center of a card using double-stick tape. Create two rows of holes around the picture with a 1â„8-inch hole punch. For a folded card, use a screw punch (Martha Stewart Crafts, $25; Amazon). Thread yarn on a plastic needle, then pull through the hole on the upper left-hand corner diagonally across to the hole on the lower right-hand corner. Make diagonal stitches in the same direction around the card once, then tie off. Start a new thread and repeat process in the opposite direction to create X's.
Border Line: Attach an image to the center of a paper card using double-stick tape. Punch one row of holes around the picture with a 1â„8-inch hole punch, then thread a plastic needle with yarn. Pull needle up through the upper left hole, then down through the hole directly underneath it. Continue around the entire photo, then tie off.
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Stitching: Yarn Graphics
To make the snowflake, download and print the snowflake pattern. Tape the template to the card using washi tape, then with a screw punch make holes through both template and paper. Remove the template, but don't discard it. Thread a plastic needle with yarn and follow the directional arrows on the template. Use the same over-under technique from the template to spell out words. Repeat the process with a different-colored yarn, if desired.