Weaving and textile traditions

Ages 9 to 12 Read alone or together · about 40 minutes

Read together

Weaving crosses threads over and under to make cloth. People everywhere have woven, each with their own patterns.

Cloth often carries a family's or village's story.

Do it

1. Cut a piece of cardboard with slots at both ends and string it with yarn as the warp.
2. Weave other yarn over and under, row by row. Push each row down.
3. Change colour to make stripes or a pattern.
4. Look up weaving from one place, such as Philippine inabel, Andean textiles or West African kente, and compare a pattern.

Talk about it

• Which threads go over and which go under?
• What does a pattern say?

For the grown-up

Textile traditions are living arts. Learn about them respectfully and credit the communities that keep them. A grown-up should do any cutting.

Mark as done

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Where this comes from

• Barber, E. J. W., Prehistoric Textiles (Princeton University Press, 1991)
• Smithsonian Institution, Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, pages on textile traditions

Written with AI assistance and checked against the sources listed. Please read it before sharing it with a child.