Easy Yarn Wall Hanging
Last weekend I was invited to host a creative activity at a fundraiser for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. If you don’t know who they are, this amazing organization helps to grant wishes to kids with terminal illnesses. Some kids wish to travel, perform on stage, meet their idols or even become their idol for a day! It was so special to meet some of the “wish kids” and help bring a smile to their faces with a fun, creative project.
Yarn Wall Hanging Project
I participated in this event last year with a super fun, but messy, collaborative painting project. This year, I wanted to to do the opposite and offer a simple, mess-free, super cool activity that the kids could take home with them. This yarn wall hanging project, inspired by a video Meri Cherry posted on Instagram ended up being perfect! Thanks Meri for this incredible idea!
Kids of all different ages (as young as 4) were loving this project. It’s really simple once you learn the basic knot. Older kids can take it a step further by adding beads, braiding some of the yarn, or trimming the yarn to create a shape at the bottom.
Even adults from the other booths were coming over to make their own!
Tutorial:
If you want to try it out yourself, here’s how to make an easy yarn wall hanging:
Materials
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- Stick or wooden dowel (these are 12″ long)
- Thick yarn (try a mix of different thickness and textures)
Optional:
- Liquid watercolor to dye sticks (I pre-dyed them for this event)
- Beads with wide holes
- Masking tape (to use on yarn end when beading)
Steps
1. Start with a pre-cut yarn strand (about 1 yard long) and fold it in half. Place it on the table in front of you with the folded end at the top like in this photo below.
2. Place the stick over the yarn to create a loop at the top.
3. Grab the bottom two pieces of the yarn and thread them through the loop, and pull tight.
4. Do this across the stick with many strands of yarn.
5. Optional: Thanks again to Meri Cherry for this tip… After you have all the yarn in place, choose a few strands of yarn to bead. Wrap a piece of tape on the bottom of those strands to help slide the beads on. When finished, cut off the tape.
6. Tie a strand of yarn to both ends of the stick to hang your creation.
If you are wishing you could have joined us at this event, good news! We’ll be hosting pop-up art events across the U.S. in the Spring of 2017. Here’s a post with a little more info about the trip.
Thanks to Plae for inviting us and your awesome partners (Lonely Planet Kids, Bay Area Discovery Museum, Know Yourself, Hi-Five Sports Zone, and Play-Well) to this Make-A-Wish event. As you can see, we were having fun at the other booths too, like playing dress-up at this photo booth by Lonely Planet.
And many thanks to my niece and the rest of my family for helping out!
Looks like so much fun! We’d love to give it a try, and so easy to. What a beautiful wall hanging and would even make great gifts.
Thanks Crystal! My girls have given a few as gifts and people love them.
I recently did these with some kids at my child care center — they turned out so so cute, and the kids had a blast (and so did the grown-up helpers)! I used pre-cut yarn for the younger kids and helped with tying the knots when needed, but they loved picking the colors and placement and giving it a “hair cut” when the stick was full. The older kids had free reign over the balls of yarn and got so creative! These turned out so bright and colorful, and now they are hanging next to my desk and I smile every time I look over at them. Thanks for the inspiration!
Aww, that warms my heart, Lindsay! Thanks for sharing that.