Recycled Potholder Loops

Last Christmas I got myself a Potholder Loom and quickly used the loops that came with it.

Instead of buying more loops I found a way of recycling T-shirts into loops.

The potholder in the above picture was made from clearance rack tank tops. They are nice and stretchy and make great potholders.

My worn T-shirts don't always do as well. Some don't stretch as well anymore and I have to cut them longer than the tutorial suggests so they don't break. Some don't roll as well as the new ones and I don't cut them as wide as the tutorial suggests so they are not as bulky.

This one was made with 1 inch strips.

A few weeks ago I pulled on a pair of socks and noticed a big hole in the heel. I was about to drop them in the trash and wondered if they would be stretchy enough for my loom. They are! At least from the heel up. Between the heel and toe they are too short. I cut them in to 5/8 inch stips. Since the socks were striped it was easy to use the stripes as a cutting guide.

The socks are the blue and I mixed in some T-shirt strips. This was before I started reducing the width of the strips and you can see how bulky some of the T-Shirt loops are.

Here are the strips for my latest potholder. The T-shirt on the left has spandex in it and is nice and stretch. This potholder will have to be decorative. In the middle, it's not as stretchy so I will have to be careful - the next loops I cut from that T-shirt will be at least 1/2 inch longer. An on the right is a 1 inch strip from a really old shirt.

Here's what it looks like so far:

I'm having too much fun weaving these potholders. Sometimes after a hard day it's a good mindless activity. I like creating something from items I no longer use and should probably throw away. I like mixing in the different stripes and colors and seeing what happens. I'm waiting for more socks to get holes. I'm looking at T-shirts differently.

If I can have fun with cotton scraps, I wonder what I could do with a real loom?

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