a simple and colourful yarn web + 4 magical books to keep the mood going
/We have a wonderful old lemon tree in the back yard. It needed some pruning and love when we first moved in but it was worth it—not because of the lemons but because Ivy loves playing in and with it so much. It's just the right size for a 4-year-old to test her limits, and has been a castle, a boat, a unicorn, a great friend and unlimited food for the imagination.
Ivy decided that her friend the tree needed decorating, so we made a colourful spider web for it—like this one on a smaller scale.
A Yarn Web is a great spur-of-the-moment craft because all that's needed is 4 thin sticks and some coloured yarn or string.
I started ours off by tying the sticks together—spacing them out and weaving the first line— and then Ivy took over. It was wonderful to see her concentration as she worked out how to weave the string to hold it together.
When we were done we simply tied our web off and added some extra yarn on one stick for hanging. It looked great!
If you decide to try this craft yourself, you might also like to try threading things into the web such as beads, leaves or feathers. Ivy thought ours needed some flowers to make it ‘really super beautiful’.
The Yarn Web is perfect for ages 3- to 12-years because it can be as simple or as intricate as you like. Since making ours, we've had kids aged between 6- and 11-years over, both boys and girls, who were desperate to make their own—it was a very big hit!
Staying with web-weaving, you might like to check out these books, they're all magical:
The books are linked to Book Depository—they have great prices and free postage anywhere in the world—but Amazon might be cheaper for North American readers.
