"Hana-Ami" Clover Flower Maker

posted by Diana

I'm a gadget-hoarder and I especially love collecting weird, gimmicky craft tools. I passed over Clover's Flower Loom a few times in Michael's before I finally decided to use my weekly 40% off coupon on it. I think it cost about $8 after the coupon, give or take a few bucks.

I kept skipping over this product because I wasn't into the 70s granny-chic vibe the example flowers pictured on the box were working.

But, I decided to give this product a shot, partially because the looms come all nestled in this neat plastic storage thing. Smart packaging (and marketing) at its finest.

This kit comes with so many looms! I chose the pink circular loom for this blog post because I wanted to make giant, circular flowers (the square looms make the flowers come out a bit too granny-squarish for my taste right now).

The loom kit also comes with written instructions. Instructions that are not-so-easy to follow with teeny supplemental pictures. I'm also not very good at following written instructions, so take my judgment with a grain of salt.

First, I wrapped my yarn around the pegs like I was supposed to, but wasn't very careful about wrapping around the middle post that came in the kit. I noticed that some of my petals weren't center around the post, so I re-wrapped them and cut my yarn.

According to the instructions, the next step is to insert a needle with a contrasting yarn through the back of the loom and pull the needle through the center of the petals. The only problem was that I didn't have a way to pull my needle through the back. The back didn't have a hole in it! Or so I thought...

So close to perfection.

I abandoned the paper instructions, took myself to Youtube, and watched this instructional video from Clover Needlecraft (I learn best by watching others anyway...). Turns out, you're supposed to pop that pink middle post out before you even start wrapping. So I unraveled my loom, took out the post piece, and re-wrapped my flower for the third time. And it was perfect this time, gosh darn it. Third time's a charm and all that.

Since I didn't have that middle post in, threading my contrasting yarn up through the center and down through each petal was super easy. In fact, I didn't even have to be exact when pulling my yarn up through the center the first few times. Each thread up through the approximate center helped create and define an actual circular center.

For reference, here's the woven flower I made pictured with a crocheted flower I made for this infinity scarf.

And here it is... the start of something.

I'm planning to turn these blue flowers into a scarf border and I've already started on weaving flowers for a daisy blanket. And there are so many more possibilities! These looms can be also be used with fabric strips, ribbon, or anything else than can be woven. Human hair? Gross, but yes. Check out Clover's Pinterest board for more ideas!

Happy making!