Yarn has long been a popular early leaning loose part. Imagine how many craft projects in which it has played a role. And what about lacing and weaving?

Back in the day, we were taught to take a drip or two of glue, smear/twist it on to the end of a strand of it, and wait impatiently for it to dry. This supposedly created a needle-like end on the strand of yarn that’d facilitate weaving and lacing. It worked like magic—for about three and a quarter minute. Then the ‘needle’ end was nearly as floppy as the rest of the yarn. I remember an icky feeling combination of dried glue and fibers all over my fingers from the glue-twisting part of the process.

Another trick we were taught: wrap a bit of tape on the end of the yarn to form a needle. This worked better than the glue, but I don’t think my hands and eyes were coordinated enough to do it until the second half of first grade. Luckily, a benevolent classmate took pity and helped me out. I had such a crush on her.

We’ve wandered off-topic—enough of the fond memories of olden times, back to yarn.

Free-range yarn is a play friendly addition to your play space. In addition to crafting, lacing, and weaving, I’ve found it to be a useful tool to have on hand for connecting. There are all kinds of construction and engineering projects kids get up to in a child-led play environment. It’s handy for binding pieces together in these projects. Building a fort out of sticks? Bind them together with yarn. Need to harness four plastic horses together, so they can pull a cart you built out of a tissue box and some yogurt container lids? Yarn is the answer.

It also is helpful in dramatic play, block play, water play, and all kinds of other situations. Not to mention all the string games you can play with it.

Sourcing Yarn

I suppose there are places it can be purchased, but back in my center director days it just kind of showed up. Multiple times a year, some kind person would show up at the center door with a large box or trash bag. They’d share a story about cleaning out Aunt Myra’s apartment after she passed, and ask if we could make use of some yarn.

Anyway, yarn. It’s a useful loose part.

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