Looms, Looms everywhere looms!

This last year I decided I needed some way to store my looms. And since the last few years I've acquired several looms for different projects, I was puzzled on how the best way for me to store them would be. Because they are all different sizes and shapes they don't seem to fit well in boxes that I have to store things. But since I have been making one of our extra bedrooms more of a craft room I decided I could use the door of the old toy closet. I first thought of peg board, but I really didn't want to buy something new and then I would've had to figure out how to install it. Then I saw the commercial for these hooks, that are easy to take off as well as put on. They don't leave marks on your walls...and since this all may be moved soon I didn't want marks where they weren't needed.

You must first have a clean surface. I had a friend help me put the hooks & looms up. So we would wipe our surface, dry it and then get the hook ready. I also kind of laid out how I wanted to put them up, on the floor...so I kind of had a plan. I decided the Knifty Knitter Looms are the most colorful and thought they would look neat on the out side of the door.

The hooks I used are called "Command" hooks by 3M, they come in several sizes: Small, Medium and Large. I used some of each, but mostly I used the Medium size, especially for the Knifty Knitter looms. The large one's I used on the heavier wooden looms and sometimes the looms used two hooks, especially the Infinity Board looms. The Medium size holds up to 3 lbs and I think the Large size would hold up to 5 lbs (I don't have the instructions now, but it says on the front of the box). I bought the value packs that had 6 hooks and 12 strips (which basically gives you an extra strip if you make a mistake on where you want your hook).

After we wiped our surface down with Isopropyl Rubbing Alcohol and let it dry. Kelly would get the strips ready on the hook, and I would hold the loom up to where I wanted to put it. Then we would take the black liner off of the mounting strip and mount the hook...holding it in place for 30 seconds. Then you need to wait an hour before you put the looms on the hook to store...otherwise they might fall off and you have to restart the process. Also if you end up putting one in the wrong place, they are easy to take off. You just slide the hook cover up to reveal the base and removal tab. Hold base and pull straight down on the tab slowly. You will probably stretch about 12 inches and the base should release from the wall. Throw the old sticky tab away and put your hook either in storage to reuse later or get one of your extra adhesive strips and reinstall your hook on the wall.

You can find these hooks at several places besides Walmart & Target I also found them at all of the lumber/home stores like Home Depot, Lowes and Menards. At the home improvement stores I also found that some of them put them on sale every so often. Plan ahead if you are going to use these hooks and count all of your looms so that you have plenty of hooks on hand for when you go to putting them up.
After you get done with the front of your door, now it's time to do the back of your door. My other looms which some are homemade from my friend Kirk and other's from Decor Accents Looms & CinDwood Crafts and some miscellaneous, are all wood so I put them all together on the back of the door. The door has space between the door and the shelves, so I had plenty of space for the looms to hang without hitting the edge of the shelves.

Well hope this gives you some ideas on how to store your looms! You could also do something like this with peg board and peg board hooks. We have one room in our house that one wall was covered with peg board...I use to store some things on it. But since it is more a dining room/office/music room I really didn't think my looms would look that great there.

I'm also going to show you my yarn storage...as you can see I need to stay away from the yarn stores for awhile! Ha! ha! I like the boxes that are see through, makes it easy to see your different colors and yarn pretty good. But I also use duct tape and mark both ends of my box as to what kinds of yarn are in the boxes. For example: Dishcloth cotton yarn, homespun, chunky, Red Heart yarn, sock yarn, Simply Soft yarn, etc... That way when I'm needing a specific yarn I can find it a little easier. But as you can see I need to either get more projects done or get my clothes out of the rest of the closet! I guess I better get busy looming!!!

Now if I can just get my scrapbooking supplies and albums organized too. Now that would be an accomplishment!

Have a good day...stay warm and Happy Looming! or maybe I should say Happy Crafting!