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Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Rainbow Loom. When will the madness stop?

I think it's safe to say that every parent of an elementary-school aged child in America knows by now about the Rainbow Loom.  The kids who were really on the ball knew about it this summer.  Who knows, maybe some kids knew about it in the spring.  For sure if you were at the beach or camp in the Northeast this summer, the rainbow loom loomed large.  To say it's all the rage is an understatement.  It's everywhere.  And I mean everywhere.  You can even get knock offs of the elastics from Michael's and probably every local dollar store.

Concealed Light, The Wolfman and The Wolfman's Brother received their first Rainbow Loom as a gift when Eddie was born.  I hadn't heard of it, but our friends, who joined us late in the summer at Sesame Place, told us it's the thing to have.  Within that one week I heard it mentioned numerous times, and now that school is in full swing pretty much all the kids (and many teachers) are wearing the bracelets.


My children started off wearing just one bracelet made of the "original" stitch.  Now they are increasing exponentially up their wrists.  They've got fishtail, triple single, and probably a lot of other stitches we don't know yet.  Kids are learning how do it on YouTube.  There's a special way to roll off the bracelets.

When will it end?  Then again, better they loom than zone out on the iPad, right?

My guess is this craze will outlast Silly Bandz, which were just bracelets you bought.  Here, you're actually making something.  So it's somewhat redeeming.  Kind of reminds me of the ribbon barrettes we used to make in the early 80s with the beads at the end.  In the beginning it was so hard to find the special Goody brand barrettes and particular width satin ribbon needed to make the barrettes.  The way to make them was a carefully-guarded secret:  even a family friend wouldn't teach me because she was in the business of selling the barrettes.  But now with the Internet nothing is sacred and all kids are created Rainbow Loomingly equal.

It's pretty easy to find out the "creator" of the Rainbow Loom, though Concealed Light said the loom is nothing more than a glorified finger knitter.  Still, the gentleman from Michigan, Choon Ng, who created this product is to credit.

I wonder if there is a pot of gold at the end of Mr. Ng's rainbow (loom).





1 comment:

Sparklingsister said...

Hahahaha!!!! I knew you'd write something about this! Nesya's school already outlawed wearing and making them during school.

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