I think so - there was a lot of hype about them at Xmas time - the looms were hard to find!

One of my neices got one for Christmas. It didn't work as described on the box. As I recall, the pegs (?) were not positioned as advertised. Thankfully my neice is a creative sort and managed to find a way to make the bracelets anyway, her own way.

I don't know of anyone in the personal sense who uses them.  I don't know many kids though.  I have heard of the hook breaking and a parent desperate to find a replacement.  Another friend was also teasing her colour-blind son about the colours he was using for a bracelet he was making for her.

I have never heard of them...

Just looked them up. Very cool. (Oh. That was already mentioned) You can buy kits apparently. It seems like every generation of kids has their version of this. When I was a kid it was friendship bracelets with seed beads and safety pins (and friendship pins we'd collect and put on our shoelaces.) I've seen loom bracelets done with embroidery thread and beads (macramé bracelets too). I didn't know what they were called or specifically how they're made. I didn't realize it was a kids' trend now though.

You could find a hook at a craft store or even use a dental pick (or one at the bottom of a toothbrush might work), and make a loom out of a piece of wood or cork and thumbtacks, I'm thinking. Or, Popsicle sticks, thumbtacks, and styrofoam.

I've never seen these elastic ones but I remember when I was about 10 or 11 the big thing was making beaded bracelets on a kind of loom.  I might even  still have my bead loom someplace - probably in my Mom's attic.  I remember learning how to make 'gimp' bracelets as a kid too using that kind of narrow plastic ribbon and the knot or finger-woven  friendship bracelets we used to make at camp out of embroidery thread.  I actually still use the same technique to make wide strips of the weaving for bookmarks.

I remember the gimp bracelets, Rowan.

Yes, Kimmio, a new version of what kids have been doing in different ways and mediums for years.

Very popular here. Even 5 year olds can do it. What it reminds me of is spool knitting. 4 Nails in wooden thread spool and use a nail to flip wool over.

CH - we called that corking.  I did that a lot as a kid.

My neice (10 yrs old) got a Rainbow Loom for Christmas and I often see kids (boys and girls) sporting the bracelets at church.

It's all the rage in my grade 3/4.  Kids wear like twenty at once.  They also make other products like headbands and keychains.  I don't like their smell but have been given lots :)

I have a teenager now, so tend to miss out on stuff like this. I remember him making stuff with gimp, though.

Mendalla

Sterton... You are really in grade 3/4?

It's my second year in grade four.  :)

Too funny sterton and jae!

We have a girl at church who sold bracelets to raise money for an animal shelter. At last count she raised 40$ - not bad at a buck per bracelet. I commissioned, for $2, the "best & brightest rainbow bracelet she could make."
She made me a ladder pattern bracelet, so it is about an inch wide across the top of my wrist, in a bright rainbow progression, on black. Very noticeable.
I'm amazed by the fancy patterns - have seen bumblebee patterns and roses chains and all sorts of things. I'm sad at the amount of plastic these things use, but the kids are so happy and not on a screen.

exellent, birthstone. 

My daughter is making them for something to do and for her friends - you have to appreciate the finished project when you realize her physical disability.  She made me a blue and white - it is a bit tight, I'm hoping they stretch??