Visitors to our site have asked about the Tassel picture, so here's an extra page to tell you more! Focussing your ideas. * 1. Find a picture which appeals to you. You can use the entire picture - as we did with the one you just clicked - or select part of it. It might help if you use strips of card to make a 'frame' and move it round over the picture until you find a part where you particularly like the colours or textures.
* 2. Carefully choose yarns to match the colours in the selected part of the picture. Try to find yarns whose textures also suggest those in the picture, too. You might be surprised at some of the colours which you find as you examine your source material.
* 3. Take a strip of card, about 3-4 cms wide, and longer than you think you'll need! (Try 30cms - you can always trim away the excess.) Stick a strip of double-sided sticky tape down the centre of the card. Wrap pieces of your selected yarns round the card - anything from a couple of turns may be sufficient - pressing then down on to the tape to hold them in place. Our wrapped card has 36 different yarns, chosen from the colours and textures in the whole of the picture of fruit, leaves and basket.
This process is called 'yarn-wrapping' and enables you to produce a shade card with your yarns. You can try wrapping them in different orders and with differing amounts of each colour to help you to decide which ones look best next to eachother. You may decide only to use a few of them.....or to choose several or all of them.
If you choose only a few colours (hues) you might add some tints and shades, too. In other words colours, plus some of their lighter and darker variations.
You can use the method above to choose anything from the colour scheme for decorating a room, to selecting yarns or fabrics for clothing and accessories. You might prefer to use a multi-coloured yarn or fabric as your source of inspiration, and select colours by close examination, just as you did with the picture. You could then add co-ordinating embellishments to give a really professional finish. We used yarns in hues selected from our picture to make a cord and tassel. If we'd started with, say, furnishing fabric which we'd used to make curtains, then we could use the cords and tassels for tie-backs.
First select several strands of yarn or thread in your chosen colour(s) and cut them to a length which is two-and-a-half or three times as long as you want the finished cord to be. Find someone to help with the next part! Lay the strands out on a flat surface. Pick up one end of all the strands and ask your helper to hold the other end. Stand apart from eachother, so that the yarn is just taut. Twist all the threads together in a clockwise direction. Don't let go! When the yarn tries to kink and wriggle back on itself, if you take a small step towards your helper, it's time to double back. Keep hold of the twisted yarn with one hand and place a finger of the 'free' hand on to the middle of the cord. Get hold of the other end of the cord, sp that one hand now holds both 'ends' and your finger is on the middle 'loop'. Remove your finger from the loop and watch the cord wriggle. Stroke it along its length, to spread the twist evenly. Tie or bind the cut ends by using an overhand knot or whipping.
This basic technique is very useful for making carrying straps for bags, cords to hang your knitted, woven, crocheted or felted masterpieces on the wall, for fastenings, laces, friendship bracelets, hair braids... and lots more! Tassels can be made in various ways and many sizes. They're a good way of 'finishing'. Try Adding them to the corners of cushions, the ends of cords, to hang from keys, attaching them to the bottom edge of wallhangings or to hats....
This is one easy way to make a tassel: take a rectangle of stiff card, where the length of the short sides is about a centimetre less than the total length that the tassel will be. Wrap your chosen yarn or yarns round the card many times. Don't pull too hard, or the tassel will be smaller than you planned! Take a separate piece of yarn and pass it under all of the wrapping on one side of the card. Pull it very tightly, and tie a knot to hold all the wrapped threads into a bundle. remove the card. Wrap another piece of yarn very, very tightly aroung the whole of the bundle of loops, fairly close to the top (where the thread is tying the loops together.) Bind off, making sure that this won't come undone! You can now cut the loops at the bottom of your tassel. Easy, and very effective...why not give it a whirl? Experiment with combinations of colours and textures: you'll be surprised at the variety of different effects!
It's sometimes difficult to get started - mainly because there are so many possibilities, sources of inspiration and yarns & colours to use.
Making Cords.
To finish off your cords you can add tassels....scroll down to find out how:
Making Tassels.