The Different Ways
to make
Cords for any project!
As I was finishing up my plethora of w.i.ps, I had picked up a more recent project and got to the part that needed handles. I was following the pattern and had “started” these handles when I found myself just not wanting to deal with them. These weren’t flat, belt like handles. These were round, tubular handles.
Now I am a big boned, yes and chubby… but my wrists measure 7 inches ( without the chub) so crocheting or doing any small delicate craft is a bit challenging for me. I tend to get frustrated and just have no desire to continue. This was the case for the handles. I needed these cords to be a minimum of 18 inches long. After spend 20 mins and only getting 3 inches crocheted I basically put the project down, walked off disgusted in myself, grabbed my coffee and one to many cookies and went and sulked outside for awhile. I decided I needed to work on something else when it hit me that my new Healing Stones had come in while I was sick. So I happily came back to my work area, got my stones, my hemp string and started working. As I was almost done with the “cord” part of the necklace I got the awsum idea…. What if I do a Different Type of Cord for my crochet project… And Thus spawned this Blog Post. 🙂
Did you know that there is basically a way to make cord with practically every technique possible???!?!?! You can Knit, Crochet, Macrame, Finger, French Knit and Lucet. There is probably more ways but these are the more common ones. I have researched, practiced and/or accomplished these techniques… here are my findings……
Knitting… NOPE, can’t do lol I do knit but I’ve never gotten past the basic scarf so making a cord knitting was not gonna happen but IF you do knit and want to try… there are several tutorials out there for you.
https://www.craftsy.com/blog/2013/04/how-to-knit-i-cord/
or if you prefer Video tutorial
Fingers… O.k… yes I have tried. Yet again, this is restrictive because of my Chunky hands. I have made scarfs with this technique and if I want to make a Large cord.. I’d be all good but I just can’t seem to accomplish a smaller cord. Maybe you can find more Videos but i wasn’t too successful. This is one I found…
Macrame… I started back up doing macrame about 4 years ago, so this was easy to grasp for me. (I may do a more in-depth post on macrame.) I don’t use my fingers while doing the smaller string. I actually use my nails 😉 The knotting technique I use most for my necklaces makes a nice “round” look but its actually a flat technique. There is a way to make round cord with macrame. The techniques are The 4 ply round or square Lanyard and the 4 or 6 ply round braid. depending on the string used you can produce any thickness of cord you desire. Below is a close up of the Spiral Knot I use that gives a round appearance.
Crochet… The process of making cord with crochet is not complicated and if I chose to do a larger size it probably wouldn’t be as frustrating to me but making small cord is just to tedious for my liking. I did however learn that there is atleast 2 ways to make round cord. There is the more common and popular tutorial for i-cord and then there is the, what I call amirugumi style of making a circle the circumference of the size of the cord you want and then just sc around to the length you desire.
There is just a insane amount of tutorials for crochet i-cord. Just do a search and find the one that works for you. 🙂
French Knitting... I saw a french knitting tool while in the craft store one day and ofcourse I had to get one cause it was something new to me. It might be the tool I purchased but I have never been more upset over something in my life. It will only do fine thread and even then it was horrid to work with. I tried several threads, yarn, string, etc. The whole nine yards but it just would mangle the stuff. It was hard to hold, feed and keep tension at the same time. It was just a disaster so it sits in my craft closet collecting dust somewhere.
This isn’t mine.. I dunno where I put mine. Mine looks similar to this.
Lucet.. This is definitely something I want to do a more detailed blog about. I purchased a couple Lucets recently and I just started playing with them. The Lucet being another Ancient crafting tool perked my interest. There’s several types of cord that can be made and I have just started on the basic. Alot like Finger cording but with the Lucet you can put it down and work on it later with out the worry you will loose your progress. With making a cord with Fingers your kinda stuck with it on your hand til your finished or finding something to transfer it to. Below is the 2 Lucets I purchased, wood of-course lol I just thought they were sooo pretty. You will also see my uneven cord. Tension does play a big roll in making cord
That about sums up what I ran into while doing a simple search on cord making haha There are many options and ways to make cord for your projects and there’s always the option of going to the store and just buying a cord ya like to finish your project. 😉 As I had stated earlier there’s a few of these I may go into with more detail and how to’s in later blog posts. Any opinions are always welcomed
Enjoy, Thank You For Reading my Blog and Have a Great Weekend
Live, Love & Simplify 🙂
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