Here it is!!! Are you ready???
Ok all you need for this is a length of cotton, string, yarn, crochet cotton or some wool. A pen, something to anchor your cottong down (I use a large pincushion).
I am using No.20 Coats-Mercer crochet cotton, yes the stuff that you crochet doilies/flowers/tablecloths out of. It can be bought in any Spotlight (Joann’s/Michaels).
The finer the cotton, the finer the twine, the thicker the cotton the thicker the string.
Cut a your string approximately 5 times the length of your finished twine.
Now hold the string by the ends and bring them together, so you have a loop at the other end. Tie a knot in the ends that have been brought together.
Now tie your loop end of the string to your anchor, mine is pinned to a pincushion.
Take the end with the knot and slip your pen through it. This will be where all the twisting is done.
Then take hold of the two stands of string as close as possible to the pen, this will stop the pen from trying to escape.
Now turn the pen, letting the twisted string feed through your fingers and down the length of the string. Remember to keep the string at full length, it will start to twist back on itself if you have it too slack.
Just keep it going, you need to have the whole length of the string twisted together, the tighter the twist the tighter the finished twine. I like mine about average, not tight, not loose.
Here is mine ready for the next step, see how nice and even the twists are right along the length of the string?
When you are done twisting, hold the string about the middle and put your pen and the anchor point together. Keep holding the middle, if you let it go at this point, you will get twists everywhere!!
Now hold the twisted string about 3″ from the loop, let the loop go and see what happens!!!
Isn’t that fantastic??? Just like magic you have your own twine… well almost. Now keep moving back towards the ends at your anchor point, doing small sections at a time. If you do to much at once you can get twists where you don’t want them. Wait till you have a bit of practice before you go the whole way at once.
There you go, you have your very own handmade twine ready for your project!
Have half your doubled string one colour and the other half the other. I tied the blue to the white, put the white around my anchor point and back to the knot. Then I measured the blue to be the same length as the white back to the anchor point, doubled over the blue and came back to the knot, and tied it up. Clear like mud?
Basically what you need is the doubled section from the middle to the anchor in white, and the other end blue.
Have fun making twisted string and I hope to see lots of it on your projects soon.
See below in the post for a card using the two colour twine.
Thanks so much for this Lauren!!! I can’t wait to give it a try! You never disappoint! I ask a question and you always have the answer! Is there ANYTHING you don’t know? LOL!!! I will be giving this a try but I can imagine myself getting all twisted up in the stuff! LOL!! If I do, you and Lynn are going to have to come rescue me! LOL! I have several balls of that cotton and some male birthday cards to make so this info is REALLY going to come in handy! LOVE LOVE Every Single Thing You Do! *hugs*
Thanks so much my friend!
Lisa 🙂
Simply amazing! I am the person in the office who always manages to tangle cords & wires, I just can’t seem to help it. So I’m not sure of my success if I tried this, ha ha! (I can see my co-workers eyes rolling and hear their groans now)
How on earth did you take these photos for the tutorial? It must have taken quite an effort and we are grateful that you did so!
Great tutorial.. Nice to be able to make the colors that you want..
Oh my gosh. I remember doing that back at school when we made our pinwheel in sewing class. Never thought of putting 2 colours together to make baker’s twine. What a great idea.
[…] to save money using my stash items) and if you would like to know how to do it, here is a link to Pictorial Tutorial Making Twisted String. The next inspiration came from the canvas of beach scene on the right hand wall, look at those […]