Tutorial – Twisted String

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.

using no.20 crochet cotton

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 you have a doubled piece to work with

Now tie your loop end of the string to your anchor, mine is pinned to a pincushion.

loop of string anchored

Take the end with the knot and slip your pen through it.  This will be where all the twisting is done.

pen in position ready to start turning

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.

keeping the pen from dropping out

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.

turning the pen, holding the string

and turning

and turning, keep going

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.

showing how the string twists

Here is mine ready for the next step, see how nice and even the twists are right along the length of the string?

twisted ready for the grand finale!

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!!

ready to do the best part!!

Now hold the twisted string about 3″ from the loop, let the loop go and see what happens!!!

just like magic!!

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.

ready to tie off and use

ready for use

There you go, you have your very own handmade twine ready for your project!

making 2 colour twine

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.

lovely lovely two colour twine

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.

LoveLaurenxx