Make chunky wool cord for giant knitting projects

1. Introduction: Hello, Cari Corey from Mary Marine. It's in this class. I'm gonna teach you how to make your own felted cord or giant knitting projects. Um, the core looks like this. It's close to 1/2 an inch thick, and it's made of felted wool. And basically you just crush a the cord, and then you felt it in the washing machine, and you get this nice, thick, sturdy. Um, it's kind of like Rupe, and you can use it to make rugs or to make pillows or baskets. Anything that you need a really thick and sturdy aren't for on. I found. That is really difficult to find a yard in stores that is that thick and also really sturdy and firm. Um, and a lot of the ropes out there. They don't come in colors. They only come in white, and with a lot of experimentation, I found that you can die them different colors, but it's really tough to get a good even color. So if you want to try to match something to your decor, your best that issues a yard that's already died, um, and make it into court yourself, so that's not gonna teach out of doing this class. And, um, I just wanted to show you a couple of examples of things that you could make with the cord . This is a little basket I made to store towels in the bathroom, and this is just a sample on my slot sample. But you could actually continue knitting this long enough to make a rug. Or you could make it sort of a centerpiece for your dining table. A cushion for a chair. Sometimes I have you been made these nice big pieces and then wrapped him around foam. And may that poof so you could use it as a foot rest. There's just so many things you can dio. And you can also take my route Bassett class to learn how toe, um, no basket just like this if you want. So, uh, I'll show you in the next segment what materials you need to use and how to do the crash. A and pelting part. It's super easy, and you don't need to know how to crush a You don't have to have any experience. You just need enough time to do all the crow shake because it does take a while. So, um, I'll see you in the next segment 2. Materials: Okay, let's talk about the materials. You're gonna need to do this. Belted cord. Um, the first and most important part is the wool. Um, you're gonna need core skeins of worsted weight wool. And I like Jesus Patton's classic wolf. This is really easy to find in a craft store like Joan's or Michael's. You can order it online, um, usually with some kind of sailor coupon IQ and get these down to about $5 apiece. So, um, you're looking at about 20 bucks of yard to dio 35 yards of cord. So, um, another rule that I really like to use is this exact same patents wool, but it comes in bulky, um, and instead of using four strands at a time of that, you use two strands, and it goes a little bit faster on the crush. A part. The only thing is, each skein of that is about half a long is one of the EU's, so you'll still need force gains to get the same length. You'll just do it in groups of two. Um, and you'll tie those two together. Um, in addition to the wool, you'll need a crush, a hook the one I like to use is nine millimeters, this one says End. Sometimes it says the an M is nine millimeters, So just go with the millimeter. A major mint on use one that's about this size on, then for the pelting part, Obviously, you'll need a washing machine. Um, I like to use one of you's, um, delicates bags to put the A court in once you appreciate it. And if you want to do more than one batch at once, I've done up to six in one load of laundry. You just need six different bags to put it in on, and I found that you don't really want to do any more than four skeins at once. Otherwise, it's gonna get really, really tangled in the washing machine. And then you'll also need something toe agitate to create the melting. And so I just use a pair of old jeans that I've used for filtering a 1,000,000 times. Anything that's an old piece of clothing that's kind of a rough surface is really good. Um, and then I also just wanted to mention that when you're choosing a color, darker colors tend to felt better for some reason, I think it's just because the fibers blend together in a way that I don't know. It just looks a little more clear. Um, when you get the finished product. So you know, if you wanted to do, like a cream color, something really light like that, just know that it's probably not gonna felt as well as something that's like dark charcoal brown black, something like that. I've done bright colors before, and it's fine. It just is a little more noticeable. The Crow Shea stitches. They don't Blunden as well as the darker colors, so just be aware of that. And then when you do your load in the washing machine, you'll need a little bit of detergent. Not very much. But you know, just whatever you normally used to wash your clothes with is fine on. Then just one more thing. Make sure that you don't get a super wash will, because that means it's not going to felt we want it Teoh fuzz and bind those fibers together once in the washing machine. So we just want playing normal wool. Um, I think that's it for materials on, so we can go ahead and go to the next part and do the crush a 3. Making crochet chains: Okay, so let's get started with the crush. A We'll just go ahead and take off all the labels. We're gonna use all horse games at once, so you'll just want to find the end of the yarn. Usually pretty obvious. Sticking out. Take one end out of each Skane. Oops. Sometimes they get kind of stuck on the inside. You have to untangle that. Find the end. There is the 4th 1 You'll just put all three or sorry, all four together. And we're gonna make a slip knot around our crush a hook. And to do that, you just wrap all of the yarn around your hand one time full institution all the way around , and then reach through that loop and poll the yarn through. So you get a new loop, and then you just let your fingers come out and pull the loot tight, and that gives you an adjustable loop. So you couldn't see. We're gonna put that loop on our crush a hook and tighten it. Just pull the This is called the working yard. The yard that's attached to your skeins. Pull it tight. Okay, So all we're gonna do to make our chains is, um, reach underneath there. Whole twist your crush took hold the working yarn through, and I like to hold my yard in my left hand and kind of just wrap it around my fingers like that, and that way it kind of feeds it through. You'll find the best way to hold your yard, but having it wrapped around my index finger makes this process really smooth. So I've got my first loop through, and that's all you're gonna do is just reach under there, grab the working yard and pull it through to make a new chain over and over and over until you start to get a longer chain and you'll get faster and faster as you practice. If you accidentally only grab like three of the four strands, you probably wanna let go and redo it, making sure you're getting all the strands at once. Just keep going and making cord 4. Felting the cord: Okay, so now you can see what the court is gonna look like. That's very similar. And with to the final product, it's just a little, um, lumpy or I guess. And so all you do is just keep making chain until you actually use up all of this yard, so it's gonna take a while. That's a downside to this is the time involved. But it's really, really simple. And you could do it while you're watching TV or something else. It's just kind of relaxing, actually. Um, when you get all of this cord made, you can cut off the ends because this is gonna look strange when you felt it. Just snip it off with your scissors on both ends. And actually, I should explain that when you get to the end, basically, you just snip off, you know, whatever's left, if there if the ends are uneven, you want Paul to be the same. Pull the last loop through and just keep pulling until the the yarn comes out. And that just makes a nice tight knot and then cut off whatever is left. Then you're gonna take the cord, you're gonna put it very loosely inside the bag. Um, the reason is it's going to get tangled as it felt in the washing machine. That's just I've learned through experimentation. That's just gonna happen. But if you have it wrapped around itself like you roll into a tight ball, it's not gonna felt right. The inside parts are going to stay the same, and only the outside will felt. So. Just put it nice and loosely in there and zip it up and then put everything in the washing machine, so your bag with your yarn in it, your genes are whatever item you're going to use as an agitator and then just a little bit of detergent, like maybe a tablespoon inside your washing machine. Teoh the hottest setting on the highest agitation. So you really, really, really want hot water and high agitation to get the best pelting, and you let that run its whole cycle will probably take a while on Gwen. It comes out. You can just check it and make sure that it actually did felt right, and when you take it out of the bag, it's probably gonna have some fuzzies on it, so you kind of shake it out a little bit. Untangle it a little bit and just hanging up on a drying rack or over the back of a chair, just something so kind of air out on and maybe leave it overnight so it gets nice and dry. It'll be pretty dry when it comes out just a little bit. Damn, but you want to make sure it's totally drive before you start knitting with it. So I like to just put mine on the drying rack outside in the sun for a few hours. If I can, Um, then it's all ready to go, and you could just roll it into a ball like this, and you're already tonight with it. 5. Knitting with the cord: so I just wanted to go over really quickly what size of needle you would use to knit with the court. Once it's all made. I like to use either a set of 35 size 35 straight needles, and I think this is 19 millimeters. You can find these at just about any craft store or online, like the plastic ones. But they come in what also Or if you're going to do a really large wide project, you might want a set of circular needles on DSO. I like thes for some reason in circulars that come in 36 instead of 35. Um, but anyway, these are adding turbo needles that I ordered online, and I really like to use these for a lot of my projects there just nice and smooth toe work with. Like I said, if you need to put a lot of stitches on, they get nice and wide and you just use us like you would any normal yarn, um, cast on your stitches and met with them just like any other yard. Just know it's it's thick and stiff, so you have to remember that, um, and like I said before. If you want to try my wrote basket pattern instead of using the cotton rope, you could use this. You just made me to add one or two more stitches cause it's slightly better than the cotton whereby normally used. Um, you can finger crush A with this. You can armed it with this. It's just a really great all purpose yarn. Um, and you know, since you're using the wool that you buy at the store already died, it comes in, I don't know, 2030 colors, just a lot of great options. So I would love to see what you make with this crush record. And if you have any voters that you want to post in the gallery, that would be awesome. And if you have any questions, I be happy to answer them and, um, can't wait to see what. Thanks for watching