Tips, Tricks, and Tutorial Thursday - Adding Tassels

Often time with knitted or crocheted projects you will see tassels on the start and end of a project. These are optional of course but they add a nice look to the project, depending on what it is for. The example I am using today is a baby blanket but the process is the same no matter what type of project you are adding them to. I wait until the project is done to add tassels but you can add the first set whenever you'd like. The first thing you will want to know is how many stitches you are working with. In the case of this blanket I started with a chain of 200. This is the number of tassels needed for ONE side of the blanket. For this baby blanket I used a few different colours so I used three colour for the tassels. (You can use all one colour if you prefer.)

I used dark blue, white and light blue for this blanket so I am using those colours for the tassels. In this project I alternated between colours (Dark Blue, White, Light Blue, and then repeat). You can mix colours together if you want and do all the same tassels with all the colours in one. Once you have decided how to make your tassels then you have some math to do.

So I needed 200 tassels, for me this was 200 x 2 pieces of yarn. I knew for the bottom I would be starting with the dark blue so I started the tassels with it. (200 divided by 3 is 66.66 What I did was made 67 dark blue and 67 white and 66 light blue to make 200. If you are doing a tassel with all the colours than you would make all 200 the same way with the three colours. Instead of 200 x 2 you would need 200 x 3). Remember that you have two sides to do so your 200 x 2 (or x3) will be doubled. What I did was wrap the yarn around a paper back book. I did 132 at a time (twice - one for each side) even for the light blue (the numbers will change at the top because I finished with the light blue). Once you have wrapped the yarn around the book (132 times) cut the yarn at the spine of the book and at the pages of the book. (If possible, if not cut at the spine and double the piece over and cut them in half). I did the bottom before I finished the project but you can wait and do it whenever you like.

Once you have all your yarn cut and you have started your project at least a little bit (I would suggest 10 rows in if you want to finish the bottom before you are finished the project), then you need to find the stitches you are going into. With this baby blanket I started in the chain row and I made sure to end my project on a row of single crochets so I could work into them. I started the project with a dark blue and of course I had a small piece of yarn from the start of the project so I worked it into my first tassel and I did the same with the end. This is a great way to hide the little start and end pieces and it helps you figure out which colour to start with.

To start I put my crochet hook below the first stitch. Once you have your hook in, take 2 (or 3 depending what design you're doing) and line up the end. Fold them in half around your finger to create an arch. Once you have this you want to take your hook and pick up these pieces right in the middle, where the arch is. Once you have that you want to hold the pieces tight and pull the hook through the loop, but not too far. You want to have a loop on your hook and the end pieces still on the other side.

Now you will want to loop your hook around the end pieces and pull it through the loop on the hook. If you don't pull through all the pieces, it is fine just go back through the loop and pull what you need to. Since this is not a knot you can easily undo it and try again. Keep in mind you should have four ends when you are done. If you don't you miss a piece go back and try pulling it through also.

When you are done you will have some tassels longer than the others, it is up to you whether to trim them all to the same size or leave them unique.