The traditional kelly green, candy apple red and snow white winter holiday colors are a bit harsh and unrelated for my tastes, as indeed they are for many other people, who insist on moving the white to cream, the red to burgandy, the green to pine. I'm perfectly happy to do all those things, but if I truly have a favorite color, it appears to be something along the lines of lime green, which I personally think is great for livening things up. Add in some of those sour avocado and dark pine greens, and one's good to go, as with the tassels shown here.

Cord of handpainted fibers, with tassels. Cotton, wool, blends, jingle bells. Jan 2007.

The cord is kind of interesting: roundabout two years ago (or mebbe three: this is embarressing...) I became interested in ply split twining. This technique originated with some camel herders who would twist fibers of black goat hair and white wool in 4 strands. They would then do an unusual sort of fiber manipulation, not weaving precisely, because instead of crossing the strands over and under each other, they'd use a tool like a fid to split one fiber and shove the other thru. Like so many desert crafts this was portable, and they made the gorgeous, graphical black and white camel pack straps with this technique.

Well, I was fascinated by the approach, which looked to me a little more portable than kumi (though to be sure there are guys—and why, I want to know, is it always guys in these indigenous cultures who get to do the fun stuff?) who braid lovely braids without a marudai, and I hinted strongly to the wizard that I would like one of those fancy winders to make cords. Which he duly got me. So far, I think I've made about 6 cords with it, though perhaps now that I've started organizing my closet, including my cotton string, perhaps I'll use this interesting tool (called a bradshaw winder) more often.

In the meantime, this cord serves as an early experiment with it.

file originally created 6jan08, finally posted 29apr14.

4th in a series featuring classic christmas fairy tale toys. 05jan2014

This last in a series of posts about an elaborate beaded potted plant hanger also collects all the plant hanger posts together. 20mar2014

Cord and tassels made for a xmas stocking. 29apr2014

Shows a bunch of tassels made for xmas stockings , mostly in 2007. 17dec2007

Inexpensive tassels substitute for the more traditional `whole house' holiday decorations. Collects holiday craft indices. 15jan2006

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.