Yarn Wrapped Love Tutorial

P1010757

Valentines day is fast approaching, and so, rather than delight you with tales of my lurve, I have a simple and cute idea which can be used in many ways: to decorate cards, to hang above a bed or on a door, to decorate a place setting, for the top of a cake (making kids names is especially cute!)

P1010741

You need very few materials; this is where your yarn ends, scraps and random lengths can be used. I used two pipe-cleaners, but for longer words or if you were making them larger in size, you will need more. Practice and experiment with your word, to work out how it goes together- this is how I formed my “love” word:

P1010744 P1010745 P1010746 P1010747

Try keep the pipe cleaners relatively smooth, the more you wind them around, the more the wire in them gets sharper and bendier…

P1010748

P1010750

When you are happy with how your word has formed, start wrapping in yarn. Just remember with each change of yarn, leave approximately an inch which you secure under the next piece of yarn: in effect, wrapping over this “tail”, securing the previous piece and keeping it all neat.

 I like the random look to this, with no rhyme or reason to the colour combinations, but it would look equally great all in one yarn, or in a rainbow…

(and wouldn’t the word “Noel” look fantastic in candy cane red and white?!) (Darn, why didn’t I think of this last winter??)

P1010751 P1010752

The only minor difficulty is tying in the ends, but if you use a darning needle, thread it with the “tail” of yarn and draw it back through the wrapped yarn, you can secure it in well (otherwise, a dot of strong superglue would work, if you are not too heavy handed with the glue…)

P1010753

And Voila! A piece of yarn wrapped love in time for Valentines Day !