I’m working on some floral type pieces that I want to incorporate stems into. There are lots of choices out there to make cords or plain old stitched stems, but Sue Spargo started selling a tool called a Mini Cordsmith that makes I-cords. I’ve made I-cords using knitting needles before but this little tool intrigued me. Would it be easier than using knitting needles which I find kind of fiddly to work with?? I had to see for myself so I sent off for one.
When it arrived, I was excited to try it out. I had a hard time figuring out how to use it at first but once I got the hang of it, I was off to the races, sort of…
Here is my first attempt. Look at all those humps and bumps and poor tension! Yikes! Well…no stem is perfect in nature anyway, right?
Once I got the hang of looping the yarn more consistently around the tines, I tried out several different yarns and threads that I had in my stash.
You can make round I-cord or flat I-cord based off how you place the thread or yarn around the tines. After trying several of my yarns and threads, I felt that the Mini Cordsmith was a bit limiting in the yarn size that it would accommodate.
Shiny yarns made into round I-cord and flat I-cord:
Shiny metallic thread:
Sock yarn (I’ve got LOTS of sock yarn)
Then I saw Sue Spargo had an Original Cordsmith that was bigger!!! I had to buy that one as well because I was having trouble using yarn larger than sock yarn with the Mini. I also had to make a trip to a local yarn shop to see if I could find some yarns that might make interesting I- cords. Always a fun thing to do, right??
There are videos on this link showing how to use the tool.
I think the Mini will work great for stems on smaller pieces and the Original may produce some interesting larger I-cord pieces that can be incorporated into mixed media pieces. I am thinking I can also machine zig zag over some of them and add another layer of threads or yarn to give them more texture and color. More exploration needs to be done in that arena!
This yarn was used with the Original Cordsmith. It looks like it would make great stems using it straight from the ball although it is quite soft and fluffy and may be hard to stitch to cloth without losing some of its structure. I was surprised how lovely it worked up into the round I-cord shape and I really like the variegation flowing through it. The flat I-cord could work for the stems on some larger flowers. Merino wool. Yummy stuff.
These tools are also very portable.
I hope to show you how I used some of my I-cords on a future project!
Happy Fall everyone!
Tesi Vaara