Cord for Jewelry and Other Crafts - 4 More Ways to Make It

Using simple strands like embroidery floss, crochet thread, or even yarn it's possible to make some really beautiful cords for your jewelry or other crafty uses. In the companion article to this one I described four different ways to make cord. Here are another four.

Crochet
Crochet cord is a bit more elastic than some of the other methods, which makes it good for items that need that kind of stretch. I know of three different ways to make this cord; two make a round cord and one makes a cord that's relatively flat but bulky enough to hold its shape better than a 3-strand braid would. One of the round methods produces a cord that looks almost identical to knitted I-cord, which is great if you'd like to use I-cord but don't knit.

Each of these methods involves crochet in the "usual" way, which is working with a continuous thread. This means you don't have to cut any strands at the beginning and hope you got the lengths right. One of these methods, which is basically done by slip-stitching into the foundation chain, does require that you make a fairly good guess on the length you need when you're making the base chain, and that can be a bit tricky because of the elasticity of crochet. The other two methods build the length one stitch at a time, which makes it easier to know when to stop.

Knitting
Anyone who's been knitting for a while has probably heard of Elizabeth Zimmermann's famous "I-cord" method, which essentially makes a small knitted tube. EZ's method uses 2 short double-pointed needles. But the same kind of cord can be made with a knitting spool, which I think is just a small circular version of a knitting loom. Either way, the cord, because it's knitted, is fairly stretchy. And because it's usually made from yarn it's fairly thick. But it's a good choice for items that need that kind of cord.

Lucet cord
A lucet is a handheld tool that is shaped a bit like a fork but with only two tines. Like knitting and crochet, lucet cord is made with a continuous strand, one "stitch" at a time, so it's fairly easy to get the length right.

I don't own a "real" lucet but I was able to make a workable substitute by removing the two middle tines of a plastic fork. After trying this technique on different types of yarn I really think it's another way to make knitted cord. The difference is that because the lucet has only two tines - which would be roughly comparable to the prongs on a knitting spool - the cord has only two stitches on each row, instead of the 4 that are usually on a spool. There is one other difference that may make the lucet more useful for this kind of cord. When you're using a lucet you can adjust the tightness of the stitches more, and that can really affect the tension - and probably strength - of the finished cord. Really tight stitches make a very solid cord that has practically no stretch. Looser stitches make a cord that looks a lot like I-cord, only narrower.

Macrame
Macrame is probably one of the best known ways to make cord. The standard way of doing macrame uses a thin cord, like hemp, to make a thicker cord. But some people are also using very thin threads, like embroidery floss or crochet thread, for what they call "micro macrame." It's a good demonstration of what can be done with a bit of thinking "outside the box."

Macrame cord can be made flat or 3-dimensional. It doesn't tend to have much elasticity, but there is one method - what I call the alternating half hitch - that makes a cord with just a bit of stretch. I've found this useful for pendant cords that can't be really long but still need to go over the head, for example if the wearer can't or doesn't want to deal with a clasp at the back.


Four different ways to make cord. That's four different ways to be creative. If you already know how to do some of these techniques you can try more than one. But even one can really make your craft projects more interesting.