tassels

Yesterday's project was to finish my Renee Baby Blanket. And the biggest part of that task was making the tassels. Really - 162 pieces of yarn, each 7" long, all the while being carefully watched by a very interested cat!

Instead of 7" lengths, I grabbed a clear acrylic quilting ruler that is 6.5" square and wrapped the yarn 81 times around that. Close enough, right? I was nervous that I wouldn't have enough yarn, but with what remained on the last ball and a few of the long tails snipped off after weaving in the end, I just made it!

After wrapping the yarn I used strips of masking tape to secure the yarn top and bottom. Then, with a rotary cutter I cut the yarn, top and bottom, where it wrapped around the edges of the acrylic quilting ruler. Leaving me with two very tidy groups of tassel yarns - the masking tape keeps the strands together and aligned.

Using a small crochet hook, I gently tugged 3 strands at a time from the strip of masking tape and added tassels as directed by the pattern. It's a nice finishing touch for the blanket. And the blanket is done. To block it, I machine washed it in cold water on a gentle setting, then tumble dried it on low heat just until it was slightly damp. Then I arranged it over my hallway railing and let it hang dry.

It's a lovely blanket - I'm really happy with it. And, by the way, it was a close call on the yarn. Less than a metre left, which is actually ideal. Not enough to even worry about saving.