I’m posting something a little different today. I have been seeing a lot of rainbows. A friend of mine recently shared a beautiful yarn wrap rainbow she made and it totally inspired me. I love monochromatic rainbows and rainbows with non-traditional colors and I knew this stash busting activity would be the perfect opportunity to play with some fun colors.
I have a little experience making charms for bags using wooden beads and wrapping embroidery floss around twine. I, however, have never tried doing anything bigger and I didn’t have rope or a good rope substitute for this larger scale project. My solution – braiding several strands of twine!
I added a touch of crochet by making several circles in various sizes to form clouds. I experimented with the idea of stringing crochet hearts from the clouds, but ultimately left them off as you can see.
Yarn Wrap Rainbow
Supplies:
- Worsted weight yarn in as many colors as you’d like, plus white for the clouds. I used 4 colors for my rainbow from my stash.
- 4.0 mm crochet hook
- Twine
- Scissors
- Needle for sewing down yarn tails
- Tape measure
- Hot glue gun
- Painters tape
Abbreviations and stiches used:
- HDC half double crochet
- DC double crochet
- SS slip stitch
- CH chain
Creating your twine braids
Start by cutting your strands of twine. You will need six strands for each stripe.
My inner most stripe is 36 inches. For each stripe, add about 4 inches to the measurement. So stripe number two would need to be 40 inches, stripe three 44 inches and so on. Remember, you need 6 strands for each stripe of the rainbow.
Next, fold your 6 strands in half and place a piece of painters tape approximately one half inch from the top of the loop to lightly secure the twine to a surface for braiding. I used my dining room table.
Braid the strands until you have several inches left at the bottom. Fold those ends up on top of themselves and use another piece of painters tape to hold them into place. Again leave about a half inch loop sticking out.
Remove the tape from the table and wrap it around the top securing the end as you did for the bottom.
Repeat this process for all of your stripes.
Adding color to your stripes
Figure out your order of colors and begin wrapping! I used a small dab of glue (low temperature hot glue gun) at the beginning and end of my stripe to adhere the yarn tail.
Continue wrapping until you complete all stripes. For one of my stripes, I left the braided twine because I think twine is really pretty. I did, however, wrap yarn around the taped ends – I used white for this, though I’m now realizing twine would have been pretty too.
Securing the stripes
I used a lot of hot glue to secure my stripes together. I started with the inner most stripe and found it best to start in the middle and work down the sides. Working quickly, pinch the stripes together and apply several inches of glue along the perimeter where the two stripes meet. Then, really squeeze them together until the glue dries. I found by working in this manner, the glue was only visible on the back side. Move on to the next section, apply glue and squeeze. Continue until you’ve glued the entire length of the stripe.
Repeat this process until you’ve glued all stripes.
Make the clouds
Using a 4.0 mm hook and cloud color
Circle 1:
Make 1 (or as many as you’d like)
- Round 1: Magic ring, CH 2 and 15 DC into the ring. SS to join to first DC. Pull ring tight. (15 DC)
- Round 2: CH 2 and make 2 DC in every stitch around. SS to join to first DC. (30 DC)
- Round 3: CH 2, *DC in stitch and make 2 DC in the next stitch. Repeat from * all around. SS to join to first DC. (45 DC)
Circle 2:
Make 1 (or as many as you’d like)
- Round 1: Magic ring, CH 1 and 8 HDC into the ring. SS to join to first HDC. Pull ring tight. (8 HDC)
- Round 2: CH 1 and make 2 HDC in every stitch around. SS to join to first HDC. (16 HDC)
- Round 3: CH 1, *HDC in stitch and make 2 HDC in the next stitch. Repeat from * all around. SS to join to first HDC. (24 HDC)
- Round 4: CH 1, *HDC in two stitches and make 2 HDC in the next stitch. Repeat from * all around. SS to join to first HDC. (32 HDC)
- Round 5: CH 1, *HDC in three stitches and make 2 HDC in the next stitch. Repeat from * all around. SS to join to first HDC. (40 HDC)
Circle 3:
Make 3 (or as many as you’d like)
- Round 1: Magic ring, CH 1 and 8 HDC into the ring. SS to join to first HDC. Pull ring tight. (8 HDC)
- Round 2: CH 1 and make 2 HDC in each stitch around. SS to join to first HDC. (16 HDC)
- Round 3: CH 1, *HDC in stitch and make 2 HDC in the next stitch. Repeat from * all around. SS to join to first HDC. (24 HDC)
I used my yarn tails to make several stitches to adhere my circles together after I decided how I liked them arranged. Then I continued using hot glue to attach the circles to each side of my rainbow.
I think it would look pretty to take a long strand of twine and wrap it several times around the middle of the rainbow. This would further secure things and could also be used to create a loop for hanging. Maybe even string some beads before tying it off (if you haven’t caught on by down, I tend to love embellishing my projects). You could also carry those beads through to dangle from the clouds, like raindrops. If someone experiments with that, I’d love to see!
I love when people share their finished pieces. If you share your work on facebook or instagram, please tag me so I can see it @shemakescrochet.
You are free to share your finished work, to include selling your finished products, but please credit me – SheMakesCrochet – as the pattern designer. Please do not distribute this pattern or any portion of it, instead direct people to my blog. THANK YOU!
A Stitch Whimsy 