Attempted Necklace For The Girls

I tried to make a necklace for Kaylee's 5th and Sara's 1st birthdays. Hmmm... not exactly what I envisioned. I started with a length of pink cotton chord and some pink cat's eye beads.

I tied a Celtic heart knot in the chord, then threaded one bead on either side of the knot. Outside of the beads, I tied a regular knot to keep the beads from sliding around, and then tied the loose ends in a double slip knot for adjusting after the necklace is around the neck.

Unfortunately, the chord is thin so the heart didn't come out very... heart-like, and it's dwarfed by the beads. I'm really not happy with the results, so I'll try some larger para chord or something and dye it pink. But then, I'll need some bigger beads... Ugh, and the photos are on a white background and the beads and chord are a pretty pink that doesn't come through here. The cat's eye effect is kinda neat, though.

Unfortunate attempt at threadbending (@SingingHobbit).

Update 08-08-2011, Kaylee's birthday: I forgot to credit the source of the Celtic knot I used: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7yo5nSXND5o

I tried again at the necklaces, this time with some thicker chord... one set polyester, one set of cotton.

Some cotton chord with the pink dye

Dye and chords in...dying container (hey, it's what I had available!)

Final Dyed chords, LHS is cotton, RHS is 100% Polyester

The dye directions said not recommended on 100% polyester, but I like the lighter pink shade and the better workability of the polyester, so I went with that. Using the polyester chord, I tied the Celtic heart knot, then added the beads.

Imagine the color adjusted with a white background... it looks way better

So there it is... and I ended up making another one for Sara, whose birthday is also this month. Kaylee loved it! She actually wanted to wear it to bed, but of course we didn't let her.