Pattern: Bunting Curtain Ties

It's taken me a while to get round to writing this up. Sorry! It seems I'm still sort of in holiday mode. Bloggage has certainly been light of late. Must change that. Anyway, bunting curtain ties. A nice easy little project to use up a few scraps...

I'm using the scraps from my ripple blanket and some beads salvaged from an old necklace.

Start by threading a bead on to your yarn.

Admittedly, you probably don't need a picture to help you with that bit. However, pay attention, as the bead is going to sit right at the bottom of the bunting flag, so you'll be crocheting around half of it. Sort of.

Pass the end of your yarn under the main bit to form a loop (with the bead in the loopy bit), like so...

Hold the yarn at the point where it crosses over...

Poke your hook through the gap between the yarn and the bead...

Yarn over and pull through...

...And that's the tricky bit done. It's plain sailing from here! So...

...ch3...
...5 tr...
...And it should look a bit like this...

Holding the bead, gently pull the tail of the yarn until the bead sits snug with the crochet. You need to give the bead a bit of a wiggle. It should look like this...

Right. Row 2. Turn your work and...

Ch 3 (ch does not count as first stitch), 1 tr in next 4 st. 2 tr in last st.

Still with me? It should look like this...

Row 3:

Turn your work

Ch 3 (still doesn't count as first stitch), 1 tr in next 6 st, 1 tr in top ch of foundation ch. Does that make sense? Your final row should start with a chain and then have 7 tr. Like this...

That's it! Snip your yarn and weave in the ends...

Now make another three...

Excellent! Now we just need to string them all together. And a couple of hanging loops would be a good idea, no?  I have a nice easy method for this and it has yet to fail me. So, let's grab a nice scrap of coordinating yarn and start with a chain. You'll want to leave a reasonable tail as we're going to come back later and make a nice neat 'finishing-off' with it.

Ch 14,  then sl st into the 11th chain from the hook (or the third chain from the knot, which is probably easier). It should look like this...

Then ch 5.

Again, you probably didn't need a picture to help with that bit... Anyway, it's about time we added some flags. Your next stitch will be a sc in the top of a flag. Because your last row when you were making a flag was a foundation chain + 7 tr, you should make 8 sc across the top of the flag. Like so...

Fab! Now ch 2 and do the same again...

Rinse and repeat until all four flags are strung together. Now we just need to put the loop on the other end. It's the same as the first loop, but backwards, if you get my drift. So, ch 19 the sl st in the 14th ch from the hook. Sl st in the next 2 st. This should work out so that you have 5 ch between the last sl st and the last flag you attached. Annoyingly, I didn't take a shot of this. Sorry!

Pull though the yarn and leave yourself a reasonable tail. Now, to finish off neatly, we're going to put a few stitches around the sl st join.  I find this method really useful for anything that needs a hanging loop. It's nice and strong and the ends don't work their way back out again. On the down side, it does look ever so slightly like a noose. If this bothers you, tie a knot and be done with it. If not, read on...

Let's start with the hanging loop you just made.  Thread the end of your yarn through a knitter's needle and with the loop on the left, flags on the right, pass the needle under the chain and back through the loop this makes...

As you pull the yarn through to tighten, shuffle this stitch up so that it's right next to your last sl st.

This will keep everything nice and tight in the crochet. Repeat the process a few more times, but this time when you tighten the stitch, it should go round the slip stitches.

Make three or four of these stitches. Then hide the end of the yarn under that stitches you've just made...

Snip off the end of your yarn and repeat with the loop at the other end and ta-da! That's it! One curtain tie (or, if you like, a VERY short bit of bunting).  Now go back and repeat to make the other half of the pair (assuming you've got two curtains to hold back...)

I'd show you them in situ, but by the time I'd got to this point, the sky had gone a threatening shade of grey. A shot for another post maybe. Anyway, I hope someone enjoys making these. They are kind of cute. Or you could just make loads of flags and make a long string of mini bunting.

PS - Oh, yeah, feel free to make as many of these as you like for presents, decorations, etc. but please don't sell 'em. That's just not nice, is it?