This isn’t knitting exactly, but it’s knitting related.

I received a note from Koko who is making the Peony Purse.  She has done a gorgeous job and there are pictures up at her website, Koko’s Swatches - scroll down a little bit.  She has used Rowan cotton in Spanish Red - just beautiful!

However, she was having a problem with how to make Monk’s cord.  The site she’d gone to for instructions showed how to make a cord - just not the kind of cord she was looking for.

That made me curious, so I did a Google search on “monk’s cord”.  Not a lot came up and the references were, for the most part, just references to using it - not instructions or making it.  All of them, however, referred to what I have always believed the item to be - a graceful, twisted cord made from several lengths of yarn, string, twine, etc.

The process isn’t difficult and takes very little time.  I will make a four strand cord here, but you can use as many strands as you like, depending upon the effect you want to achieve.

First determine how long you want your cord to be.  You may have to experiment a little to get your yarn long enough so that your final cord is the length you want.  For this tutorial, I measured out about 15 feet of yarn and my final cord, after knotting and trimming, was 17 inches long.  So measure out a good, long length of yarn.  Fold it in half and then in half again so that you have a length that consists of four strands of yarn.

At one end of this length, you’ll have two loops.  The other end will have one loop and two free ends.  Tie a knot on this end.

Now, take the other end - the one with the two loops and place it around a doorknob or something that will hold it for you.  You can have a friend hold this end if they are willing.  In the following picture, you can see that I have looped my cord over the decorative hinge on a closet door.

Now, holding on to the knotted end, move backwards until your cord is stretched out to its full length.  Begin twisting the cord.  I generally (and for reasons unknown) twist to the right but you can twist to the left if you prefer.  The direction doesn’t matter as long as it’s consistent.

Keep twisting until it begins to get a bit difficult.  Then, keeping a firm hold on your end of the cord, allow a little slack in the line, say, take a step or two forward allowing your cord to do what it wants.  When it starts kinking up like in the picture below, you’ve twisted enough.  If your cord doesn’t do this you’ll need to do some more twisting.

Then, still maintaining your grip on your end of the cord, carefully retrieve the other end from whatever (or whomever) you’ve had holding it.  Keep a tight hold of this end too - you don’t want to release any of the twist in the yarn.

Move one of the cord ends so that you are holding both ends in one hand.  Carefully knot the ends together.  Now you can relax that death grip :)  See how the cord twists and turns on itself?  Run your hand down the length and use your fingers to arrange the twists until they are all neat and approximately the same size.

That’s all there is to it!
Have a wonderful weekend!