Tassels with Crocheted Tops

2025.018 A and B

Tassels with Crocheted Tops

Thompson, Suzann

Red tassel, 1990s
Brown tassel, 2005

Red tassel: From top of knot (excluding loops) to bottom edge of tassel: 10 1/2 inches
Tassel skirt flares to about 6 1/2 inches in diameter
Tassel top: 3 inches in diameter, 3 inches tall
Brown tassel: From top of crocheted finial to bottom of tassel: 11 inches
Tassel skirt flares to about 4 inches in diameter
Tassel top: 2 1/2 inches in diameter, 3 1/2 inches tall

Bond America’s Tassel Magic tool, released during the 1990s, got me interested in making tassels. I mixed different kinds of yarns from my collection to make the twisted cording or bullion for the tassel skirts. For a time, an egg-beater was my twisting tool of choice. It worked fine, but I needed to work in a long hallway to accommodate the long pieces of yarn needed to make a tassel skirt.

The egg-beater’s fiber career came to an end when I got a spinning wheel. Making twisted cording was as simple as holding a few yarns together while the wheel twisted them, drawing directly from the skeins. I described how to use the twisted cord to make bullion fringe in “Tassel with Knitted Top” in CKC’s Community Collection. The next step after making the fringe was using it to make the tassel skirt.

For the red tassel’s skirt, I twisted up Lion Brand chenille yarn with mohair and blended yarns. After making the bullion fringe, I crocheted a disc, catching each strand of the fringe as I crocheted around and around. When all the fringe was caught, the tassel skirt was complete. I continued crocheting in the round, increasing, decreasing, and stuffing with fiberfill to create the three-dimensional shape of the tassel top.

The ruffled crocheted top was crocheted separately to fit over the original top like a sweater. It was crocheted in cotton yarn with two rounds of gold metallic yarn. I embellished it with flower-shaped plastic beads and other craft beads.

The red tassel was one of several designs of mine that appeared in Cari Clement’s book Terrific Tassels & Fabulous Fringe: Heirloom Accents from Modern Materials (Krause Publications, Iola, WI, 2000).

The brown tassel was made with brown and copper metallic yarns from my collection. This time, I crocheted a 3-inch header across the bullion fringe, rolled the header lengthwise and secured it with hand stitching. I strung copper-colored craft beads on a one-row length of single crochet, and tied the crocheted cord like a belt around the rolled-up crocheted header.

Suzann Thompson