DIY: Yarn-wrapped vase

Yes, there are lots of yarn-wrapped vases out there in DIY world. But this tutorial includes a few tips & tricks that will help you complete the job in a jiffy. You can use these to hold flowers, desk accessories, knitting needles (oooh! I just thought of that one), or whatevs.

Supplies:

a tin can

some yarn (the multicolored yarns create really fun stripes)

scissors

pen or pencil

tacky glue

carpet tape

Ok, first off: carpet tape??? I know. I learned about this awesome trick on a TV show I was watching one morning. The Chew, to be exact. One of the hosts, Clinton Kelly (Love him! You might remember him as one-half of the reality show "What Not to Wear"), was making yarn-wrapped vases (What?! I was going to make some too!) & then he pulled out some carpet tape. A week earlier, I was seriously trying to figure out the best, least messy way to make these with my 4th grade STAR Club crew. Glue is so messy, but it seemed my only option. Until Clinton arrived on the scene. This tape is amazing. It's double-sided & SUPER sticky & strong. 

Brilliant. Genius. Fabness to the maximus. The end.

Seriously, this stuff makes the project so easy. I bought a heavy duty cloth roll measuring 1.41" x 42' for $7.50 at Ace Hardware. I have made about 13 vases so far & have lots still left!

Back to the DIY-ing...

I found that I liked the vase best when a strip of the can was showing on the top & the bottom. On most cans there is a natural "lip", as you can see in the photo above. 

Make the first loop around your can with the tape. As you overlap, you can see through the tape to the spot where you began. (See the arrow in the photo below.)

Mark that spot with a pen or pencil.

Cut the tape at the spot you marked.

 First row: done. It doesn't matter if there's a tiny gap between the tape. It'll get covered with yarn real quick here. (And, sure, you could measure the can & cut the appropriate sized strips. But sometimes I like to do things the lazy, er, I mean...the hard way.)

Continue along the can, adding tape right next to the last piece you attached. On some veggie cans, the tape comes out perfecto. But this large can ends up with some overlap on the last piece. And that's just not gonna work. (See arrow above.)

So here's what I did. Before adding the last strip of tape, remove the paper backing from the previous strip. 

Now, line the last strip up, right above the bottom "lip". You'll be overlapping the strip above, but that's ok. That's what you want to do.

Once you've finished, then peel off the paper backing from the last strip. Half of the can is now super sticky exposed tape.

Which is perfect, because it's time for some yarn wrapping!

My little trick here is to NOT lay your yarn in a straight line. Angle it down a bit & then start wrapping from the bottom up. (Or from the top down, depending on which end you started at.)

Now, when you continue wrapping the yarn, you'll catch the end & give it a nice, secure hold. No slipping. No unraveling. No little fuzzy flapping piece of wool to worry about.

As I wrapped my yarn, I slightly pushed the yarn up & together as I went along---to prevent seeing through the yarn to the tape.

As needed, peel off the next strip of tape & continue working.

The can is halfway done in this photo! Yay! I don't have a photo of the finished product though, because after I crafted with the kids at STAR Club, I gave the vase to one of the teachers.

Here is the same style of yarn, but in a different color. This yarn is also heavy in weight & thickness, which makes the project go more quickly. (Something to keep in mind.)

The kids really got into making these. They used several different colors of yarn, changing their own hues along the way.

♥