If, however, you want to use your yarn like a painter uses paint, you need to develop the courage to be crude and clumsy and to make useless things that you throw away. Then make a knot at the end of the braid. Now cut 3 more lengths of each yarn, but keep all 3 of one color together to form a braiding strand, and make a braid. Cut about a 2-foot length of each. As you keep going, you'll be making a loose, loopy, spherical shape. Shake it. It all depends on what you want--if you want to make pretty things that other people admire, then patterns will help you. The biggest problem in the yarn world today is the lack of education in art. Pull and knot a few more, then pull through another loop and knot. Eventually you'll figure out how to make useful things if you want to, because you'll be developing technical skill and design intuition with each experiment that you toss in the trash. But--BUT--the experiments will be YOURS, while other people's patterns will not. Hang it from a nail. My dance weavings are spontaneous--I don't measure the slits, I don't choose the threads ahead of time, and I don't know where I'm going until I tie on a thread and start dancing. Knot it around its bottom. Keep looping and knotting, occasionally stopping to look at your shape and judge where you need to loop next. I rarely spend more than fifteen minutes on a weaving, but it takes me weeks or months to store up enough confidence to make one. It's easier for everyone to depend on a few leaders to make the patterns for the rest of us to follow. Look some more. And another. For about two bucks you can get half a pound of a bright, wiry acrylic. Swing the loop around your fingers. Now cut 3 lengths of each yarn, combining 1 of each yarn into each braiding strand, and make a braid. http://yarn-and-fabric. Occasionally a gifted amateur will break through with some original work, but mainly it's the same old, same old, rutted, constricted way. This is the second time I've tried to write this paragraph--the other one has scratches out and squiggles and a big X through it. Swirl it around. Then, of course, I start having such a good time that I make two or three in one sitting! ***** Find 3 yarns that look good together. Tie them together at one end, leaving about a 1-inch fringe. But those pretty things and that admiration will become addictive, and the longer you use other people's designs, the harder it'll be to create on your own. Tie another one near the middle. Pull and knot a few more loops. So how do you go about educating yourself? For starters, go through the shelves in the 700's section of your library. Hold it at eye level. Learn about composition and design. The great pioneers of Hippiedom--Magdalena Abakanowicz, Lenore Tawney, Ed Rossbach--all went to art school and have remained actively involved with art and artists throughout their lives. I think it's just inertia, a continuation of the split (turning into a gulf) between art and craft. And another. You'll find books about art theory and technique, as well as those beautiful collections of artwork. Look at it from all directions. I've taught myself to use yarn the way I use paper. Try 3 of 1 yarn and 6 of another, or 2 and 1 or 7 and 2 or 2 and 3.mustsee. Question. Jiggle it. Admire it for a day or two. Hang your sphere by its last loop on a nail over an archway. And start really looking at your world. Polyester multifilament yarn Just keep trying. I use my yarn just as lightly--I make something, fool with it a bit, maybe even admire it, and then toss it out. How do the twists look? What are the similarities and differences, both among the twists and between the twists and the braids? Which do you prefer? This is an experiment you can perform again and again, using all sorts of yarns in all sorts of combinations. When you have a shape you like, make one last loop and knot it, then cut the yarn from the skein. ***** Find a skein of yarn you like. Tie the two ends together. The people who write patterns are highly skilled, sophisticated designers, and your early (and middle and late-middle) experiments will look crude and clumsy compared to their work. Yarn can be as playful as any toy you've ever had. And I'm going to throw away all the sheets that I'm writing on once I type everything into my computer. And never stop thinking and learning.Cut a piece of yarn about a foot long. I cut slits in the vertical ends of a piece of watercolor paper, warp with pearl cotton #8, tie a length of embroidery thread to a warp, and go looping and knotting across the page. Find another artist. Tie a knot near one end.info . Watch some of Sister Wendy's videos. Pull a loop through it and knot that around its bottom. So go ahead--start playing! ***** If I could give one piece of advice to people beginning to use yarn, this is it: stay away from patterns. Then pull a loop and also pull it through another loop. Lay the knot on the edge of a table, put a heavy book on it, and braid the yarns until you have about 1-1/2 inches left. Even more, because it doesn't put any limits on your imagination. Find an artist whose work you like and study that work. Keeping us ignorant could be a conspiracy on the part of the yarn establishment (whatever that might be) to keep us servile and dependent, but I doubt it. And it's cheap. Then take it down and make another one. Make a loop at one end and then knot the loop around its bottom. ***** Every so often I feel loose enough to dance with my yarn. Sometimes my husband photographs some of the pieces for my web page, but I refuse to become attached to them because I'm much more interested in the doing than the done. How are they similar? How are they different? Do you prefer 3 lengths or 9? Do you prefer combining the colors or keeping them separate? Do this experiment again, but twist the yarns instead of braiding them. Is the sky the same blue every day? How is it different from 9am to high noon to 6pm? Are all gray skies the same? What about grass--is it uniformly green? And is a tree the same color up close as when you're ten feet away? Look. Look at your braids