Macramé Tassel Handle

All this talk of tassels made me remember that I had started a tutorial on a Macramé tassel handle back in September and didn't finish it. Anna Maria from the Accademia Punto Assisi showed me a neat way to do a handle for a tassel using an Alternating Half Hitch Knot when we were at the EGA Seminar in San Francisco.

This is the tassel with the Macrame handle Anna Maria made for my daughter out of varigated Egyptian cotton:


I had to try it out right away and used the pieces of yarn hanging from my suitcase handle to reproduce the knot so I wouldn't forget. Later at home I did a little tassel using single knots for the fluffy parts and did the Macramé handle. I was going to add more legs and then I got distracted by something else and it has sat on my side table for a couple of months now.


To incorporate the Macramé handle directly into your tassel, you start out in the usual way by threading your pieces on to a double length of yarn as described previously. This time though, I cut between each knot for pieces that only had one knot instead of two:


When I had a leg of the desired length I did a couple of knots to give it some space between the pieces and the handle:


... and pinned it to my Macramé pillow (you can use anything, even a clipboard):


Then I did a length of Alternating Half Hitch Knots. First starting on the left (click on the image for a closer look):


... and then on the right:


The hardest part was remembering to alternate!


Once the Macramé was long enough, I knotted it into a loop for the handle and continued on attaching my pieces on to the second leg.


Then I added a third leg by knotting it on just under the handle. I want to add at least two more legs to this tassel but you get the idea.