Untangled Forever: DIY Fix for Never-Tangle Earbuds

Pinterest user Ada(:  recently pinned this nifty project on wrapping headphone cords with embroidery floss, and Apartment Therapy wrote a wonderful tutorial on making it. I love simple, clever projects like this one and knew I wanted to try it on my headphones right away! When the first packs of our new Bonbons yarn arrived, I fell in love with the sparkling colors and got started. I took step-by-step pictures as I used two colors to cover my headphones, and I’ve also included written instructions to help you re-create this project at home. One of the great things about using Bonbons instead of embroidery floss was that I didn’t have to wind the yarn onto a bobbin first, the tiny Bonbons skeins were already the perfect size to craft with.

Here’s the step-by-step story of how I made my sparkling, tangle-free headphones:

1) Choose your yarn. I selected sparkling Bonbons in contrasting shades for my primary and secondary colors, but you could use any shade. If you’ like to pre-cut your yarn, these tutorials recommend that you measure out 3 times the length of the cord you’re about to cover. With the tiny Bonbons skeins, I was able to work the whole project using yarn straight from the ball.

2) Secure yarn at the base of your earbud. I looped my yarn into a slip  (all colors held together) and slid the bud speaker through the loop before tightening the knot.

3) Secure your earbud to your work surface. I used a piece of tape to hold the earpiece down while I worked, and I found that it really did help with maintaining tension in the yarn.

4) Make your first knot. This knot is essentially the same as the friendship bracelet knot called Chinese Staircase, and works in the following way:

• As shown, loop your first color over your yarn tails, the secondary color, and your earbud cord from right to left.
• Then loop your yarn under the tails, secondary color and cord from left to right.
• Move your yarn up through the loop created when you first moved it from right to left. This is your first knot!

5) Continue to knot stitches, moving the knots close together before tightening them. Be sure to keep the yarn tails and your secondary color inside the loop too along with the cord itself as you work.

6) Changing colors: to change colors, simply pick up your secondary color and lay your primary color down in its place. Make sure that first knot of yarn is very snug, and continue to work in the knotting pattern. You can count stitches to make an even pattern, or change shades at random.

7) That’s all there is to it! Keep knotting till you reach the end, then knot tightly to secure in place.

What crafts would you love to use Bonbons for? Leave a comment to let us know!

 Related Links:

• Introducing Pinterest, a Great Resource for Crafters
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• No Knit, No Crochet Projects From the Blogosphere
• 5 Crafts With Kids, No Knitting or Crochet Required!