Have you ever seen yarn bombing? It's a really cool art form where people take fabric they've made out of yarn like knitting or crocheting and sew it around objects like trees, lamp posts, and railings. The first time I saw it was on my college campus wrapped around the stair railings. It was such a nice surprise to randomly see the bright colors and creativity appear "magically" overnight.
I bought a little side table at a thrift store a few years ago and wanted to make it more interesting. I also have a ton of yarn in my stash because I love the soft texture and beautiful colors. It seemed like a perfect fit to use the yarn to decorate this simple table. It was also nice because the yarn would be easy to remove if I didn't like it or wanted to redecorate in a few years.
So here's the table before I got started. As you can see, it's pretty simple and kind of dull. One thing I really liked about it though was that it reminded me of the old 70's version of tropical decor I used to see at my grandparents' place in Florida when I was a kid.
I can't knit or crochet, but I figured wrapping the yarn around the legs and posts would still give it a similar look to the yarn bombing I'd seen before. I didn't want a particular pattern, so I used a variety of yarns in varying lengths.
I started out by tying the yarn to each post and then wrapping it around until the yarn was finished. The end result was kind of bumpy, though, and it was hard to hide the knots at each end.
To fix this, my husband showed me a trick to wrap the yarn tightly around each end to hold it in place rather than using knots. I'm never going to be able to explain this properly, so hopefully these pictures will help.
Holding the end of the yarn parallel with the table leg, you begin wrapping the yarn tightly around the end.
If you'd like, you can trim the end of the yarn after it's secure, but I just kept wrapping until the end was completely covered.
To finish it off, start by cutting a short piece of yarn or using a scrap. Fold the length in half, and then begin wrapping the yarn around it. Make sure to leave the loop at the end free.
Don't wrap your yarn all the way to the end. You'll need at least enough left over that you can pull it under what you've already wrapped to secure the end. Thread your yarn through the loop and use the ends of the scrap yarn to pull it tight.
Then continue pulling it up until the end of the yarn pokes through.
Trim off the excess and carefully wiggle the surrounding wrapped yarn until the end is hidden.
I really like how colorful the table is now and would totally do this again. In hindsight, I think I might pick fewer colors and try to make it less random. Still, I think it has a nice bohemian feel and will fit well with the decor in my art room.