How do I make a Magic Ball?
Create stash-busting colour e ects…
Once you can work a magic knot, you’ll see that there are plenty of potential uses for it in your projects, especially where there are lots of colour changes. But one of the most exciting uses for the magic knot is to make magic balls and create your own colour effects. Here’s how to do it:
Step 1 Take a pile of any spare small balls of yarn. It’s best to stick with yarn of the same weight for a more consistent look – but, if you’d like to create a random look then mix and match any yarns you like. For our example, we used eight balls of pink and cream yarn.
Step 2 Join the small balls together in any way you like, using the magic knot technique to create your magic ball. We alternated the pink and cream balls with the aim of creating a fabric with a two-tone stripe effect. It’s a good idea to wind your knotted scraps into one ball as it will make it a lot easier to use. Step 3 Hook your magic ball in any way you like, to make anything you like. We worked ours into a double crochet fabric with 20 sts. The resulting colour changes look pleasingly random and reminiscent of zebra or tiger print. You could use any two yarn colours you prefer to create a unique effect on all sorts of projects.
Step 4 To create a more planned colour effect, you could try arranging your little balls of yarn into a rainbow effect, as we have. If you have a lot of balls of one colour, such as blue, try arranging these from light to dark to create a magic ball with an ombre effect.
Step 5 Join the balls together in the arranged order, using the magic knot technique, then wind them all up into one large ball.
Step 6 Use your rainbow or ombre magic ball to make whatever you like. We made a lacy bookmark with a rainbow effect. With a larger magic ball we could have carried on and made a belt!