Cell phone lanyard

I made this lanyard/wrist strap by first using a length of shockcord and tying lanyard knots on each end. I then took several feet of light blue 1mm cotton cord and did a cobra stitch over the shockcord between the lanyard knots. A small swivel clip is on one end and a small carabiner on the other. The shockcord will stretch about another six inches from it's resting position and the cobra stitch over it stretches with it.

Knitting Spools

From some emails I received, I guess some folks didn't realize that I'm using more than one knitting spool/corker when I use different sized cord.

Here's a photo of 3 knitting spools that I made with the nails spaced at about 3/4 inch for the 1mm cord, 1 inch for the 'Type I'(1/16 inch) paracord, and 1.25 inches for paracord(1.5 or 1.75 inches can be done for a looser spaced out pattern on the regular paracord).

The spools and the napkin ring I used were found at a craft store(Michaels or Hobby Lobby). I drilled the center hole of the spools to enlarge them to 3/8 inch diameter and also pre-drilled the holes for the nails so I wouldn't split the wood when tapping the nails in. You can also make your own spools using hollow cylinder shaped objects like pvc pipe sections and plumbing fittings with epoxy/duct/electrical tape to secure the nails in place.

There are knitting machines that can crank out these sinnets very quickly, but I tried one and it would only work with yarn, with the string/cord I tried being too stiff for the machine to manipulate.

There are at least couple of pages with mention/diagrams of spool knitting shown in 'The Ashley Book of Knots'.  I've found them to make great key chain and neck lanyards with smaller diameter cordage, and you get a thicker rope sized version from using paracord.

You can use just two of the nails for a smaller square pattern, like you'd get using a lucet.
 

Hemp is another inexpensive cordage to try using. Most folks probably don't realize there are many uses for it other than the drug culture.
Here's a braided hemp neck lanyard.

1mm waxed cotton cord...

I found some 1mm diameter black waxed cotton cord in the craft section at Walmart, there was also some 100% cotton braiding cord on a card with 3 assorted colors, each in a 12 yard length. It braids well on a small 3 peg knitting spool and will probably work well for use as a lanyard for a SAK(Swiss Army Knife), as a wrist lanyard, an ID badge lanyard, etc... Of course it's not as strong or durable as paracord, but it is another less expensive alternative.

I used this one to replace the ball chain on one of my neck knives.

I used about 34 feet of 1mm brown cotton cord for this braided neck lanyard. The braid uses around 1 ft of cord per 1 inch of braid. I put a split ring on it to use for adding an ID badge, whistle, small multi-tool or clippers for use when fishing, a small flashlight, a pen, etc...

Monkey Fist/Snake Knot Key Ring Fob

I made some of these a couple months back and found this one on the floor under the bed this morning. I make so many variations of things but only post a fraction of what I make on this blog. It's a simple one if you can make the monkey fist.

I used about 5 feet of paracord, first making a monkey fist around a small marble. Then making sure the two strands coming from the fist were equal in length, I looped them around the key ring about 2.5 inches from the fist and made the snake knot back towards the fist around the two strands coming from the monkey fist, and trimmed/melted the ends at the base of the fist.

I made this braided lanyard using inexpensive orange colored mason line, easy to find at Target, Walmart, Home Depot, Lowes, etc. I used a small knitting spool using just 2 of the nails for the braid, attaching it with a loop/lanyard knot at one end and used the clip off a Photon Freedom keychain light and the swivel attachment from a cell phone lariat for the other end. I can clip it to a belt loop and let it hang down into a pocket or clip it to itself and it works as a wrist lanyard.

The flashlight shown is the JetBeam C-LE from Emilion's Workbench. The amount of light this 1 AA battery flashlight can put out with it's Cree LED is amazing. It has several modes: high(2 hrs runtime), medium(7 hrs runtime), low(30 hrs runtime), strobe, and SOS. If you want to learn more about flashlights and related info, visit CandlePower Forums, you might be a flashaholic and didn't even know it.