For those of us who keep losing our soda...

Every Sunday, my entire family gets together for a potluck type dinner and some games.  We let the kids run wild and share juicy gossip - like how we need to eat less sugar and how my husband is having an affair on me with China.  (the place, not the person.)  (Is there a person names China?) (Wow, now I actually AM starting rumors...)

And every Sunday I lose my glass of water/soda/milk/lemonade at least four times.  (By the way, those slashes mean OR, not AND.  THAT would be a gross drink.)

Give or take.  Usually more give.

We need name tags for our glasses.

That's not a new idea... but this Yarn series got me thinking.  What if you wanted something fast, cute, versatile, non-permanent, and thrifty for your Glass ID's?  What if you ran out of chalkboard paint and couldn't paint the stems and bottoms?  (Oh, come on, I know you've seen the trend...)

Enter: Yarn.

Now, it's not that I don't think you couldn't figure out how to do this on your own, it's just that I thought maybe I could offer up some tips.  Plus, this post would be entirely too short without pictures.


The end.


See?


So, for my models, I used these awesome disposable plastic wine glasses you get in the wedding "section" at the dollar store.  You'll also need yarn in as many different colors as you have glasses, plastic buttons to match the yarn, scissors and a dry erase marker.
PS, remember I'm taking these photos with my phone?  Yeah, sorry about that...

Obviously, you can just wrap the yarn around the glasses, and... DONE.  I won't insult your intelligence by showing you that.  But I will insult your intelligence by showing you this way.

So.  Cut two pieces of yarn long enough to wrap the entire stem.  Holding them together, place one end of the pieces against the bottom of the stem.  Pull one piece of yarn out a little longer and fold it down against the stem.

Take THAT piece of yarn (the one with the end folded down against the stem) and wrap it around the back of the stem.  Bring it around the front and over both its short end AND the other piece of yarn.
The second piece of yarn won't do any wrapping.  It's just there to knot the first piece onto.  That's why you are wrapping OVER it.

Wrap tightly around the stem and over the folded end and the second piece of yarn two or three times.

Then tie a single knot.

Continue one wrap around the back with the "wrapping" piece of yarn, bring it around front and single knot again.

Do this a few more times and you should be able to see a "pattern" of knots kind of wrapping around the stem.

When you get about halfway up the stem, thread your button on the "wrapping" yarn piece,

wrap it around the back of the stem,

And knot it.  
Continue wrapping and knotting up the stem until you reach the cup.

Tie a nice tight double (or triple) knot right on the back of the button so you can't see it.  It will be between the button and the stem, see?

This one is just wrapped without the knots.  I used yellow and white variegated yarn and I like the ombre look it has.  The button had four holes, not two.  I thread through two first, wrapped it around the back of the stem, then threaded through the other two with the same yarn piece then wrapped it around and knotted it.

You can see the knots on the green one a little better because I used three pieces of yarn - one to wrap and two to knot.

Cute, right?  But why do we need the dry erase markers?  To label with our names, of course!  For some people, the color coding might be enough to help them remember which glass is which, but I want my name right out there for everyone to see.  If you use plastic buttons, you can write all over them with dry erase and then...

Wipe them clean again.

And here are the stems all color coded according to person and ready to go.  

The best part?  Easy clean up.  Just snip the button off and throw the whole cup and yarn concoction in the garbage.


I know what you're thinking, and yes, you're right!  You can do this with your normal, average everyday glass stemware as well!  You know, if you're too high class for the plastic stuff.

Just cut the knots in the yarn and bam.  Done.  Just be sure not to toss the glass out with the yarn.

Now, just to tell you what you already know:
There are so many variations you can do with this!  Large party?  Use the same color yarn for all the glasses with different shaped/patterned/colored buttons.  Use paper tags with pre-printed names and yarn to wrap them onto the stem.  Use yarn in colors that match your party.  Leave the buttons off completely.  Use different colored yarn and the same colored button with initials.  Make different knotted patterns.  Wrap a yarn braid around.  See?  Once again, the possibilities are endless!

And THAT is why I love yarn.

Have you seen the super cute and oh, so practical project Shannon whipped up??

*Be sure to check the right sidebar for all the fun parties I link to!