The shire mane roll is made from wool but also sometimes using raffia and ribbon but I will do a tutorial about how to make a raffia and ribbon one for Clydesdales later. The wool mane roll is perfect for beginners at plaiting because there's less to cover and hide and simply less things to do at once. I also believe looks nicer because the ribbon and raffia ones look tattier quicker get dirtier and fray. I also like how the wool looks vibrant but that's just what I think its completely up to you! Also a massive plus for me is that you can wash a wool mane roll easily!
To start you will need:
- 3 balls of wool in your chosen colours i.e to match your flights for my example I will be using Orange, Green and Yellow because these are my Orins colours and are the 3 colours in his flights. Most of the time there are only 2 colours in the mane roll for example on the flights made in the example the mane roll was Blue Orange Blue with both blues being the same colour. I recommend acrylic wool because its easy to wash and wont shrink and also because its quite strong and the balls are usually the most easy to match colour wise with ribbon and the cheapest around £1.30 a ball online or in your local wool shop.
- A fabric tape measure.
- 2 high back chairs (although alternatives can be found I find two chairs the easiest option)
- A pair of scissors.
Wrap your first coloured wool around the chair backs in the figure of 8 knotting the first round together at one corner. I like to use the right front corner but any is fine. Leave a tail on the knot so that if you run out of wool or are using end of balls you can just tie on another ball and also so that you can finish off at the end. Do not bow your corner knot because it will come undone once you start going around with your wool. The wool needs to be comfortably around the chair backs, not loose but not stretched so that you will have a true length of wool.
In your figure of 8 go around the chair with your wool 80 times. It sounds like a lot but once you get a rhythm going you will be done in no time! This is to get a good thickness. It will look something like this!
Cut three lengths of the same coloured wool around 8" long. Tie the wool together on the 3 corners except the corner you joined your yarn together on. Tie by wrapping and knotting till you run out of your length of yarn like below. Cut the tails.
Once the other three corners are tied, cut one more piece of 8" wool in the same colour and have it easily to hand. On the corner where you joined your yarn cut through all the strands of wool. Hold on to the lengths together on the short side of the figure of 8 (against the chair back not the diagonal) and then using the spare length of yarn tie these ends simply together at around an inch from the end. Untangle the diagonals where they crossed by gently pulling the strands through. Your first length of mane roll is done. Repeat these steps twice more with your other two chosen colours.
At this point I suggest to plait your mane roll together. It makes it far more manageable when finishing it off and also this is a good way to store your mane roll and wash it if you decide to put it in the washing machine or hand wash and saves a lot of hassle!
This last bit is more individual. You can do a range of knots to finish of and properly tie together your mane roll and to make the part which sticks up above the forelock. There are a few different ways that people do it. some just wrap wool around it till it is covered some use ribbon. I use the same knot as for the Jug handle the 'square knot' or sometimes I weave a basket knot around it to make it look more interesting. Because you would have already done the knot for the jug handle if you're making your own flight set I will use that here. its effective but it does take around an hour to do this part and is the longest bit of the mane roll in my mind. To see the instructions for the square knot please look at the tutorial for the Jug Handle.
Knot the ends of the two wools you wish to use. I am using the green and the orange. Don't cut lengths from the balls but knot with the remainder of the balls attached this way you cant run out of wool before you have finished your knotting. Start at the first knot and continue down to the second knot you made to tie the skeins together. I used the Orange to be the L cross over yarn and the green to go over, under and through. Pull tight to make it look uniform but not to tight to break the wool. It will look something like this when you are half way. Keep going till your get to the second tie. When done trim the sticky up bits to equal length, they still need to stick up like in the picture below but all the same length looks neater.
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The end result will look like this mane roll on the left. If you do a basket weave knot it could look the one below. Have fun, experiment and try and be that little bit individual. Its always great to see something new at the shows!
Coming next: Making Shire Flights 4:The neck strap, tail sprigs and ribbon.
