Drawstrings

Kim Huhta of Crystal Palace designs some really cool bags, many of them in Deco-Ribbon these days, and has done a serious amount of experiments on how to make drawstrings. The general aim is for them to be strong for a relatively thin size, and not too stretchy, since too much give would negate the purpose in most applications.

There are 2 schools of thought on long objects such as drawstrings and scarves: you can work from one end and stop when you get the desired length, or you can cast on as many stitches as you'll need and go on from there. On the whole, the latter gives a more stable drawstring since knitting/crochet is stretchier in length than in width. Kim does a formal gauge swatch before she casts on for a long object, and she always gets what she wants. Fuzzy tends to fall back to the start at one end method, generally having enough trouble with getting an accurated gauge as to call for too many tries :-).

Kim recommends as her favorite casting on with knitting needles a chain the desired length, and using a crochet to sc into each stitch. This hybrid method makes a very good drawstring that can withstand a lot of abuse in daily use of a bag. (You need to use a fairly stable cast-on, not the kind of super-stretchy special that'd belong on top of a sock.) An obvious alternative is to use a crochet for the whole thing, making a chain and then sc'ing into it. This is fine, but it does tend to curl on itself, while the hybrid method lies perfectly straight. A completely knitted drawstring on the other hand tends to stretch too much.

Fuzzy's favorite is an idiot cord, which can be worked from one end to the next. This is a classic technique from Elizabeth Zimmerman, where you cast on 3 stitches on double pointed needles, *push them back to the right without turning, knit them again* etc, giving a nice even tube, no twisting, fairly stable. It's perfectly possible to use 4 stitches, which gives a fatter drawstring, but more will almost always show a ladder where you changed rows. If things seem really dicey in terms of stretch of the finished product, you can always thread a solid string through the center space when you're done.