Even though it's ethnically correct, I really don't like the look of the white beads on the dark fiber. It's too jarring to me, too much contrast.

My daughter helped me make the twisted cord - another frustrating experience. But once we got a system down, it turned from frustrating to tedious. We had a hard time getting the beads exactly 8 inches apart, so when the time came to make the cord into a skirt, the beads were not equidistant from the head. I did some compensating at the head of the tassel by stitching the cord to the felt at various levels, and then wrapped another piece of felt around the head to hide the mess (that worked very well).

I used #5 perle coton in purple for the collar, which I made fairly wide. Then I added two rows of grape seed beads to the top of the collar, and one row to the bottom.

I'm fairly pleased with the end result of this tassel, except for those white beads in the skirt. My collar is a little lopsided, too. But I like the color combination of the tassel, collar and grape beads.

Maybe if I had seen a color photograph of an Afghani tassel, I'd better understand the use of the white beads on the dark color skirt.

This tassel is approximately 4-1/2 inches long and made of a purpley-blue Wool Ease yarn.

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