DIY Decorative Wrapped Stones | Japanese-Inspired Crafts

I've been seeing more and more Japanese-inspired 'Zen' rocks lately, and I think they're very beautiful, so I thought it was about time I made a few of my own. Of course, I like to put my own spin on things, so I branched out from the traditional cane weaving and also used yarns to create the knotting and woven effects. I hope you like the results!

The idea of these minimalist pebbles is to be decorative but also to have a calming effect. The aim is to make them very neat, ordered, and (usually) symmetrical. It's a meditative process to create them too.

The intricacy of the designs can vary quite widely, but the ones on this page can be attempted by beginners :)

- Yarn: I used DK weight yarn or very similar. Anything will do but I think medium-weight is best. In terms of colours, I used white cotton yarn, plus grey and olive acrylic yarns. Try and choose colours that contrast with the pebble colour.

- Pebbles: The more symmetrical & flatter the pebble, the better. It also helps if the sides are relatively straight.

- Cane: I used No.3 (2.5 mm wide) chair cane.

- Large bowl of water

- Masking tape

- Stick or twig

- Yarn needle

- Awl & Tweezers (optional): These might help you to weave the cane.

- Glue (optional): I only used a single drop of glue on one of these designs, but ideally none would be used.

First, place the side of the pebble you have chosen to be the back facing towards you.

Then take the end of your chosen yarn and drape the it over the pebble. You want some excess yarn left at the end, so leave at least 5 or so inches hanging.

Wrap the yarn connected to the ball of yarn (which I will call the working yarn), under the pebble towards you, then over the top of the pebble, and then underneath towards you again. When doing this first wrap, trap the yarn tail underneath at the same time, as you can see in the photos.

Do a few more wraps, again trapping the tail underneath each time. The number of wraps is up to you but I wanted 5 strands seen at the front of the pebble.

Keep tension in the yarn whenever you are wrapping it so that the strands are taut not loose.

Once you've done all of the wraps you want, make sure the working yarn is held in place so all of the yarn doesn't just fall off. To do this, you can rest the pebble on the yarn, you can hold the yarn with your hand, or you can use a little masking tape. The tape can damage your yarn though so use it in moderation :)

Then feed the yarn tail into your yarn needle and weave it through the strands at the back of the pebble.

To weave, you simply need to go in and out of the strands all of the way across to the left. If you have enough yarn tail left, you can then weave back to the right again, but in the oppposite way - so where you just went over a strand you will go under, and where you went under you will go over.

Do this until you have used up the yarn tail.

Then cut your working yarn to give you a yarn tail of at least 10-12", and feed this into the yarn needle.

Weave it towards the left, going in and out of the strands. You want to move diagonally towards the other woven yarn tail.

Then weave back across to the right, just above where the previous yarn tail is. Make sure you weave between all of your yarn wraps (5 in my case).

Keep weaving back and forth until you've used up this yarn tail too. Make sure, however, that you finish on the same side as where the previous yarn tail ends.

Then once you have checked your strands are all where you want them (i.e. evenly spaced and under tension), double knot the 2 yarn tails together.

Now the first colour is finished with, feed the next colour of yarn into your yarn needle.

Weave it in and out of the strands underneath the woven area, moving from right to left.

Pull the yarn through to give you at least 6" or so on the left side, then remove the yarn needle.

Cut your yarn so the total length is approximately 2m. If you want to do more weaving than me you'll need more yarn.

Feed this long yarn tail into your yarn needle and then weave from right to left, then from left to right.

Use your needle to push these horizontal yarn strands upwards so they're all next to each other and as neat as possible.

Turn the front of the pebble to face you, then weave across these strands from left to right.

Wrap the yarn around to the back of the pebble, take it under the strands at the back, and then repeat the process again and again until you have at least several inches of yarn remaining.

As you weave, make sure you always alternate going above or below the strands, as mentioned previously, and also try and keep the strands where you want them throughout. They have a tendency to stray!

With the back of the pebble now facing you, take the yarn down behind all of the horizontal yarn strands.

Then weave back and forth through the grey strands, just under where the previous green yarn tail has been woven.

Weave at least 2 or 3 lines, finishing on the same side as where the previous yarn tail ended.

Tie the 2 yarn tails together in a double knot.

Then all that is left to do is use the yarn needle to feed each of the 4 yarn ends under the woven areas to hide them, and cut off the excess yarn. Taking the time to hide the yarn ends really makes it look very neat.

Pebble 1 finished!

In preparation for this one, you'll need to place a length of narrow chair cane into a large bowl of water to soak for 20 minutes or so. This is to make it flexible.

My chair cane came in lengths of around 150 cm, so that is the length I used for this pebble.

Once soaked, place the stick you are using on top of the pebble. Then place the end of the cane under the pebble, with the end on the left. You'll want several inches of cane 'spare' to the left of the pebble.

Also make sure the flat side of the cane is against the pebble.

Then lift the long end of the cane up from the right side, take it over the stick, curl it back on itself around the stick, and then go back over the stick to the left side of the pebble. Make sure this 'loop' spirals in the direction that you are traveling in - so in this case, upwards along the pebble.

Wrap the cane under the pebble again and repeat the process, keeping tension in the cane throughout. The first few wraps are the most fiddly.

Stop when you have at least several inches of cane left.

(As you can see, I used a bit of masking tape to keep the short end of cane in place so it didn't unwind.)

In order to complete the weaving, you will need to secure the ends of the cane at the back of the pebble.

To do this, first feed the long end of cane up under all of the strands at the back - except for the uppermost strand which you will go over instead.

You may want to use an awl to help you with this.

Then feed the cane down under all of the strands, up over the strands, down under the strands, and then over the strands again. Cut the excess cane off to leave you with 1/2" - 1", then tuck this last length of cane under the strands to finish.

I only had a tiny bit of cane left to tuck in and it kept popping out, so I used a dot of glue to secure it.

Take the end of your yarn and leave at least 5" or so excess hanging off the top end of the pebble (with the back of the pebble facing you).

Use either your hand to hold the yarn in place, or a piece of masking tape, and make a 'bend' in the yarn about 3/4 of the way down the pebble.

At this point, wrap the yarn around the right side to the front, turn the pebble over so the front is facing you, and then cross it diagonally to the upper right.

Take it under the pebble horizontally to the left side, then cross it diagonally over the front again, but this time down to the lower right side.

Then take the yarn horizontally under the pebble again.

If you look at the front of the pebble now, there will be a cross shape. Note that on the left and on the right is a sideways 'V' of yarn.

Take your yarn from the bottom left to the upper right, but make sure it is 'inside' the 'V' on the left, and 'outside' the 'V' on the right.

Then take it horizontally under the pebble, and then diagonally across the front from the upper left to the bottom right. This time the yarn needs to be 'outside' the 'V' on the left, and 'inside' the 'V' on the right.

Then you take the yarn horizontally under the pebble again and just repeat the steps above.

Keep going until the stone is wrapped how you want it.

Make sure you finish wrapping the yarn at the top of the pebble, at the back.

Cut your yarn from the ball of yarn, leaving at least 15" or so. Feed this yarn end into your yarn needle.

Take this long yarn tail behind the short yarn tail leaving the top of the pebble, then feed it down under the lowest band of yarn strands (including the lowest strand).

Then go back over this lowest strand, but under the rest of the strands above, moving upwards.

Then feed the yarn downwards again, over all of the strands in this band except for the lowest strand which you need to go under.

Take the yarn needle up and under all of the strands in the lowest band of yarn, then up and under all of the strands in the upper band of yarn too.

Then go up and under the upper band again, and finally tie the 2 yarn tails together in a double knot to secure.

Use your yarn needle to feed both yarn tails behind the upper band to hide them, then cut off the excess yarn.

And now you can display these with pride!

I hope you enjoyed this project, and thanks for reading :D