How to Make Tricotin Keychains: A Complete Beginner’s Guide (Part 1)

If you’ve been scrolling through craft feeds lately, you’ve probably stumbled across beautiful, colorful keychains made with a small spool-like tool that creates a continuous braided cord. That tool is called a tricotin — and once you try it, you’ll wonder how you ever lived without it. This first part of our tutorial series walks you through everything you need to know to get started: what tricotin is, how it works, the materials you’ll need, and how to create your very first i-cord keychain from scratch.

Whether you’re a complete beginner to fiber crafts or someone who already knits or crochets and wants a new portable project, tricotin keychains are the perfect entry point. They’re fast, satisfying, endlessly customizable, and make wonderful handmade gifts.

What Is Tricotin?

Tricotin is a French word for a small spool-knitting device, sometimes called a knitting spool, knitting nancy, or French knitter depending on where you’re from. The tool itself looks like a small wooden or plastic spool with four to eight pegs arranged in a circle at the top. You wrap yarn around the pegs in a specific pattern and use a hook or pick to lift loops over one another, creating a continuous tubular knitted cord — also known as an i-cord.

The resulting cord is dense, round, and incredibly versatile. Crafters use it to make keychains, bracelets, bag handles, decorative baskets, coasters, necklaces, wall hangings, and much more. For keychains specifically, tricotin produces a professional-looking braided result that honestly rivals anything you’d find in a boutique shop.

The technique itself is one of the oldest forms of knitting. Historical records trace spool knitting back to at least the 19th century, and it was a common pastime for children learning their first fiber craft skills. Today it has experienced a massive revival thanks to crafting communities on social media, where the hashtags #tricotin, #icord, and #manualidades bring together thousands of makers sharing their patterns and creations.

Why Make Tricotin Keychains?

Before we dive into the how-to, let’s talk about why keychains are such a great starting project.

First, they require very little yarn. A single keychain uses only a few yards of material, which means you can work through your yarn scraps and experiment with colors without committing to a large project. If something goes wrong, you haven’t lost much, and starting over is painless.

Second, keychains are quick. Depending on the length you want and the type of tricotin tool you’re using, you can finish a keychain in as little as fifteen to thirty minutes. That makes this a perfect project for an evening at home, a commute, or a crafting session with kids.

Third, they teach you all the foundational tricotin skills. Once you’ve made a keychain, you have the basic knowledge to tackle any other tricotin project. The cord creation technique is the same whether you’re making something small or something large.

Finally, handmade keychains are genuinely useful gifts. Everyone needs a keychain, they travel well, they don’t require sizing, and they can be personalized with colors, beads, tassels, and charms to suit the recipient perfectly.

Materials You’ll Need

Getting started with tricotin doesn’t require a big investment. Here’s what you’ll need to gather before you begin.

The tricotin tool itself. You can find tricotin spools at most craft stores, online marketplaces, and toy shops. The most basic version has four pegs and creates a thin cord, while tools with six or eight pegs create a slightly thicker tube. For keychains, a four or six peg tool works beautifully. If you want to experiment with wire, there are also metal tricotin tools designed specifically for working with jewelry wire, which creates a completely different sculptural look that falls more into the #knittedwireart category. We’ll explore wire tricotin in a later part of this series, but for now, start with a standard yarn tool.

Yarn. For your first keychain, choose a smooth, medium-weight yarn in a color you love. Acrylic yarn works well because it’s affordable, widely available, comes in hundreds of colors, and is easy to work with. Avoid very fuzzy or textured yarns for your first attempt, as they can make it harder to see what you’re doing. As you get more comfortable, you can branch out into cotton, wool, metallic thread, or even thin ribbon.

A hook or pick. Most tricotin tools come with a small pick, which is the tool you use to lift loops over the pegs. If yours didn’t come with one, a small crochet hook works perfectly. Even a toothpick or chopstick can work in a pinch.

Scissors. You’ll need these to cut your yarn at the beginning and end of the project.

Keychain hardware. This means the metal ring or clasp that actually attaches to your keys. You can find these in craft stores in the jewelry-making section, or you can repurpose hardware from old keychains. A basic split ring works fine, but lobster claw clasps or swivel hooks give a more polished result.

Optional embellishments. Beads, tassels, pom-poms, small charms, and decorative knots can all be added to your finished cord to customize the look. We’ll go over some of these options toward the end of this post.

Understanding the I-Cord

Before you pick up your tricotin tool, it helps to understand what you’re actually creating: an i-cord. In traditional knitting, an i-cord is made on two double-pointed needles using a specific technique that creates a small, seamless tube. Tricotin achieves the same result mechanically, making the process accessible to anyone regardless of their knitting experience.

The cord is hollow in the center (or nearly so, depending on your tension and yarn weight), which gives it structure and a nice round shape. This structure is what makes tricotin cords so satisfying to hold — they feel substantial and intentional, not flat or limp like simple braids.

The size of your cord depends on three things: the number of pegs on your tool, the weight of your yarn, and how tightly you pull your loops. A four-peg tool with worsted weight yarn creates a cord roughly five to six millimeters in diameter, which is perfect for keychains. A six-peg tool with the same yarn creates something closer to eight to ten millimeters.

Step-by-Step: How to Start Your Tricotin Keychain

Now let’s get into the actual making. Read through all the steps once before you begin so you have a mental picture of the process before your hands start moving.

Step 1: Thread the tail through the center hole.

Cut a piece of yarn about ten inches long and set it aside — this will be your starting tail. Now take your working yarn (still attached to the ball) and drop the end through the center hole of your tricotin spool from top to bottom. Hold the tail hanging out from the bottom of the spool with one hand. This tail will eventually help you anchor the cast-on and finish the end of your cord.

Step 2: Cast on the pegs.

Wrap your working yarn around each peg in a counterclockwise direction, going from one peg to the next in a circle. You want a single loop on each peg, not too tight and not too loose. After you’ve wrapped all four (or six) pegs once, you’re ready to start knitting.

Take a moment to adjust your tension here. The loop on each peg should sit comfortably without being so tight that you can’t lift it over the peg head, and without being so loose that it slides off on its own.

Step 3: Wrap the yarn a second time.

Holding your working yarn taut with one hand, bring it around the outside of all the pegs a second time, going in the same direction as before. You now have two loops on each peg. The bottom loop is the one you cast on, and the top loop is the one you just added.

Step 4: Use your hook to lift the bottom loop over the top loop.

Starting with any peg, slide your hook under the bottom loop (the older one, sitting closest to the base of the peg) and lift it up and over the top of the peg, dropping it toward the center hole. Pull gently on the tail hanging from the bottom of the spool to keep your tension even. Repeat this process on every peg, going around in the same direction each time.

When you finish lifting a loop over on every peg, you’ve completed your first row. You should feel the cord beginning to emerge from the bottom of the spool.

Step 5: Keep going.

Repeat the process: wrap the working yarn around all the pegs once to add a new loop on top of each existing loop, then use your hook to lift the bottom loop over the top loop on each peg. Wrap, lift, wrap, lift. After a few rounds, you’ll notice the cord growing longer from the bottom of the spool and you’ll start to feel the rhythm.

This is the meditative quality that so many tricotin crafters talk about. Once you’re comfortable with the motion, the process becomes almost automatic, and it’s deeply satisfying to watch the cord lengthen with every round.

Step 6: Work until you reach the desired length.

For a keychain, you generally want a finished cord between three and eight inches long, depending on the style you’re going for. A short, tidy keychain fob might be three to four inches, while a longer decorative style could be six to eight inches. Keep in mind that the cord will stretch slightly when you remove it from the tool, so it’s better to err on the slightly longer side.

Some patterns call for multiple colors, which involves cutting one yarn and introducing another at any point in the work. We’ll cover color-changing in a later part of this series, but if you’re feeling adventurous, you can experiment now — simply cut your first color leaving a six-inch tail, tie the new color to the old tail with a small knot close to the work, tuck the tails inside the cord as you go, and continue wrapping and lifting as normal.

How to Cast Off (Bind Off)

When your cord is the length you want, it’s time to close up the stitches so they don’t unravel. This is called casting off or binding off.

Cut your working yarn, leaving a tail of about eight inches. Thread the tail through the loop on your first peg and slide that loop off the peg. Move to the next peg, thread the tail through its loop, and slide it off. Continue around until all loops have been removed from the pegs.

Pull the yarn tail firmly to cinch the loops closed. Then thread the tail through a tapestry needle (or fold it and use the hook) and weave it back through the cord for about an inch to secure it. Trim any excess. Repeat this same process with the starting tail at the other end of the cord.

Your cord is now complete and secure on both ends.

Finishing Your Keychain

Now comes the fun part: turning your cord into an actual keychain.

Fold the cord in half so both finished ends meet. Push both ends through your keychain ring or clasp before you secure them, or use a jump ring (a small metal loop that opens and closes) to attach the loop of your cord to the hardware.

If you want a cleaner look, fold the cord in half, slip both ends through a jump ring, and then stitch the two ends together using the yarn tails to form a neat loop at the top. Then attach your keychain hardware to the jump ring.

For added decoration, you can tie a knot at the bottom of the cord, add a tassel made from matching or contrasting yarn, string some beads onto the cord before you close the ends, or attach a small charm through a jump ring. Even a simple overhand knot near the bottom of a single cord gives a clean, stylish finish that looks intentional and polished.

Tips for Better Results

A few things to keep in mind as you practice that will make a noticeable difference in the quality of your finished cords.

Consistent tension is everything. Try to wrap with the same amount of tightness on every peg every time. Uneven tension is the most common reason cords look twisted or lumpy in places.

Don’t rush the lifting motion. Lift each bottom loop cleanly over the peg tip and let it drop naturally toward the center. Yanking or forcing will stretch the stitches unevenly.

Pull gently on the cord from the bottom as you work. This consistent downward tension helps the stitches seat evenly on the pegs and encourages the cord to form properly.

Use good lighting. This sounds trivial but makes a huge difference, especially with dark-colored yarn where it can be hard to distinguish the two loops on a peg.

Practice on scrap yarn first. Before you start a keychain in the color or yarn you actually want to use, spend five minutes on a piece of scrap yarn just getting comfortable with the motion.

Pattern Ideas to Try Once You’ve Mastered the Basic Cord

Once you’re comfortable with a single-color cord, there’s an entire world of tricotin patterns waiting for you. Striped keychains are the natural next step, alternating two or three colors every few rows for a clean, graphic look. Gradient keychains using yarn that transitions through a range of colors create a more organic, artistic result.

You can also experiment with the shape of your finished keychain. A spiral created by twisting the cord before attaching the hardware gives a springy, playful look. Braiding three shorter cords together before attaching them to a single ring creates a thicker, more substantial keychain. And if you get into the wire tricotin world — which we’ll cover in Part 2 — the sculptural possibilities expand dramatically, since wire holds its shape in ways that yarn doesn’t.

Sharing Your Makes

One of the best things about the tricotin community is how generous and encouraging it is. When you finish your first keychain, share it using tags like #tricotin, #icord, #manualidades, #diy, and #knittedwireart to connect with other makers. You’ll find inspiration, get feedback, and maybe even inspire someone else to pick up the tool for the first time.

Craft communities are built on this kind of generosity, and handmade keychains are humble enough to share without any pressure to be perfect. Your first one probably won’t look exactly the way you imagined, and that’s completely fine. The second one will be better, and the third better still.

What’s Coming in Part 2

In the next installment of this series, we’ll move beyond the basic cord and explore wire tricotin — a technique where thin craft wire replaces yarn to create rigid, sculptural keychains and jewelry pieces. We’ll also look at intermediate pattern variations, adding beads directly to your cords as you work, and creating keychains with multiple cords combined in different ways.

For now, gather your materials, pick a color of yarn that makes you happy, and make your first cord. Even if it takes a couple of tries to get the tension right, the moment the cord starts emerging from the bottom of the spool is genuinely delightful — one of those small craft moments that makes you want to keep going.

Stay tuned for Part 2, and happy making.