I HAVE a new phone and it came with a set of earphones.

They were pretty standard white ones, so I wanted to jazz them up by making them more colourful.

Materials: Earphones; embroidery threads; scissors; sticky tape

Difficulty: Easy

Get stuck in

Tape one end of your earphones to the table. It might seem like this is a minor point but it is important to secure your earphones in one position as this means each knot will naturally twist around the cord.

Knot on

To avoid confusion, it's worth noting that you will create two types of knot: a basic knot for the start and end, and a Chinese staircase knot that you will use to cover the cord and give the twisted effect we are looking for. To start, tie a basic knot at one end of your earphone cord with your chosen embroidery thread. The way to start the Chinese staircase knot is to take the embroidery thread to the left of the earphone and pass the end of the thread over the cord, creating a loop, then feed the end of the thread back under the cord and up through that loop from behind, pulling tight. Remember to hold the tail from your basic knot along the length of the cord as you create your Chinese staircase knots until the tail is completely covered. Repeat this process for the full length of the earphone cord. Once you get into the swing of it you'll be done in no time.

Colour up

You can use the same colour of thread or vary the colours like I have. To alternate the colours, tie a knot on the last colour and start the new one the same way that you started the process. Pretty simple, really.

Finish

To complete the process tie a basic knot at the end to secure. Embroidery thread is split into about six strands; I split these strands into two equal sections and tie a final knot to secure. You may also want to dab a bit of glue on the ends to stop fraying.