Spykes the cactus!

Here I've been playing around with Maya again, trying to get used to working in 3D as well as working with the tools provided. I must say that every time it gets easier and easier, I get stuck less and less and that's always a good thing!
So Spykes The Cactus has been made from mainly cones and cylinders and is just a 3D version of my previously illustrated cactus. This one however doesn't have a balloon. I tried to add the balloon, but I couldn't figure out how to create the string, because when I tried to create a shape and play around with the edges corners etc. it didn't work and couldn't make it look anything like a string no matter what I tried... so I gave up on the balloon overall.