Sunday, August 26, 2012

Fall ideation: friendship bracelets

Friendship bracelets are one of the biggest trends of summer, but they don't really fit too well into the cold weather of fall and winter. It's something about how they just look better with short sleeves in the bright sunlight. I have been making a lot of bracelets lately and do not want to give up the geometric colorful patterns as soon as sweater weather starts. Here is a picture of a few of the things I have been working on:

The first two on the left are traditional embroidery floss bracelets. The middle  one is paracord in fluorescent colors. The fourth is Red Heart Super Saver yarn - the super cheap stuff - and the one on the right is Lion Brand Thick and Quick.

The two styles made from yarn are a little harder to make than the one s made of non stretchy materials. an embroidery floss bracelet is more even and stiff than one of yarn. The red heart taught me a bit about how to tie better knots in yarn.

Note that after the central brown diamond, the width decreases by about .25 inches and the knots look more precise and even. this is where I started to make the knots very tight. This helped a lot to improve the texture and to make future projects (belts) doable.

I'm gearing up to begin work on these this evening on the train. hope you can see how these patterns are starting to transition into cool weather crafts.

4 comments:

  1. Neato. Which pattern did you use for the red, yellow and black bracelet second from the right? I found the thicker the yarn/material, the harder and more important it is to tie VERY firm knots. I made a rug (well, giant wall hanging as it's never touched the floor) from cotton cording.

    http://rarerborealis.com/wordpressblog/2010/07/05/fit-to-be-tied/

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  2. I actually read your post when I was looking for info on belts and scarves made with this method. The tightness thing is still being explored.

    The pattern was just made up, let me find it,

    http://friendship-bracelets.net/pattern.php?id=61331

    it is slightly different because i had trouble working the generator for the first few times.

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  3. I made a very nice belt with thinner paracord and sisal; the slight difference in size made it sort of wobbly, but the combination of beige neutral and neon's great.

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  4. Those are amazing. I've never considered making these with yarn or anything thicker than embroidery floss before.

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