Offerings to Cats

Being a crafter and living with cats means that I spend a lot of my crafting time taking my things back from cats.  Usually, it's in the form of removing the yarn from Jean Luc's mouth for the fifth time and trying to wipe off the cat spit.  Cats are not picky, though, and like to get involved in all sorts of crafts!

Here, you can see Jean Luc chewing on some of the scrap pieces of plastic that I was cutting for my woven friendship bracelets.  These scraps were offered to him in order to protect the strips that I was cutting to size.  Of course, offerings do not always work; in this case, he kept walking over and grabbing completed plastic strips from the pile next to me and taking them.  Oh, cats!

Neon Stripe Custom Bracelets

Today I finished making some custom bracelets with four different stripes of neon colors.  These were the most complicated woven bracelets that I've ever made!

Unlike my normal bracelets, there were 2 strings still attached to the skein (the turquoise and black) and the other stands were longer than normal.  That meant a lot of untangling!  To make a stripe of a non-letter color, simply run it along the top by the letter strings and use when you want a stripe.  To make a stripe with a letter color, make sure to cut the string long!  

Interested in your own awesome bracelets?  I have lots of listings in my Etsy shop!  Here is a listing for One Custom Bracelet.

Square Chained Chevron Friendship Bracelet Tutorial

 Like my new Square Chained Chevron friendship bracelet?  I made another one and decided to make an in-depth tutorial for it.  If you want the Printable PDF of the tutorial, click here! (Link will open on Google Drive.)

Square chained chevron bracelets.

1. Set-up: Choose 4 colors, one of which will be shown less.  Cut each of the 4 colors about 4 to 5 feet long, fold over, and tie in a knot.  In this case, yellow is the color that will be seen less.  Arrange your colors so your least favorite is second and second-to-last.  Imagine the strings have been labeled A1 B1 C1 D1 D2 C2 B2 A2.  **Note:  The "1" and "2" denote whether the string is on the left or right.  There are times when the two middle strands switch places.  Instructions refer to the strings as if 1 is always the left strand and 2 is the right strand.



2. Tie A1 over B1 16 times.  I used 8 forward-backward knots, which you can see how to tie here at Friendship-bracelets.net. Alternative: Tie 16 hitches so it looks like a Chinese staircase.  For the A2 over B2, you need to tie 8 backward-forward knots. Below is a picture of the first part of a backward-forward knot.
 




3. Here is the second half of the backward-forward knot.



4. After both A's have been tied over the B's, it should look like the following.



5. With the C1 and C2, tie 5 square knots over the two D strings.  Click here for instructions on how to tie a square knot.  Below in the first half of the square knot.  Make sure to tighten completely.



6. Below is the second half of a square knot.  After this is tied, you must tie 4 more complete square knots.



7. Here is the completed chain section.  Next, it is time to tie the chevron section.



8. Tie B1 over C1 and D1. Tie B2 over C2 and D2, then over B1.  This final knot connects the two B strands.  The order of the strings is now ACDBBDCA.



9. Tie A1 over C1, D1, and B1.  Then Tie A2 over C2, D2, B2, and A1.  Order is now CDBAABDC



10. Final row of the chevron.  Tie C1 over D1, B1, and A1.    Then tie C2 over D2, B2, A2, and C1.  Order after chevron has been tied is DBACCABD.



11. You are now done with one repeat of the pattern!  Imagine the strings have been re-named (pink used to be D, but is now A) and repeat steps 1-10.  Continue for as long as you want the bracelet to be.


Below you can see what the completed bracelet looks like. 

Tips and Tricks:

• Try changing the number of knots for the side chains and middle square knots to lengthen or shorten.  By increasing the side chains more than the square knots, you will have a bracelet that is wider.
• Increase the number of strings for a wider bracelet with more color combinations.
• Instead of square knots in the center, try twisted square knots.
•  Add beads to customize your bracelet more (and make it faster to complete!).

Thanks for looking!  I would love to hear back from anyone who has tried this tutorial, so please leave a comment.

Square Chained Chevron

 ** Want a full tutorial?  Go to my new post for full instructions. **

Today I experimented with a new bracelet!  Many of my bracelets are made with square knots, and I recently found that they translate very well to embroidery floss.  Just square knots are pretty boring, so I added some bells and whistles.

This bracelet is made up of eight strands of thread (well, 4 folded in half).  The green only showed up in the chevron portion, however, which is probably due to the even number of colors.

I plan on making a tutorial for this bracelet, but here's some notes for now:

Set-up:
Two of each color set up symetrically, so ABCDDCBA.

Tying:

1.  A over B either as over-under knots or Chinese staircase.  16 knots total.  Repeat on other half.
2. Tie the two C over D's in square knots.  10 knots total.
3. Start chevron by tying B over C, then D.  Tie the two B's together in the center.
4. Tie A over C, D, and B, then together.
5. One more row of chevron with C over D,B, and A, then together.
6. Repeat #1-5 but with re-lettered strings.

Blue and Black Sparkle Bracelet

I've been working on a new type of bracelets for my Etsy store that are black with metallic thread.  This is the first one, and has blue metallic thread with a blue wooden bead.

The ends are made so that the bracelet is adjustable, and you don't have to tie it on.

Wrap Bracelets

Remember those hair wraps that used to be so popular?  I confess that I have put them in my hair on multiple occasions, the most recent being a year ago.  They're for little kids, I know, but I was a camp counselor at the time!

Anyways, I love how the hair wraps look and the reality is that they are difficult to take care of if you ever want to brush your hair.  Here comes the alternative: wrap bracelets.  They look exactly the same as the hair wraps, but can be worn and taken off whenever. And-- Bonus!-- they don't require super-human skills to make for yourself (hair wraps are quite difficult to make for yourself, since they all start up by the back of your head).

Two wrap bracelets.  The one on the left can wrap around your wrist 3 times or your ankle twice.  The one on the right can wrap around your wrist 2 times.

I have many other bracelets that will soon be added to my Etsy shop.  Here is a sneak-peak below... 

The Pretzel Bracelet

One thing about crafting is always wanting to learn new techniques.  For the bracelets I have been working on, I've been trying to come up with new knots and learn different styles.

This is called the "pretzel knot" and is actually super easy!  The video tutorial can be found at the Friendship-Bracelets.net website.

Two pretzel knot bracelets.  Top: turquoise and natural.  Bottom: black and orange (Halloween colors!).

Fancy New Phone

I'm posting this from my brand new phone! Sure, it would be much easier to type on the computer (which I'm actually sitting in front of). But phones are so fancy and complicated these days that I wanted to try posting this way.

Maybe this new phone will get me to actually post things. When I'm not playing with Instagram or some other app, that is.

Had to include a photo from Instagram: some hemp bracelets that I have been making.