I'm enjoying just dipping my toe into crafting at the moment. I'd bookmarked some friendship bracelet books in my Amazon account meaning to buy one (or two!) of my nieces for birthdays or Christmas presents. However, I'd no idea how to make them myself and didn't want to send the book/kit before testing it out myself. This is beginning to sound like a very lame excuse to buy a crafting book LOL :)
Anyway, I got a book on Friday from Amazon, which included some embroidery threads, a clipboard thingy, some beads and some lovely patterns for making the bracelets - I was all set! The book is aimed at children/teenagers with lots of illustrations of kids who look like their attending American Summer Camp, so the terminology is very funny if you're an adult :D
Although it supplied embroidery thread, I have heaps of my own so decided to use that instead (the quality of those included in the book felt a little cheap). I also used this website in conjunction with the book, which I found really useful.
Here's my attempts after a couple of days playing around . . .
From what I know at the moment you only need to learn two knots - a forward knot and a backward knot - each one has to be repeated twice in order to work. Quite a sweet little craft though and I imagine it would be a fun thing to do with a youngish or teenage daughter. HUGELY time consuming to make though so your child would have to have a lot of patience! Also, although they're deemed quite simple to make - you really have to take time to read the instructions initially to make sense of what you're doing. For a younger child I think it would be essential to have a vaguely crafty adult around to help.
I learned how to make the skinny one first - candy stripe? The second one is a chevron design and lovely to make - quite simple once you get the hang of forward /backward knots. One tip I gleaned from the website is to remember that a forward knot is a little like the shape of a '4' and the backward knot is a little like the letter 'P' visually, if you get my gist. Always hold the thread you are wrapping around rigid and taut.
The last one I made is the chevron design again but with a border. The border is made by using a forward/backward knot so that the thread stays in the same place. You always have to knot twice - a forward/backward knot is simply knotting first in one direction and then in the opposite direction.
The videos on this website are quite helpful (this is where I picked up the '4' and 'P' shape tips!).
Here's the book I used . . .
One thing is that it's a very cheap craft - all you need is some embroidery threads and something to clip them onto to hold them taut. I'd use different colours the next time - I used the ones in the book to make it easier to learn and it worked for me. I can understand the sentiment of making them for your BFF though - they take forever to make, for very special friends only, hehe!
Did you make friendship bracelets in your youth??
(I don't think it was a Hebridean thing - not enough sunshine maybe LOL )
Alison xx
