One thing I have quite a bit of and haven't used for quite some time is embroidery floss. With four little girls, I thought friendship bracelets would make a good addition to round out another gift.
This is the first time I've made Friendship Bracelets so this is not a pro teaching but a if I can do it, you can do it kind of thing. I chose for my first one, a chevron pattern. It is in the easy class. As you can see, I'm still working on this one, my second attempt at this same pattern. The first project I didn't complete as it was rather ugly and was meant to be my experimental attempt. It was a test to see if I would be able to do this or would it just become a tangled mess. I learned a great deal.
I have horrible short term memory and though the basic patterns were of course sound, the methods to to do so weren't controlled enough to work for me. Things have to be extremely organized to keep my brain from becoming entangled along with the thread because I can't remember what I just did. In fact, if I hold something in my hand, I will forget it's there and drop it if I don't keep moving it around with my fingers to remind my memory it's still there.
I want to share with you what I worked out. Don't tell me you can't until I finish showing just how easy this can be done because I have simplified a simple pattern.
I found that a clipboard made the project very portable and easy to slip into a bag. The clamp at the top helps to hole the threads taunt. In-expensive masking tape worked great to hold each thread at the bottom plus making them easy to move. The problem was my clipboard's composition kept clogging the tape, shortening its use time.
Having some wide masking tape did the trick when I placed it around the bottom of the board. The narrow masking tape didn't become clogged and it released easily.
The first chevron band was from threads of the following colors: black, yellow, pink, green, and a blue. It wasn't as pleasing as this one of graduating shades. Off white to darker and darker shades of peach.
With the five graduating in darkness threads, cut each 65 inches in length I folded them in half. Slip knot the folded end to bring all the now 10 threads together. This is the end you put under the clipboard clamp. The length of each thread is now 32 1/2 inches long.
Divide the threads with a set of dark to light on each side. With the darkest on the outside and lighter and lighter shades as you go in toward the center.
Join me as I work on Christmas projects. Feel free to join me in making your own projects.
In the next post I'll show you the knots.
