Friendship Bracelets

If you are anything like me, you probably spent some time in your younger years making friendship bracelets. In elementary school, this was one of my favorite pastimes. I loved the the repetitive patterns, the beautiful colors and the feel of the string in my hands as I worked. Looking back, this is the type of project that probably got me hooked on a lifetime of crafting and creating.

Now that summer is here and the kids are out of school, it's a great time to pass the tradition of friendship bracelets to them. They are inexpensive to make and can be a quiet and relaxing (and quiet) way to spend the summer hours while creating something pretty for a friend.

Materials

• embroidery floss
• scissors
• safety pin
• metal clasp (optional)

 Directions

There are many different designs and patterns to make a friendship bracelet. However, they all have two knots in common - the forward knot and the backward knot. For these examples you will hold the white string, your anchor string, and tie with the red string.

Forward Knot

Lay the red string over the white string with the tail to the right.









Bring the tail of the red string under the white string and up through the loop. Pull until the knot tightens.








Backward Knot

Lay the red string over the white string with the tail to the left.

 Bring the tail of the red string under the white string and up through the loop. Pull until the knot tightens.








 Here's one of my favorite friendship bracelet patterns.

Cut 8 pieces of embroidery floss about 48 inches long. I used:

     2 dark turquoise
     2 dark purple
     2 cream
     2 light turquoise

All of the knots are tied around the dark turquoise floss, so you won't even really see them when you are finished.




Tie your floss around a safety pin about eight inches down your length of floss. Carefully attach the pin to your pants almost to your knee. Arrange your floss.











Hold the two dark turquoise strands in your left hand. These are your anchor strings. As you work, the other strings will be tied around the anchor strings.

Starting with the dark purple strand on the left, tie a backward knot around the anchor strings with each of the other strings, working from left to right.

 This is what it will look like after your first six knots are tied.

Now, starting with the light turquoise string on the right, tie a forward knot with each string.




Continue these steps and you will see a cool wave pattern begin to form. This is actually the back of the bracelet.











Keep working the pattern of six backward knots












and six forward knots until your bracelet is the desired length.












This is the back of your bracelet.












This is the front.

Remove the safety pin and carefully untie the knot that was tied around it.

You can simply tie the bracelet around your friend's wrist and secure it with a knot. Trim the excess string.

For a fancier look, secure metal clasps to each end and trim the excess string before giving it to your friend.