With this simple knotting technique, learn how to weave beautiful friendship bracelets.
Constructed from a series of tiny knots, friendship bracelets are a form of weaving and have been around for a long time. Making and giving friendship bracelets is fun and the basic knotting technique is simple to learn. Materials are very inexpensive; in fact you probably already have most of what you need to get started.
To make a basic five strand friendship bracelet you will need: embroidery floss (enough for five 24" strands), scissors, measuring tape and a safety pin. You will also need something to secure your work to; a pillow works great.
To get started cut five strands of floss to 24" each. When you are first learning the knotting technique, using five different colors of floss is helpful in keeping track of your knots. Once you have your five strands of embroidery floss all cut to 24", you will need to make a beginning knot. Gather the ends of the strands and make a loop, bring the five ends through the loop and pull snugly to make a knot. Your knot should be positioned so that on one side of the knot you have a one-inch tail, and on the other side of the knot you have approximately 23" of floss to work with. Holding the floss by the one-inch tail, slide your safety pin through the knot and secure your work to the pillow.
With the floss secured to your working surface you are now ready to choose your color pattern. You will want to separate each strand of floss and working left to right, set each strand into the order you would like for it to appear in your finished piece. Your finished bracelet will be bands of color so, choose the color you would like to appear first and move it to the left-most position, the second color should be immediately to the right of it and so on. Once you have arranged each piece of floss you are ready to begin knotting.
Still working left to right, pick up the first two pieces of floss, let's call them string one and string two. Hold string two firmly while horizontally crossing string one behind string two and creating a loop. At this point string one and string two should be laid out in a position that resembles the number 4. Now take the end of string one and bring it up around string two and through the loop you've just created. Pull string one gently in an upward motion until you have a snug little knot at the top of your piece. You've just made your first knot! Now you will need to repeat that step and make a second knot with those same two pieces of floss. Perhaps the most difficult part of learning this technique is keeping track of your knots. Each "stitch" in the bracelet will be made of two tiny knots; the easiest way to end up with a lopsided bracelet is to loose count of your knots.
Once you have your two tiny knots snugly in place, your original string one should naturally fall into the string number two position. You will pick up your original string one (that appears in the string two position) and string number three. You will now want to tie two more knots, bringing string one behind string three to make your loop. You will continue doing this until your original string one has moved along each of the other strands, climbing two knots at a time and finally coming to naturally rest in the string five position. At this point you will want to begin the whole process over again starting with the two pieces of floss now in the left-most positions, always crossing the left-most piece behind the piece directly to the right of it and always tying two knots.
Continue knotting until your bracelet has reached the length you desire. Friendship bracelets are usually tied onto the wrist of the recipient; be sure to leave enough floss at the end of your bracelet to secure it snugly around a wrist with a few knots.
Once you have mastered the knotting technique you may want to experiment with larger projects such as chokers or belts. You may also want to try working with different materials such as yarn, hemp, and twine, or for a real challenge, thread. Beads, charms and bells can be easily added to your work be stringing them between knots. From funky to fabulous, friendship bracelets can express personality and style. With just a little practice and imagination you can create all sorts of wonderful friendship bracelets to wear and share.
