update: i said pictured below, but i never actually added the picture lol, but it’s there now!

Hey daydreamers! I’m back with another post in our summer-y series to kick off the new season. Today’s blog post is going to be a tutorial-style like last week! In quarantine, I’ve picked up a lot of new hobbies (including yoga, guitar, Spanish-learning, and other random things), and one of them includes friendship bracelet making!

Flash forward to quarantine, I randomly decided to try making bracelets again, so I watched a few YouTube videos. Once I’d mastered chevron (the one I’m showing you today!) I learned how to make candy stripe, a heart design, and eventually, I figured out how to read patterns! I made a bracelet for some of my friends (pictured below) with this watermelon pattern, this wave pattern, this turtle pattern, and this arrow pattern.

I first learned how to make friendship bracelets last year at camp. A bunch of my cabinmates and counselors had brought thread and knew how to make some basic ones (like the kind I’m going to show you how to make!). I was just told to “make pretty knots” so I ended up with a tangled piece of string after my first attempt, lol. I learned how to make the easiest one and then went home and taught myself a few more!

In this post, I’m going to be showing you how to make the four basic knots you need to know, how to make a loop, and how to make a chevron friendship bracelet! Okay, long intro aside, let’s get started!

how to make the basic knots

There are four basic knots that you need to know – we’ll be using one of them for the loop and two of them for the bracelet itself. Once you know these knots, you can make virtually anything! Cool, right? Grab some spare string and tie two threads together so you can practice making knots.

the forward knot

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To make a forward knot, make a “4” shape with your thread – a good way to remember this is to think of a 4-ward knot. Whichever color you need your knot to be is the one you’ll make the four with. Then bring the blue string around the yellow string and pull tight! Every time you make a knot, you do it twice to secure it. Repeat a second time and you’ve made your first knot!

the backward knot

To make a backward knot, do the exact same thing as you would for a forward knot, but this time make a backward 4! Remember to do it twice.

the forward-backward knot

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This knot is exactly what it sounds like! Instead of doing two forward knots and two backward, just do one forward and one backward and you’ve created a forward-backward knot.

the backward-forward knot

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You won’t need this knot to make a chevron bracelet, but it’s good to know! Make the exact opposite of a forward-backward: one half of a forward knot, and one half of a backward knot.

cutting your string

Now that you know the basic knots, you’re going to need 6 different colors of thread (you can use whatever colors you’d like!), a pair of scissors, and something to secure your bracelet to your work surface. You can use tape, but I like to use a clipboard! Another way to secure it is to tie it to your waterbottle (this was perfect at camp since we carried our waterbottles everywhere!)

Next, cut your string. Don’t do what I did and cut it way too short or else you won’t have enough thread to finish! A good rule of thumb is to cut it twice arm’s length.

If you want to make a loop, the color of your loop will needs to be a bit longer than the rest of the colors. (note: I cut mine wayyy to short, again, so make it a lot longer.) Then there are two ways to start off your bracelet!

the easy way

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For this way, all you have to do is tie a normal knot, secure it to your work surface, and you’re ready to get started!

the harder way (but still really simple)

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At half the length of your threads, secure the strings to your work surface. Then separate the string that’s longer than the others.

Next, tie a forward-backward knot, but instead of the blue string use the color of your loop (the extra-long string) and instead of the yellow use all the other strings.

Keep tying forward-backward knots until you have about an inch long, or until the purple string is the same length as the others.

Fold it, and you have a cool and professional-looking loop. Now that you’ve started off your bracelet, you’re ready to get going!

creating the bracelet!

Secure the loop (or, if you’re doing the easy way, the ends of your string) to your work surface, and separate all the strings in a symmetrical order.

Take the string farthest to the right and make two forward knots onto the string right next to it. The purple string (or whatever color you’re using) is now one string over.

Make another two forward knots with the purple string onto the light pink string.

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Keep doing forward knots until the purple string is now in the middle!

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Repeat the same thing on the other side, but flipped. Instead of forward knots, do backward knots, and use the string farthest to the left (the one that’s the same color as the other side! Your same color strings should now be in the middle.

This part’s a little tricky – make sure that you tie the knot nice and tight to connect the two sides. When there are two threads of the same color, it doesn’t matter what knot you do – I like to do a forward-backward knot here.

Continue doing the exact same thing on the other side! Take the string farthest to the right and do forward knots until you get to the center. On the other side, take the string farthest to the left and do backward knots until it gets to the middle. Then use whatever knot you want to connect the two in the middle!

Now all you have to do is keep on repeating this until your bracelet is the length you want it! Turn on some Netflix or a podcast to watch or listen to while you knot. Once you get the hang of it, it’s a great thing to do with your hands while trying to concentrate on something else, and you get a cute bracelet out of it!

finishing your bracelet

Once your bracelet is about the length you want it to be, make the remaining ends into two braids and tie knots at the end of them.

To put on your bracelet, pull one braid through the loop and tie it to the other one!

And there you have it! You just made a super cute, easy, and trendy friendship bracelet. It’s the perfect way to pass the time, plus you can get some super cute accessories out of it (and they make great gifts for your friends!)

Let me know in the comments if you have any questions and if you’d like to see more bracelet tutorials. Make sure to send me a picture of your bracelet to emeraldphoenix[at]icloud[dot]com! I’ll see you next Saturday! 🙂

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