Friendship Bands

I attended a conference in Sydney recently, and received a goodie bag from Spotlight with a variety of colourful mini wool balls. I LOVE Spotlight and they have an online store too.  I can knit basic things, and wool is useful for many non-knitting craft projects too (for example: wooden spoon puppets, mermaid peg dolls, Barbie skirt).

I was thinking of what to do with the wool this time, and I remembered the friendship bands I used to make with my cousins and friends when I was my daughter’s age. I enjoyed making and wearing then, and I can’t believe it, but I remembered exactly how to do it! It’s amazing how some things stick in your head. I taught my daughter how to do it too. It’s a simple project, and all you need is the wool.

Materials

Wool

Optional: Bracelet fasters (We tie them off and don’t use fasteners. That is what I did as a kid too.)

Instructions

1. Cut 4-6 strands (depending on how thick you want the cuff to be) of wool about 40 cm long.  I used 6 strands.

2. Tie a knot in the top of the wool strand. Tip: Leave enough overhang on the top of the knot. It’s helpful to tie it on to a chair or handle in the making stage.

3. Get someone to hold the top of the wool or tie a loose knot on an handle, bed end or chair (anything that works really).  Then it’s time to get weaving. This is what I mean by tie on a handle to work on. This one is just about done. The good thing about this is you can just leave it there and go back to it over days or weeks. If done in one sitting, it will take about 20 minutes or so. 

4. Separate the wool, then take the first strand, furtherest to the left, place it over the next wool strand in the line (to the right), bring underneath and through the loop. (Essentially tying a knot).

5. Tighten the knot up to the top. 

6. Using the same strand of wool, repeat the process along the line of wool strands. 

7. Once at the end of the line, start again from the left. Continue this process until it’s the required length to wrap around the wrist.  As the bracelet gets longer, it can start to twist, but don’t worry, you iron it all out at the end.

8. When the cuff is long enough, loosen it from the chair or handle, and tie another knot at the end (so you have two knots: one at the top and one at the bottom). 

9. Iron the bracelet out flat on both sides.

10. Tie it around the wrist and trim the excess. It can be tied on and off, or for a more fancy/professional look, grab bracelet ends from Spotlight. 

More Ideas

• They can be used as book marks
• Add to a key ring circle and they become a bag key ring 

Video

Just a quick video tutorial to show the process. 

Fun for

• Birthday parties
• Sleep overs
• Craft project
• Gift idea
• Book mark
• Bag Keyring