Twelve Weeks of Homemade Gifts: Week Two--Awesome Rope Bracelets

During today's post, you can literally watch a phenomenon of nature. [OK...full disclosure, they say 'manamana'...but it totally sounds like...]

Today marks week two of...

Yeah!

Today's gift is semi-easy, super portable, and easy to duplicate over and over and over and..

Making it a perfect gift for your buddies, school friends, valentines, and pickleball buddies.

Here's what we're making today:

Bracelet one. cute.

Bracelet two...AWESOME!

 Fun, right? These are a notch up from your typical 'friendship bracelet' variety. Now that I'm a rope-bracelet expert [I've made two...] I'm going to start experimenting with dyes and different finishes...stay tuned!

Here's what you need for bracelet one:

Those are little nuts and washers.

Get really good soft rope from the hardware store. I got the variety with a nylon inside and a cotton outside [translation: won't shrink too much but will be soft to the touch.] I also went crazy in the nuts + bolts isle at Ace Hardware. I got a couple washers and nuts, silver and gold. Judge how big of hardware you want with how big of rope you got. Hole should match width of rope.

Let's get started. Cut three strands of rope [for a bracelet, wrap a piece of rope twice around your wrist--that's how long it should be.] Tie it off at the top so you have three long strands hanging down.

Now, braid for about 4 inches:

My nice husband kindly held the knot while he was watching Dexter.

String a nut onto the strand you are about to pleat:

Then pleat it in. Repeat until you like how much you have going on. I did twenty total nuts.

When you're out of nuts, just keep braiding until the end and tie it off. 

I did a loop/knot closure at the end. [knot is at the top, loop a knot at the bottom. Large knot on top fits inside the loop.] It's a little chunky but fits really well with the character of the bracelet.

Super easy, right?

Let's go a little more difficult... the rope bracelet!

Here's what you need:

A can is a perfect form for a bracelet.
3-4 yards of rope is perfect for this bracelet.
[Measure from your nose to your fingertip 3-4 times]

I'm going to give you step-by-step photo instructions, but I think this one makes more sense if you watch a video on it. I watched this one [full disclosure: it was sort of helpful...it really took me sitting there for a couple minutes with my rope and can to understand how this bracelet works. You'll get it, promise.]

The hardest part of this bracelet is getting it started. After you get the first pass done, it's smooth sailing [pun totally intended.]

Do this:

around your can. Basically  take the end of your rope, and let about 4in hang off. Wrap the rope around the can twice and create an X [like you're braiding...]

Here's where it gets hard to explain and the video does a little better version. [I would have made Ben video this but he's sicky and wanted to watch Dexter, little poop.] Cross your two loops [strands wrapped around the can] and thread the long loose end of the string through it. Imagine you're braiding without lose ends. Just cross and thread until you get all the way around the can once:

Now we're back at the beginning. Your long loose string will be parallel with another. Follow that string [threading in and out] around the can again. Now you're back at the beginning again:

Your loose string will magically be parallel with a different string now. So repeat. And keep following it around until each string has 2 additional parallel strings next to it.

See the phenomena taking place here?
The sun started setting at the most critical
'I can't see what I'm doing' point of this bracelet.

Take the loose ends and tuck them into the bracelet. I secured them with a little dab of hot glue. If you have nylon thread you can melt it together with a candle [be careful.]

I promise it was super easy once I got the hang of it. Once you have that first row down, you're golden. And you have a pretty gift that looks like this:

I'm heading out for a couple days, totally going to bring a couple of [pre-cut, TSA] strands of rope and make a couple on the plane. I really want to try doing some sort of ombre dying thing...hmmm...

Have fun! Post questions below if you have any.