Diagonal Friendship Bracelet

I’ve known how to make these for a while, and my friend (who also works at a Girl Scout camp) taught me the more complex patterns. I just recently figured out how to make ones with words (which are super cool!), but that’s for another post.

To make the diagonal bracelet you can choose as many colors as you like – the more strings you have, the fatter it is. If you want a two colored bracelet, I recommend two or three strings of either color. If you want three colors, you should use two strings of each color. For four colors and up, you probably only want to use one string of each color, but it’s up to you. Each length of string should be about as long as from the palm of your hand to your armpit – it’s usually a good indication of what will fit your wrist. How accurate this is will depend on the tightness of your knots though. Tie all of these strings together at the top – it is helpful to make a loop at the top, but not necessary. Just remember to leave enough room that you can tie the bracelet on when you’re done.

For the example, I’m using four strings. If you have multiples of the same color, splaying them out with the colors next to each other (red/red/blue/blue) will create thicker stripes. Alternating the colors (red/blue/red/blue for example) will give you the normal thinner stripes. Take the first string (blue in the example) and make an “L” with it over the next string (red in the example). Tie a knot as shown. Do this twice (total of two knots) on the second string (the red one). Then, do this two times on the next string (the yellow) and two times on the last string (the green). Now, the blue string is the last string. Don’t worry if your first row looks weird – it always does. Just keep going. Now, repeat the whole process with the now-first string (red). Repeat, repeat, repeat, until you are done with your bracelet!

Note: Make sure you hold the string being tied on (the red, yellow, green in the first example) tightly – the color of the knot should be of the one you are working with (blue in the example). If it isn’t, pull the string you are working on (red/yellow/green in the example). To make it easier to work with, you probably want to secure the end of the bracelet to something. Popular ways of doing this are: taping it somewhere, attaching it to a water bottle and placing that between your legs, safety-clipping it to your pants, tying it to your toe, and clipping in your cell phone.

Coming soon: V-pattern bracelet, braid-pattern bracelet, bracelets with words!