Saturday, February 16, 2013

DIY Braided Bracelet Tutorial

As promised, here is the tutorial for the braided bracelet I posted about yesterday.


What you'll need:
About 50 (I wouldn't recommend anything finer than fingering or heavier than worsted)
3 double pointed needles (I used US4 for both fingering and DK weight bracelets) 
A ruler 
Two stitch holders
Scissors
Scraps of yarn for holding stitches (in addition to the stitch holders.)
A tapestry needle

Begin by provisionally casting on 6 stitches onto the two stitch holders:

With a DPN, knit the first two stitches (first two stitches only) of the provisional cast on:

Lock the stitch marker so the stitches don't fall off, and work a 2 stitch i-cord for an inch or two longer than the circumference of your wrist. 

To work i-cord: Knit two stitches. *Slide the stitches to the other end of the needle. Bring the yarn around from the back and knit the two stitches. Repeat from *

Break the yarn, leaving a long tail (a foot or so long)
Note: I originally made the i-cord 9 inches long, but ripped out one inch later. To save time you might as well only knit a 8 inch i-cord.

Slip the two stitches onto a piece of scrap yarn:


Now go back to the four stitches you have on your stitch holder, and work two more i-cords of equal length.


Go back to the provisional cast on and slip the stitches onto a DPN
Using the tail of one of the i-cords on the edge, purl one row and then knit one row. 
To avoid a big tangly mess, I took the option to hide the two ends I had not knit with inside the i-cords. 

Now begin to braid the three i-cords together. 
When you get to the end of the i-cords, wrap it around your wrist to see if it fits. If it doesn't, either rip out a little of the i-cords or add a few rows. Remember that you'll have to slip it over your hand to put it on once you've finished, so don't make it too tight. 

Then, slide the stitches of each i-cord onto a single DPN and, using the tail of an i-cord on the edge, purl a row and knit a row (just like you did at the other end). Now hold the two ends together, making sure the braid doesn't twist and that the stockinette side of the two rows you knit are facing up:
Using Kitchener stitch, graft the two edges together. 
Weave in the rest of the ends and you're done! 

















2 comments:

  1. Pretty! Have you done one with beads?

    ReplyDelete
  2. That's really cool,I totally need to remember this for the purposes of experimenting with bracelets... thanks

    ReplyDelete

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