Le Bien Bleu

… in threads.

Gotcha. hah!

I have long been enamoured of the simplicity but intricate flow of the intertwining friendship bracelets. The basic girl scouts one seemed too dull (though cute, too repetitive), and then I decided that crocheting and knitting sufficed.

This summer I found myself both hook-less and needle-less. Though I have been enjoying myself with work, reading and spending time with family, my hands literally twitched with boredom. I guess this was the main reason why I decided to try it.

Well, seems like I’m tangled up now in this mess! (Bad pun, I know!)

Here are three bracelets I finished a week or two ago:

Bracelet #1 – Embossed

I modified an already existing pattern to my tastes. I’m sure someone has already made it, but since I did do it myself, I claim it to be mine!

On the right is a picture that shows the pattern a little better:

I ran out of thread because I totally miscalculated how much black I needed – I suppose I could have substituted extra thread, but I was already bored with the simple lattice pattern and decided that it was time to move on.

I named this bracelet Embossed. The black diamonds seem to pop out of the silky red background, and I am fond of this effect.

An important thing to note is the thread I used: for the black I used a standard embroidery thread (6 strand), but for the red, I used some left over crochet thread I had (4s). I wouldn’t recommend since crochet thread often comes mercerised, meaning that the thread is shiny and very slippery, making it harder to knot. On the up side, it was thinner, and it did achieve an interesting effect!

Over all, I’m content with this 1st knotting, and probably will sew it on to my pencil case, since it needs some jazzing up. (On pencil cases, I’ve had that thing since 7th grade! And now I’m a sophomore in college! As usual, good to buy something that lasts than buy a lot of stuff and throw it away. Minimize waste!)

Bracelet #2 – The Slopes of Rohan

I saw the pattern and I fell in love with it. Since the first bracelet wasn’t really much of a challenge, I decided that I wanted to do something a little harder. Anyways, this seemingly celtic-inspired beautiful bracelet grabbed my gaze. I really liked this blocked pattern method (Heather from Heather’s Friendship Bracelets: go to eighth set to see what I mean.) because it gave an overall feeling about the colourway. On top of that, I enjoyed the challenge of figuring out how to read it.

I’m naming this The Slopes of Rohan mostly because the colours I chose to use – earth tones and the black striking through seems to be forceful, but not without harmony to the overall product. Though I do like the bracelet, I do feel like there should be a rearrangement of colours: the black takes away to much from the green too much. The green spirals was the main point for me, but while I was knotting, it seemed that the black was the main point. Also, for the side panels and for the diamonds, one colour should be used. Though it does give some flair to the colourway, I feel that it increases the feeling of disorganisation in the bracelet. But, in my defense, I didn’t really see a good reason to go out and by floss when I had some. This arrangement was the best I could do with the available resources. I think I may try this with a different set later to achieve better harmony.

And since we’re talking about the Lord of the Rings anyways… (More like since I like this picture.)

Unfinished, but pretty

Though this hardly worthy of mentioning, but I did a good deed. Around a year or two ago, I rescued a cross-stitch kit that was being thrown out. I didn’t do the pattern because it was hideous and too large (and x-stitching is so monotonous!) and kept it for future use – though I didn’t know what for. Crocheting would not do unless for a small motif, so I just kept it aside. Good, aye?

Bracelet # 3 – The Pain of Martyrs

The colours come off a little more harsher than I had thought it would, but it achieves the effect I desired: blood on innocence. In the picture, it is a small figurine of Mother Theresa of Calcutta – the Albanian-born Roman Catholic nun that did many humanitarian works in India. Though she isn’t necessarily a martyr, I thought it showed the sacrifice she had to go through to carry out her dreams.

But this bracelet isn’t only honouring religious martyrs (not that I’m forgetting them.) – rather, it’s about anyone and everyone who had to sacrifice much to see their dreams unfold to better the world. In other words, scientist are martyrs too, and I’m not even only talking about those scientist who opposed the world is a tabernacle view and the church run a stake through them. I’m talking also about scientists like Marie Curie, though later honoured, had to toil much. (Marie Curie encountered some xenophobia due to her Polish background, etc.)

Anyways, back to the actual bracelet.This was a very good learning experience. I attempted to do a little round clasp, but failed miserably. I didn’t realize how much thread it would take and added maybe 10 cm to the other’s lengths… well, let’s just say that I later read somewhere that you need DOUBLE the length.

Also, being the frugal (or froogal? ;)) person I am, I decided that I would just cut the minimum length necessary. Well, you know, this doesn’t work like knitting or crocheting where a recommended length fits all. I ran out of the scarlet thread when I was almost done. So, I had to substitute that in (which, I might add is a painful, agonizing process), and then I had to wrestle with the super short remaining white thread to add two rows. [side note: I added two white rows on each end so that the actual lattice pattern would show up without being disturbed by the ends.]

Here is a picture of the pattern:

I actually like how the end turned out to be. It was the perfect length for my wrist, and I like how the serpentine curves it can make. I’m going to work on this type of ending to see what I can make it into, though I do really like the standard braided ends as well. We’ll see!

Here are the boo-boo’s on the back:

The bracelet is a little flabbier than I would like. I miserably failed again at getting the knots tight enough. Another thing I don’t like is that I did the tail-thing in all scarlet. It would have been more amiable looking if I had used white thread also to wrap it around. Like I said before, the scarlet punctuates through the white background a lot. Maybe I should have tried a lighter colour, but then, it might have seemed whiter and then would have lost the effect I initially aimed for.

Overall, I’m content with these three bracelets. I think I might take a break from these criss-crossing lattice-y, pseudo-Celtic renderings of mine. I’ll probably work on some easier things on and off through school to unwind! I have decided on my next knotting endeavours, so we’ll see how those turn out.