Supplies: Yarns in various colors (sport weight is good), knitting needles (mine are size 8), tapestry needle, 4” zip ties, scissors
Time: 45 minutes
I’m really excited about the bracelet I made today. I thought of it almost a year ago, but for some reason I never made it. Well today’s the day! This bracelet is inspired by a trend that’s been going on for awhile. It’s called yarn bombing (among other things). It’s essentially knit “graffiti” that people put on poles, bike racks, trees, and anything else they can think of. There are some arguments that it’s not a good practice, but I think it adds a lot of beauty (though they should probably be taken down after they get old and gross). Here’s one outside the Lion Brand Yarn store in New York City.
Reason #6849 I need to move back pronto.
Sometimes they’re sewn on, but other times they’re applied in a hurry, so the bombers use zip ties. I thought a cuff bracelet based on that concept could be neat.
I started by selecting some yarn colors I liked. I don’t have a lot of nice colors in the right yarn weight, but these colors work well enough. I cast on 26 stitches, but you should probably experiment a bit to make sure the fit is right. After you’ve worked a few rows, spread out the stitches and roughly measure the work around your wrist. Slightly smaller is better than too big. Knitting stretches.
work in progress
The nice thing about this project is that even a beginning knitter can do it! It’s all garter stitch, so there’s no purling involved. The most complicated part is switching colors, but that’s not even difficult! Just cut the color you’re finished working (leave a tail of about 6”) and tie the end of the new color to the tail. Slide the knot up to the needles and keep working normally. Of course, you can make this in one color if you’d like.
Here’s a important note! Make sure you switch colors on the same side each time. See how all my yarn tails are on the same side of the work? (The two yellow ones on the left are from casting on and binding off. They don’t count.) If you don’t do this you’ll have lines of the other color mixed in and you probably don’t want that.
Bind off when the cuff is big enough for your taste and weave the ends into the work.
At this point the bulk of your work is done. Now you just need some zip ties. I used four 4” zip ties for the size of my bracelet, but it’s up to you. Start at one of the corners…
then do the other corner, followed by the middle section. Then you’ll have your very own knit bomb bracelet.
I’m glad that after months of gestation the bracelet idea worked in real life. This color combination isn’t really working for me, but I really like the bracelet! The colors remind me of Michael Cera in Juno. They’re kind of school colors-y.
Maybe I should have made it gold and maroon and it would have been a Hogwarts knit bomb bracelet. One second thought, that might be nerd overload…
Personally, I’m not much of a cuff person (I’m not really a bracelet person actually), but I think cuff wearers would really like this. Any thoughts?
See you tomorrow,
Alie
PS- If you won stuff in previous giveaways, I apologize for the wait, but they’re finally in the mail!
Daily Craft Project 