Going back in time

When I was a kid, I went through a friendship bracelet making stage.  I learned how to make them towards the end of fifth grade and continued to make them through about ninth grade.  For the first year, I wore all bracelets all the time.   It must have looked horrible!

I must have gotten sick of that though, because later I wore only one or two at a time.  I don't really recall, but I think I had a favorite that was on my wrist all the time.  At least I don't recall trying to ever coordinate with my clothes.  I still made a lot of bracelets though.   Most of them were given away or sold through a local boutique.  One time I actually saw a random girl on the street wearing a bracelet I made, which I thought was pretty cool at that time.

After about ninth grade or so, I pretty much stopped making them.  I still made a few when requested, but probably less than a dozen.  This was a very long introduction to say that a few years ago I was looking on line and decided to google friendship bracelets (I must have been *really* bored).  I was amazed at how many different patterns and techniques are out there now!  I considered myself pretty good at making them and most of the patterns were my own design but I had not come up with anything close to what I saw on line.

Looking at all the new patterns out there inspired me to make two more bracelets:

This just seemed like a really cool concept.  Don't hold the colors against me - my stash of floss is extremely limited!

And this one is just plain cute.  It may be hard to see in the picture, but there is a little trunk under each tree!  Yes, I did go out to buy the floss to make it and yes, I felt very strange buying floss to make a bracelet - like I was back in middle school!  This one was also a new technique to me so it's not made very well.  

No, I never wore the two shown above and I didn't make any more after that.  I think I just needed a quick fix and to try out some of the amazing new patterns out there.

Looking back, making all these bracelets was probably a good practice for learning how to make lace later.  I definitely learned patience and got a lot of practice untangling long threads:)  I have to admit that I do sometimes miss all the colors I worked with when making bracelets. I gravitate towards white, ecru or black for lace, which is what I like for my lace, but I do miss working with colors.