First things first: The winner of my giveaway is Crystal! I’ll send you an email to get your address. Thank you to everyone else who entered.
Here’s a little tutorial on how to make those rubber band bracelets that seem to be all the rage at my son’s school. I was pleasantly surprised that he has shown such an interest in making them, and while he has asked for the Rainbow Loom for Christmas, we have found an easy way to make them without the loom. His cousins showed him a method that was very similar to finger knitting, and when he wanted to set aside his bracelet in progress one day, I suggested he poke pencils through the loops. Then, inspiration struck! I got out a pair of children’s chopsticks (chopsticks that are connected at one end), and we started using those to make the bracelets instead. No more squeezed fingers!
I’m sure you could just use regular pencils, but the plastic chopsticks are nice and smooth. We already had a few sets, but I also saw this set of six on Amazon.com for $12, so $2 per “loom” is a pretty good price.
STEP 1: Slip a band around one chopstick, twist it, and slip the resulting loop over the second band. This is the only step that includes a twist.
STEP 2: Slip two more bands over both chopsticks.
STEP 3: Pull the bottom band and lift it up and over the chopstick. Repeat on other side.
STEP 4: Add another band around both chopsticks. Continue lifting the bottom band up and over the chopsticks.
Thank you for this! My kids will enjoy making these over break, and we already have the chop sticks 🙂
So clever! Not sure how I missed this post before. We’ll have to give this technique a try.
How do you hook the bracelet when you’re finished?
This is such a great idea! It’s a lot safer for my 6 year old niece to use instead of pushpins on cork, 2 pencils, a fork and her cute little fingers. This post took away my burden of having to watch over her every time she makes her fishtail bracelets.
Thank you so much for sharing this! 🙂
ya i was thinmking about tht tpp