As we start moving into fall in the Northern Hemisphere and the days start to cool off, I love being outside so much more. I am not someone who enjoys the heat! I start getting back outside more and enjoying being in my garden and I always revel at the way the leaves change colors, sometimes it seems it happens overnight, and the cooler temperatures mean that I can go back to enjoying my hot coffee and tea at all times of the day.
From my garden, I start seeing all the berries on my berry bushes start to ripen and are ready to be picked. I love all kinds of fresh berries, everything from strawberries to blackberries and huckleberries and blueberries. When getting some inspiration for this month, I started off with looking at what is around me and the natural changes occurring around this time of year. Of course, all the kids going back to school is a huge event (as it certainly has been in our house, getting all 5 kids ready for school and 2 of them have moved up to new schools!), but the abundance of berries is quite remarkable too. It means the beginning of fall canning and filling the nooks and crannies of the freezer with fresh berries for the winter months to come.
I looked around for some ways I can bring these berries into my crafting as well and I think I found the perfect (well almost perfect thing), this pattern from the BraceletBook.com. It’s a super cute blackberry alpha pattern that I wanted to turn into a keychain.
Like so many of my craft hobbies, I discovered these amazing patterns and techniques on pinterest. I started seeing bracelets with pixelated but cute patterns and designs and they reminded me of the (rather unsophisticated) friendship bracelets we used to make in high school that were simply a series of knots. These are also a series of knots but the direction and color and number of them is what creates these patterns.
When I started learning about these, I fell in love with them especially since the materials were so inexpensive. The most common material for these is embroidery floss which can be picked up in craft stores or online for relatively cheap.
For this one, as I’m still learning to make these, I decided to make a test one, just to get some practice in. While I was quite pleased with the overall end result, I was disappointed to see that there were visible strings on the backside from having to move the strings from one knot to the next and from one row to another.
During the process of making this test project, I discovered that there was a technique for making a “clean” back for an alpha pattern. I immediately dove into the tutorial. There were many parts of it that I had to watch twice or even three times, I worked to make a “final” one on a key ring using the clean back method.
Ready for it??
I’ll admit, it’s not the best crafted item i’ve ever made but for my first attempt at a keychain and using this method, it’s not terrible either.
Let me know what successes you’ve had when first trying out a new technique or practicing something new. Did you master it easily? What helped you improve?