$1911

Here (if it works) is a photo of what I am experiencing:

As you can see, the sides of my bracelet wave back and forth, and this is despite taping them down and pulling the strings taut. I made the knots consciously in an attempt to keep the tension as even as possible. I'm using the My Friendship Bracelet Maker Clip Board. I've tried a few other ways as well, but this is as close to straight as I've achieved so far.
My first experiments were pretty awful, considering my background in macrame, but I also couldn't get the tension right. I feel like I've done much better with the tension with this bracelet, but I still have the same problem, just less pronounced now.

(The name of this pattern is "candy stripe with hearts" or just "diagonal heart" and I found it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/11t2gCIwV0M )
I commented on the video asking how she keeps her sides straight but I haven't had any answers yet.

Please let me know if you have any tips to prevent this or fix it, or if you've had it happen before.

Thank you!

Hi!

You know, practice makes perfect!


Having your sides straights isn't really easy, particularly with patterns containing BF or FB knots.
Usually, those knots are slightly wider than the others, what creates this sturdy effect.

As you said, you improved yourself on straightening the edges of this bracelet. The only way to improve more and more is to knot more and more bracelets :D

I've seen on your presentation that you are rather new at making friendship bracelets, and this one already looks pretty good!

Just try to make your knots about the same size, even if I don't think it will be a real problem for you since your forward knots already look good!

Even the end of your bracelet looks better than the beginning ;) I think you'll get it easily in your next bracelet!

Hope it helped at least a bit :)

Anja

I fully agree with Anyblia. Only practicing will help you improve :-)
It's usually all about the right, even, tension. In this case I take it there are only backward- and forward-knots ( We have this pattern here: #3164 ) which means that the side could be fairly straight if you're experienced enough.

One thing to think about is this: In candystripes, but also in this pattern, some strings are inside several other knots in a row, diagonally. These strings tend to pull the bracelet in that curvy shape if pulled too tight. What I always do is pull everything straight regularly while knotting, to prevent that.

Thank you Anyblia!
Encouragement is always welcome and it definitely helps!
I also think the end does look better and that gives me hope, too.

I want to eventually try to make styles like this with waxed polyester cord, and I'd love to know if it will be more or less prone to doing this. I'd hate to use a ton of material just to finish it up and have it be wavy, too. I guess I could use just a bit of material and make a small sample just to see how the knots turn out with it, but I'm guessing it will take a 'recalibration' of sorts to figure out the right amount of tension needed for that material.

Oh, thank you Kleinevos, that is very helpful!

I am also curious, for the beginning and end, when doing a candy stripe bracelet, is that how it's supposed to look or should I do something as a filler to make the beginning of the diagonal stripes look more blended? I realized after I had started that the top (beginning) looked unpolished and wasn't sure if that's normal with this kind of pattern.

You can start and finish as you wish, I usually shape it in triangle-shapes. Have a look here for some possibilities.

About the material: Waxed polyester is harder to work with than cotton, you need to pull harder and it's harder to avoid holes in more complicated patterns. It's used a lot though, it's especially great for other macrame work. I don't like using it for friendship bracelets myself, but there are lots of people who do. I think our user Celicia uses it too.
If you can knot straight with cotton, you'll most likely also be able to knot straight with waxed polyester :-)