$1911

Hi, I'm working on a design project for school.
I was wondering how people currently secure the threads in place, whilst following the pattern particularly for wider designs which include lots of threads - any photos that you are happy to be shared would also be great.
Also are there any other problems that you typically face whilst trying to work on a design?
Thank you

When it came to wider bracelet designs with lots and lots of threads to manage, I always used to look for the least confusing and most convenient method for SEPARATING each and every thread from their neighbours so as to ideally keep all of the threads in the exact position indicated for the next row.

I even came up with an array of rather weird-looking constructions and contraptions that should do the trick. Some of them looked like tied spiralling miniature rope coils with plenty of winding gaps to accommodate as many threads as needed. Some resembled ancient typewriters made of modular origami combined with little wooden sticks. But none of them really stood the test of time, threads being used up by friction and what have you.

This is all because a perfect arrangement of threads at any given moment during knotting is not was is required in the first place. In fact, it's just a huge waste of time and energy and it's not practical. The only really important thing, I discovered, is to identify your very next pair of immediately adjoining threads that will turn into your next two working threads, and once you managed that, compare them to the general pattern plan.
Fanning out all the rest of the threads not in use in a more or less orderly fashion so they won't get tangled too much is not a bad idea either, but what it all boils down to is the correct identification and handling of your next two adjacent working-threads.

So, no complicated invention needed aiming at threads to be kept apart from each other at all times in the places they ideally ought to be if this was a perfect world.


Instead, I nowadays recommend using a (cylindrical) bolster or rather stiff PILLOW
as the background of choice to arrange threads on.
As long as they are laid out on such a stuffed bag of sorts, they will automatically stop changing places to confuse you. Everything will stay put against almost any sloping fabric background by the force of gravity and adhesion alone.
For more convenient working, you could even mount your pillow on a stand (as is the coustom with BOBBIN LACERS, who are known to use comparable pillows to work on with their bobbins.)


Another problem during intricate friendship bracelet making is when you suddenly realize you missed out a knot some 20 rows further up. Such HOLES IN THE PATTERN can be prevented if you remember checking the backside of your work in progress every once in a while.

(Or probably if you worked against the background of an integrated inner light source emanating from within your pillow.)
Would have to be a safety light though and I haven't tried that out yet, so no guarantee.

Since this thread is all about SECURING threads for WIDER designs, I feel I still owe you an explanation as to how I go about mounting all of the threads ONTO this PILLOW I prefer as a background to work on.

The shocking answer is, I use heavy duty DUCT TAPE. (The kind of tape you always see in whodunnits when people get kidnapped.)

Not directly on my threads of course, since this would damage them considerably and leave them sticky on removal.

So, first thing I do, is I neatly ARRANGE the whole gamut of threads SIDE BY SIDE all in a row on a length of SOFT TRANSPARENT TAPE they sell at farmacies. I then go and double this tape over, covering and thus sealing and protecting also the upper side of my threads SANDWICH FASHION.

Forgot to mention that the PILLOW I temporarily "GLUE" this "THREAD SANDWICH" onto with DUCT TAPE would ideally be of a CONTRASTING plain COLOUR
NOT represented in any of the threads. And it ought to be stuffed with sufficiently HEAVY material so as not to move around too much on the table during knotting whilst taking up a minimum of space.

I use a strip of cardboard with slits in it. I put the strings in the slits in the right order and then I secure the cardboard under a bulldogclip and/or on a clipboard. That works fine for me, for both bigger and smaller projects.