I Tried Turning This Weird Friendship Bracelet Pattern Into a Fade

What happens when you take a complicated friendship bracelet pattern and try to turn it into a color fade? 🧵🌈

Today I’m working with pattern #96584 from friendship-bracelets.net—and this one gets interesting FAST.

I wanted to take a large section of the original pattern and use it as the foundation for a completely new bracelet. One of my YouTube Members helped me decide how to orient the design, and from there I started replacing the original colors with a fade.

Sounds simple, right?

Not exactly. 😂

Once you substitute colors in a pattern like this, figuring out where every string actually goes can get confusing. A color that starts on the outside might suddenly appear in the middle several rows later, so I use my graph-paper template to trace the individual strings and make sure everything can physically get where it’s supposed to go.

That’s actually one of the reasons I originally started using these templates: I wanted to see the underlying string movement instead of only seeing the finished knots.

And understanding that movement opens up SO many possibilities for creating your own friendship bracelet patterns.

For this design, the colors don’t create a perfect fade all the way through. The darkest and lightest colors meet in some unexpected places—but I think that might make the finished bracelet even more interesting.

We’ve got double diamonds, four smaller diamonds, a chevron…and then whatever the heck that other section is. 😂

This one could definitely be a challenge to knot, but I’m excited to see how it turns out!

A huge thank you to my YouTube Members for supporting the channel and making these experiments possible. If you’d like to become a Member, look for the Join button next to Subscribe on YouTube.

👍 If you want to see more friendship bracelet pattern experiments, and tell me in the comments: Do you think this fade is going to work?

If you like this pattern and would like to support my work >>>

This bracelet was a DOOZY. 😂🧵

We’re back with pattern #96584 from friendship-bracelets.net—the pattern I customized into a fade in the previous video. Now it’s time to actually make it and find out whether that unusual color arrangement works in a real friendship bracelet.

Spoiler: I LOVE how it turned out. 🌈

Making it, however, was another story.

Because I designed my working pattern using rainbow colors, I had to constantly translate those colors back into the actual fade while knotting. Red represented my darkest color, purple represented the lightest, and everything in between required a little more concentration.

At one point I seriously considered opening the pattern in GIMP and CROSSING OFF THE ROWS as I finished them. 😂

It wasn’t quite that bad…but it was close.

⏱️ TOTAL KNOTTING TIME: 1 hour 40 minutes (100 minutes)

That doesn’t include cutting the strings, making the kumi loop, or the breaks I took along the way. I also made this bracelet during a livestream, so there was plenty of chatting while I worked!

The finished fade has some really interesting surprises. The colors aren’t always arranged in a perfect dark-to-light sequence. Some strings have to stay out of the way until it’s their turn, the darkest color becomes dots through one section, and there’s even a sudden bright color inside one of the diamonds that I’m STILL deciding how I feel about.

But that’s part of experimenting.

Not every design decision has to be perfect—and sometimes the unexpected parts are what make a bracelet interesting.

I especially love those four diamonds coming together in the finished design. 💎

A huge thank you to my YouTube Members for helping make these videos possible! Members also get perks including shop discounts and live hangouts. If you’d like to join us, look for the Join button next to Subscribe on YouTube.

👍 If you enjoyed this one, hit the Like button—it really helps the channel.

And tell me in the comments: Does the unusual fade work, or would you change that bright center diamond?

If you have any questions about the bracelet, leave those below too!

More friendship bracelet tutorials, experiments, and projects at akaawol.com.

Thanks for watching, and as always…

Don’t get your strings in a bunch!