Alpha friendship bracelets
Keep it narrow
Most alpha bracelets are between 8 and 20 knots wide. At that width, letters need to be 5 to 7 knots tall to stay readable — design them by hand rather than converting a font.
Few colours, high contrast
A background and one or two colours for the design are plenty. Contrast matters more than colour count: dark letters on a light background read from across the room.
Plan the repeat
For long bracelets, design one repeat — a heart, a star, a short word — and copy it down the length with selection, leaving a few plain rows between repeats.
Count your strings before you cut
Each column of the chart is one vertical base string, and every colour in the design needs its own working string. A pattern 12 knots wide in three colours means 12 base strings plus three working strings.
Working strings are used up far faster than base strings. Cut them generously, or plan where you'll join in new lengths, ideally at the edge of a plain row where the join won't show.
Reading the chart as you knot
Alpha patterns are knotted one row at a time, top to bottom, so each row of the chart is one pass across the bracelet. Mark off rows as you finish them: on a long bracelet it's easy to lose your place, and one skipped row shifts a letter out of shape.
