How to Make a Shambhala Bracelet, Part I: Macrame Square Knots

Beadalon Large Beading Mats - Prevent Bead Rolling 13 X 18 Inch (Set of 2) SKU: XTL-9935 $6.75

Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi. This Megan from Beadaholique.com and today I'm going to show you how to make a macrame style square knot. This is the most basic of the macrame knots. You can use it for all kinds of applications and including the really popular shamballa style bracelets that are around right now. So you can use any kind of quarter string to make the knot. I'm using a waxed cotton cord. I'm using two different colors just so you can kind of keep track of the core center strand and then the outside strands. So when you start your going to take all three of your strands and make an overhand knot on the top. Just to hold them together. Don't pull them too tight because you will undo that at the end for finishing your work. When you knot these types of knots, you're always going to have one strand of your cord that runs down the center. and then two that run down the outside and these are the ones you're going to knot, the outside ones. So what you do is you're going to take the left cord and place it over the center cord and then take the right cord and place it over the left cord pull it under the center cord and through the left loop. Oe way to remember it is it's over, over, under, through. And you pull it tight and pull on both sides of the outside cords evenly and make sure that you also bring some tension on the middle cord so that it doesn't get bunched up. To make your knot square so that it lines up nice and flat you're gonna get opposite for the second half of the knot. So you're going to take the left cord under the center cord, the right cord under the left cord, bring it over the center and through the left loop. So just like the first half was over, over, under through, this one is under, under, over, through. I will sit there and say that to myself as I do it. It helps you keep track in your head. Whatever works. So go ahead and pull it tight and you can see that shape right there under the overhand knot, that's what the square knot look like. If you just keep going over over under, through. Under. Bring that one under the left over the center through the loops and pull it tight. As you can see what it ends up doing is forming this nice uniform flat wide band like a knotted braid and you can make bracelets out of just the knotting or in the Shamballa style bracelets you take a bead and it could be any kind of bead. The Pave style beads are really popular. This is a Beadelle pave style bead. You just wanna make sure when you're choosing beads that you choose a bead with a large enough hole to fit over your cord. To insert a bead you just thread the bead onto your center strand and then you're gonna make the knot just like you did up here but below the bead. So make sure your bead's all the way up so pull the bead al the way up. Take the left strand and bring it over the center strand and below the bead bring the right stand over the left strand under the center strand and through the loop and then just pull it tight with the side strands going to either side of the bead. When you do the second half of the square knot going under under over and through it will kind of lock it in place. That is how you put a bead on there and that's how you do a square knot for macrame and then to learn how to finish off the knotting there's actually a separate video for that and that video is called how to finish off macrame knotting. So check that out to see how to finish it off so that you can have it secure. Go to Beadaholique.com for all of your beading supply needs!