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Hear Me Out: Shoelaces

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aurelius Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by aurelius i feel as though i have either had a strike of genius or the worst idea possible. i want to try making a pair of custom shoelaces roughly 140cm long ideally using the alpha method to anyone with more bracelet-making experience than me: do you think that an alpha pattern would wind up too thick to use? do you foresee any other major issues with this idea? and like, at a guess how many knots would one lace take?
halokiwi Moderator	2 years, 6 months ago by halokiwi I think alphas might be a little stiff. You can figure out how many knots 140cm would be by measuring one of the alphas you have already made to see how many knots/rows for example 5cm would be and then use that to calculate
aurelius Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by aurelius @halokiwi that was my greatest concern 😔 i guess i am going to need to learn to tie in new normal strings. the idea to measure my completed patterns is excellent though, thank you very much! if i get the time to go ahead with this project i will be posting the results 😄

Rowsitt Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by Rowsitt you could try doing a kumihimo bracelet. they might fit better in the holes of ur shoes
xc2024 Professional	2 years, 6 months ago by xc2024 id think normals would work if you knot it loosly or like @Rowsitt said kumihino
2006_Mandy Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by 2006_Mandy you could do a chinese staircase or a kumihimo (clairswearspam on insta has done it before I believe) or the zipper pattern or even square knots
happyrobin Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by happyrobin I think that doing a normal pattern would be best because you probably wouldn't be able to get too much detail into the alpha because it has to be so thin. Maybe a normal with 3-5 strings?
happyrobin Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by happyrobin An alpha might work though...

aurelius Bracelet King	2 years, 6 months ago by aurelius it sounds like i will be using a normal pattern. i do not have the equipment to do kumihimo. alas 😔 this is exciting tho, now i just need to choose a pattern
slayqueen1 Professional	2 years, 5 months ago by slayqueen1 If you want to do kumihimo you can just search up ‘kumihimo template’, print out one of the photos on card stock or something similar, then cut slits with scissors for the little lines
fruzsiw Professional	2 years, 5 months ago by fruzsiw I would also probably go with thinner threads, maybe dividing the embroidery threads in two, so that you get more knots into the whole thing and can have more detail. Either way, the laces would need to be very thin. Like the others were saying, I would also not choose an alpha pattern, too stiff to be shoelaces.
finian Skiller	2 years, 5 months ago by finian I don't have specific knowledge about that concept, necessarily, but I also weave (with a loom) as a hobby: people often tablet or inkle weave shoelaces from size 10 crochet cotton, and I've made a few alpha bracelets out of the same cotton that I use to weave because I have so much of it. Size 10 cotton as an alpha bracelet makes a thicker and less flexible piece of 'fabric' than the same thread woven. If the laces are going in a pair of combat boots or something meant for similarly heavy-duty laces, size 10 or smaller (a size 20 might work out for this to mitigate how thick the knotting will make the laces) crochet cotton would, in my opinion, be totally serviceable as shoelaces. You can even buy heat-shrink aglets online!
bluesky716 Bracelet King	2 years, 3 months ago by bluesky716 I think Clair hair did this before and you could message and ask her what she did to make shoelaces

halokiwi Moderator	2 years, 3 months ago by halokiwi I completely forgot, that I replied on here, but I actually did it! I made one shoe lace. The photo is not accepted yet, but I made a regular candystripe (pattern #1) with just 6 strings. 8 strings would not have been able to go through the holes in my shoe, so 6 it was. I just left all the strings I used on the skein and only cut them in the end. I'm not sure how much string I ended up using exactly, but it was less than a skein per colour. I recommend you do that as well. @minutcraft commented on my Instagram and suggested to try a kumihimo, if I try again. The advantage is, that it is faster to make and more flexible.
minutcraft Bracelet King	2 years, 3 months ago by minutcraft @halokiwi Yeahh I feel that either a kumi or a four strand braid would be more practical in terms of time taken if you’re making something as long as laces.
Margaron Moderator	2 years, 2 months ago by Margaron You would be limited to small patterns, to the the point that if you’re using standard embroidery thread it would almost be a better idea to do a normal pattern. I think the biggest issue you’d come against besides time and patience would be perhaps stiffness at the start if you’re a tight knotter. It would soften over time though. Knot number would depend on what string you end up using as smaller string = smaller knot = more knots and larger = bigger = less knots. It can be done though.

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