When Wristers Attack!

Above: Naughty step for you.

I have discovered an issue with the phone wrist straps that I’ve been making.

They are made by crocheting two strands of beaded wire and twisting them together. In use though, the strands can come a little untwisted and after being re-twisted a few times the wire is breaking. Fortunately this only results in the loss of one bead, but the wee stabby end of wire that is left behind is no fun. I put the wristers on the naughty step and pondered.

Above: Little stabbers.

I have been thinking about this for a few weeks now and thought about trying waxed thread, I have a few reels of it that I use for bookbinding. The thread I have is 1mm thick which works for larger beads but there’s no chance of using the small sparkly beads that I love with it.

After searching for a couple of days I managed to find one store that sold 0.5mm thread. Only one! I ordered some in a few different colours which took an age to arrive as I guess it was not in the U.K as stated but ho-hum. I dismantled one of the naughty wristers and tried to remake it with thread.

Above: Ten colours of light.

The thread makes them a lot more flexible which is nice but I cannot twist two strands together, they just will not hold in the way that wire does. I ended up using the same thread to sew two strands together which highlighted another major difference between the wire and the thread. The strands made with thread are much shorter.

Above: Remade one on the left, I'm not getting my paw through that.

So, I dismantled another one and instead of trying two strands I made one longer one. I didn’t like it. It was too thin and mingy. It was not giving abundance. I like the things that I make to be voluptuous and full not sad and miserly. Back to the drawing board then.

Above: It's just not giving abundance is it, I like the purple thread though.

Lying in bed and overthinking instead of sleeping, as you do, I suddenly thought “why don’t I use rosary links like when I make jewellery?” I can use bigger beads so the strands are more generous and I can also indulge my favourite thing of collecting together beads in different materials to fit a colour scheme or other theme. The only fly in the ointment here is that the phone charm hangers only come with silver hardware and I like to use bronze wire for a more vintage look. It didn’t seem to matter so much on the crocheted ones but I can’t stand it with links. I thought I might try to make my own but, in the meantime, I can use a bead cap to almost cover the silver, I’m only making for myself at this point so it doesn’t matter too much.

Above: I don't why the silver hardware didn't bother me before but it does now.

I took the peacock colours of the wrister in current use on my phone and pulled together some beads in the same range, I quickly became aware of the weight difference as most of the beads were glass, it can’t end up too heavy or it’ll be unusable. Le sigh. I got it put together and, as usual, I had got carried away and it was too long, also it was 12g heavier than a wire one which doesn’t seem a lot but is very noticeable. I removed a couple of beads and now it is only 5g heavier which isn’t too bad.

Above: It's not the best solution to the silver hardware problem but it'll do for now.

I’ve been using the new one for a few days now and I really like it. It is a lot more flexible than the wire one, it doesn’t stab me in the wrist which is nice, it isn’t any chunkier and it takes up a lot less space due to the aforementioned flexibility. I’ll make a couple more and see how they go. One thing though, I am so glad I found out about the wire before I uploaded them to my Kofi (as yet unopened) store, that could’ve been a disaster. This is why I always road test these things myself.

Above: It's more comfortable to "wear" than the old ones.

Above: It has a nicer drape.

Above: Scrunchable :)