This crochet rainbow braid bracelet is a fun, quick project. It doesn’t take a lot of yarn, so it’s great for using up scraps. And you could make it any colors you want. If you don’t want to have to worry about matching colors up at the end, then you could always just choose a single color, which would still look great! I highly recommend the YouTube video (link below), which walks you step by step through the six-stranded braid. There’s also a photo tutorial below to get you started. Let’s get making!
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While I was working on the Autism Love Blanket pattern with those fun rainbow colors, I was inspired to whip up this fun rainbow bracelet. My son has claimed mine for his own, to match the Autism Love Blanket that he also claimed! I’ve always liked braids, and I wanted to try out this fun technique. I hope you enjoy it too! I’d love to see your finished bracelets!
Rainbow Braid Bracelet YouTube video
Rainbow Braid Crochet Bracelet Materials
You can honestly use any yarn you’d like and any size hook that works with that yarn. For this specific example, I used small amounts of Knit Picks/We Crochet Brava Worsted yarn (colors: Celestial, Mulberry, Peapod, Red, Orange, and Canary) and a size I hook. I chose this yarn simply because I had some on hand in fun colors. They have tons of colors to choose from, it’s not very expensive, and it’s washable, so that’s a bonus. You can get it at We Crochet.
Rainbow Braid Bracelet Photo Tutorial
- With red, foundation single crochet 5 (or ch5, turn, sc across). You can make this section more than five sc if you’d like.. it will be the back of the bracelet!
- ch 40 or more… you want to make sure the chain is longer than you want the finished product to be. Better to err on the side of too long than too short. Make sure you count the stitches, because you want each color to have the same number of chains. This way the braid will end up even at the end!
- Don’t tie off red, but add a stitch marker to make sure your chain doesn’t unravel.
- Join orange to the first sc of red. Work five orange sc in the five red sc from the first row.
- Ch 40 (or however many you chained for red). Make sure that this chain is coming off the same side as the red chain. If you work your sc’s the wrong direction, your chain will be backward too. Make sure the chain’s on the same side for each color!
- Repeat for yellow, green, blue, and purple. You should have six colors with chains the same length coming off one side of a five sc starting portion.
The Six-Stranded Braid
Let’s number the strands from bottom to top. so red is 1, orange is 2, yellow is 3, green is 4, blue is 5, and purple is 6 (for now… the colors will move, but the position numbers stay the same
- Take strand 1 over strand 2, so the red strand over the orange strand
- Take strand 3 over strand 4, so the yellow strand over the green strand
- Take strand 5 over strand 6, so the blue strand over the purple strand
Now we have orange in position 1, red in position 2, green in position 3, yellow in position 4, purple in position 5, and blue in position 6.
- Take 3 over 2, so green over red
- Take strand 5 over strand 4, so purple over yellow
- Now take strand 3 over strand 4, so red over purple
- Take strand 3 over strand 2, so purple over orange
- Take strand 5 over strand 4, so blue over red
You’ve now finished one complete circuit of the braid pattern. Your colors should now be green in position 1, purple in position 2, orange in position 3, blue in position 4, red in position 5, and yellow in position 6. From here, repeat the steps until the colors end up back in their starting positions. I’ve rewritten the steps below based just on position number.
- Take strand 1 over 2, 3 over 4, and 5 over 6
- Take strand 3 over 2 and 5 over 4
- Take strand 3 over 4
- Take strand 3 over 2 and 5 over 4
- Repeat!
Finishing Off the Braid
Once you’ve gotten the braid to the point where the colors match back up with their original positions (or made it as long as you want, for a non-rainbow braid), it’s time to finish off!
Put the bracelet around your wrist to get an idea of how long you want the chains to be/how many chain stitches you need to take out. For me, I took out 10 stitches from each color, but I also have pretty small wrists.
Now, the braid might come undone a little bit while you do this, but thankfully, you know how to put it back the way it goes! Once you’ve decided your length, remove the number of stitches you want from the red or purple chain (just pick one side or the other, it doesn’t really matter). I recommend waiting to remove stitches from the other colors until you’re ready to finish them off. This helps prevent the braid from coming undone more.
Take the red or purple chain and loop it around to the starting purple sc, being careful not to twist the chain as much as possible. Join it to the starting sc, then tie off the yarn and weave in ends.
Do the same with each of the other colors, in turn, and then you’re done! I had a lot of fun with this little project, and I hope you do too! I hope you’ll share your finished crochet rainbow braid bracelets. Don’t forget to sign up for the email list to hear about the latest news from Kickin’ Crochet!