Remember gimp? The long plastic thread that you would braid into lanyards at camp? You could buy it at the camp canteen at 25 cents a yard. You would braid one for all your friends, and they would braid one for you. At the end of camp, you would be sportin’ all those bracelets on your wrists. You promised never to take them off in remembrance of your days at camp.
Chillin' at the Camp Canteen
A few months ago one of our 4th grade boys starting making these lanyards and bringing his gimp to school. The other kids became interested in the project and asked me to teach them how to make the bracelets.
Thus, I began to search for a place to buy gimp.
Gimp in all the colors of the rainbow!
I found a company called Kwick Crafts that sells gimp by 100 yard rolls. It is $2.29 per roll. I have a coupon code for 15% off your order. The code is BX411. It says the code is good until 1/28/11, but you could try it anyway.
Here are the instructions to make a simple square chain:
How to get the chain started:
How to make the box stitch:
How to finish it off:
Have fun! The kids will love it. There are more complicated patterns for your artistic students that you can find online at http://www.laneyards.com/.
Beware! If you go down this path, you will be presented with hundreds of lanyards. My desk is full of them. They make great stocking stuffers!