January's CREATE: jersey bracelet

Greetings! I'm Rodney Reindeer, and Carrie's coerced invited me to take part in her first CREATE project.

   If you take a look at Carrie's Pinterest, Carrie has grand DIY/crafting plans, but so far that's all that's happened! ... Well, 2012 is the year to change that. Carrie loves new jewelry, and she's on a budget, so that all adds up to DIY. These are cute, unfussy and require no special tools or materials -- any old t-shirt could be adorning your wrist in an alarmingly short time.

Two-finger weave bracelet

  Do: 

•  Check out the tutorial here. If you are not-so-craftsy like Carrie and need video guidance, click here.
•   Choose a fabric with stretch. T-shirt/jersey material is the easiest, but once you've got the basics down it might be fun to experiment with stretchy cording or anything with some give. Just don't try it with something like 100% cotton -- Carrie did, and it just doesn't work.  
•    Account for the stretchiness of the fabric when determining how long the woven portion should be. Carrie's first effort came out gargantuan.
•     Experiment with different widths for the weaving bands. While the tutorial calls for 1-inch-wide strips, Carrie liked the effect of much thinner strips. No need to be careful cutting, either -- unless you're persnickety like that, then go forth in all of your persnickety glory. (Did I  mention that Carrie is the least persnickety librarian-in-training I've ever met?)
• Throw out the hem if you're sacrificing an old tee to the jersey-bracelet gods. It's too thick for good weaving. 
• Have fun wearing your bracelet! Carrie likes the way it looks mixed with other bracelets, but I prefer to wear it solo (goes with the trapper hat perfectly, I think!)

   Once you get this down, you could experiment with doing strips in different colors, or even strips pieced together from different fabrics -- I think the seams would add some charm to the bracelet. If you use thinner strips, it might even be possible to add a bead or two along the way.