Black and white checkerboard alpha bracelet pattern

About this design

The checkerboard has a skate-park, racing-flag, nineties-sticker sort of appeal, and it is also the best practice piece we know for alpha knotting. There are only two colours, DMC 310 Black and B5200 Snow White, and the chart never changes rhythm: two black, two white all the way across, and swap every second row. Once you have the pattern in your head you will barely need to look at the chart.

How to work it

You need 12 base strings for the 12-knot width, plus one black and one white working string. Because the base strings can peep between knots, many knotters pick a base colour that matches the background; with a checkerboard either colour works, so use whichever you have more of. The checks are unforgiving about tension: uneven knots make the squares look like rectangles, so this is a good piece for finding a steady pull. Each row is a run of colour changes, so keep the two working strings untwisted by dropping each one to the same side every time you finish with it.

Length and variations

Every 4 rows completes one pair of check rows, and the 40-row chart measures about 8 cm at roughly 2 mm per row. Knot it twice (80 rows, about 16 cm) for a typical adult wrist. The chart works with any two contrasting shades, so try a navy and cream version or one in your team colours using the same layout.

Colour plan

DMC B5200 Snow White does the most work, 50% of the 480 knots, followed by DMC 310 Black at 50%. Every colour is used at least 240 times, so there are no tiny one-off details to hunt for. Every square of the grid is filled.

Working notes

It is 40 knot rows of 12 knots; the busiest row changes colour 5 times. No square stands alone in its colour.