Scoubidou facts for kids

Scoubidou is a fun craft where you make cool stuff by tying knots with plastic strings! It's also known by other names like gimp, lanyard, or boondoggle. This craft started in France in the late 1950s and became super popular. It even got its name from a French song called "Scoubidou" by Sacha Distel.

Scoubidou became popular again in countries like the United Kingdom around 2004 and 2005. You use special plastic strips or hollow tubes for this craft.

The most common strings are flat and come in many bright colors. There are also soft, round, hollow plastic tubes, usually about 80 centimeters long. These strings are sold in different colors, sizes, and types. You tie them together using knots to create things. Because they are stretchy and hollow, they can be pulled tight to form strong, stable knots. People often make keychains, friendship bracelets, and other small decorations. You can even make more complex shapes and figures!

Many of the knots used in scoubidou are very old. They were used in crafts with natural fibers long ago. The things you can make with scoubidou are similar to traditional crafts like corn dollies and macrame.

Scoubidou Knots You Can Learn

There are many different knots you can use to create your scoubidou projects. Here are some of the most common ones.

How to Make a Square Stitch

A square stitch keychain

The square stitch is also called a box stitch. It's one of the most common knots for making keychains. You use two strings for this stitch.

To make a square stitch:

• Lay your two strings flat so they cross in the middle.
• Take one end of a string and cross it over another string.
• Then, take another end and go over the first string you just moved, and then under the next string.
• Finally, take the last end. Weave it over the first string and under the second string.
• Pull all four ends gently to tighten the knot.

You can also make a double or triple square stitch using four strings. This makes your keychain bigger. It's often easiest to use two strings of one color and weave two other strings through them.

Making a Spiral Knot

A spiral knot, sometimes called a "barrel," makes your scoubidou look like a cylinder. You start it like a square stitch. But instead of crossing the ends straight over, you cross them diagonally. This makes the stitch twist as you go.

Using More Strings

A three-stranded scoubidou, with the first part done in a square knot and the second done in a spiral

A four-stranded scoubidou, with three laces

A six-stranded scoubidou

A ten-stranded scoubidou

The basic square stitch uses four strands (which come from the two ends of two scoubidou strings). You can use more strings for a simple woven scoubidou chain. However, with more than six strings, it can get tricky to keep the shape. Using an even number of strings helps you finish your project neatly.

Just like with the square stitch, each layer can be made in the same direction. This creates a twisting spiral shape. Or, you can make each layer a mirror image of the one before it. This gives your project a more angular look.

The Double Spiral Knot

The double spiral, or twist, is similar to the spiral knot. The main difference is that you use twice as many strings. This makes a thicker, more noticeable spiral.

Creating a Cobra Twist

The cobra stitch, also known as a snake stitch, involves tying two strings around two other strings. You tie them back and forth. A super cobra, or king cobra, is made by tying the strings around the cobra stitch itself. This makes it much wider and larger.

The Chinese Staircase Knot

To make a Chinese staircase, you tie one string around one or more other strings. The more strings you use in the middle, the fatter your Chinese staircase will be. This knot looks great when you use different colored strings.

The Butterfly Stitch

The butterfly stitch is a unique knot. You put one loop of string through another loop. Then, you pull the second loop tight. The loops are then twisted together to make them look like a butterfly.

Making Large Scoubidou Projects

A sixteen-stranded scoubidou

Many scoubidou knots can be made with a small number of strings or a very large number. For example, the Super-16 is a huge scoubidou project. It uses sixteen strings woven together! The Super-16 is like a square stitch, but on a much bigger scale.

Making Cool Objects

This is a dragon made with lanyard (scoubidou) strings. More than 60 different strings were used to make it.

You can create amazing things like dragons, Eiffel Towers, bridges, and even birds with scoubidou! To do this, you can put wires inside your stitches. The wires help keep the shape stable. They also let you bend your creation and keep it bent in place.

Images for kids

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  This shows a complex box stitch. It starts with a quadruple box, then splits into single and double barrels, creating a window. The two parts then rejoin.

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  Stitching thin thread needs a lot of focus!

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  A single square stitch in light and dark blue. This example starts as a box, switches to a barrel, and then goes back to a box stitch.