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Ribbon Fish Weaving Instructions

A Fanciful Fish Ribbon Pattern

This fish can be woven from ribbon or dried palm fronds. All you need is two strips 20 inches long and from 1/2 to 1 inch wide.

Wider ribbon can be used to make larger fish. You just need to cut the lengths a bit longer.

I used contrasting colors to make the illustrations clear and easier to follow.

1. Fold the two lengths in half. Insert the green into the red as shown.

2. Flip the top red length down out of the way. Take the back green length and spiral it around the back red.

3. Take the front red, go over the top green ribbon from the front, continue behind and down through the loop you just made in the center.

4. Bring the same red around the bottom green from the back and weave it back up into the same green loop. Tighten the weave until you see the 2 X 2 checkerboard pattern.

5. Angle your fish (double entendre intended) so all the ribbon tails are toward your right. Take the bottom green and create a new loop toward the front on the bottom; weave the tail back up through the red it comes from and continue to the back, exiting in the middle row (leaving the new loop open to be used later).

6. With the upper green tail, create a similar new loop toward the front and going under the bottom red tail and over the top (skipping the middle section, where there isn’t any ribbon yet and again leaving the new loop open to be used later).

7. Weave the top red tail toward the back (locking the top of the loose green tail created in #6) ending on the left. Weave the bottom red tail around the back and through the two green loops you created in 5 & 6.

8. Notice that the fish's nose is now facing right. Secure the bottom green tail by weaving it through the front bottom row. Cut the fish’s fins at an angle or into forked shapes.

A dab of glue on the stress points (i.e. the nose and where the fins exit) will help the fish hold its shape. You’re done!

P.S. There is a front and back to this woven fish. The weave on the back is not uniform. You can create a fish with two "good" sides by gluing two of them back to back.

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