"Four Diamonds" (Jacob's Ladder) and Increment Methods
Four Diamonds (Jacob's Ladder)
1. Do Opening A and release thumbs.
2. Thumbs move under intervening strings and pick up the far little-finger string.
3. Thumbs move over the near index-finger string and pick up far index-finger strings.
4. Release little fingers. (You can exchange Step 3 and Step 4.)
5. Little fingers move over near index-finger strings and pick up far thumb
strings. Release thumbs.
6. Thumbs move over index-finger loops and pick up near little-finger strings.
7. Expand index-finger loops and hang them on thumbs. Navajo thumbs.
8. Index fingers move into the triangles. Release little fingers. Index fingers move away from you to extend the pattern.
Index-finger loops drop naturally.
Four Diamonds (Jacob's Ladder)
This ending procedure (Steps 7-8) is called Osage extension.
Four Diamonds without tangles
Instead of Step 3 of Jacob's Ladder, pass thumbs under the near index-finger string and pick up far index-finger strings.
Do Steps 4-8 of Jacob's Ladder.
Four Diamonds (without tangles)
The tangles in Jacob's ladder (between 1st and 2nd, and 3rd and 4th diamonds) do not appear in this pattern.
Another procedure for four diamonds without tangles is shown at
WWW Collection of Favorite String Figures.
Five and Six Diamonds
By doing the following steps between Steps 5 and 6 of Jacob's Ladder, you can add one diamond.
(a) The right (left) index finger moves away from you and twists its loop 360-degrees.
(b) The right (left) little finger moves away from you and twists its loop 360-degrees.
Five Diamonds
If the twists are given to both left and right hand loops you can make
Six Diamonds.
Six Diamonds
This technique cannot be applied to Four Diamonds without tangles,
for which you can decrease the number of the diamonds
by twisting index-finger loops away from you and little-finger loops toward you.
(right-hand side only → three diamonds, both sides → two diamonds)
Another procedure for six diamonds is shown at
WWW Collection of Favorite String Figures.
Adding Two Diamonds
By doing the following steps between Steps 1 and 2 of Jacob's Ladder, you can add two diamonds.
Because this procedure is repeatable, you can make many diamonds in principle.
(i) Thumbs move under intervening strings, then move into little-finger loop from below and hook down the far little-finger string.
Rotate thumbs down, toward you and back to position with the far little-finger string.
(ii) Thumbs move over near index-finger strings and pick up far index-finger strings.
(iii) Release little fingers.
(iv) Little fingers move over near index-finger strings and pick up far thumb strings. Release thumbs.
For an example, let's make Six Diamonds.
Do Opening A and release thumbs (Step 1 of Jacob's Ladder).
Do (i)-(iv) described above.
Do Steps of 2-8 of Jacob's Ladder.
Six Diamonds
To make Eight Diamonds:
Do Opening A and release thumbs.
Do (i)-(iv).
Repeat (i)-(iv).
Do Steps of 2-8 of Jacob's Ladder.
Eight Diamonds
You can add one or two diamonds further by twisting index- and little-finger loops in the same way as described above.
To make Seven Diamonds:
Do Opening A and release thumbs.
Do (i)-(iv).
Do Steps of 2-5 of Jacob's Ladder.
The right index finger moves away from you and twists its loop 360-degrees.
The right little finger moves away from you and twists its loop 360-degrees.
Do Steps of 6-8 of Jacob's Ladder.
Seven Diamonds
To make Ten Diamonds:
Do Opening A and release thumbs.
Do (i)-(iv).
Repeat (i)-(iv).
Do Steps of 2-5 of Jacob's Ladder.
The index fingers move away from you and twist index-finger loops 360-degrees.
The little fingers move away from you and twist little-finger loops 360-degrees.
Do Steps of 6-8 of Jacob's Ladder.
Ten Diamonds
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