Tag: kute-uchi

bookmark_borderA pair of Loop Braids

Posted on by Elliott Evans

Almost 8 years ago, Makiko Tada was kind enough to teach me kute-uchi hand-loop braiding in her studio. For the past 8 years I have been making “practice” braids, “sample” braids, “class” braids, and the like, but never making any actual braids from silk. So, I did it. Twice.

The first braid is a 5-loop (3+2) AB flat braid that is usually referred to as shigeuchi. I used 12 ends of silk reeled silk yarn per loop, 3 loops red and 2 loops pink. The “3+2” means that three loops start on the left hand, and 2 on the right. The “AB” refers to two of the four moves used to make the braid from loops:

  • A = Outside Straight
  • B = Outside Twist
  • C = Inside Straight
  • D = Inside Twist

I realize that this doesn’t actually tell you anything you need to know about loop braiding. Anyway, the braid:

5-loop AB Shigeuchi in Reeled Silk

The second braid is a 9-loop (6 +3) AADC Odoshige braid, again with 12 ends of reeled silk yarn per loop. This time I had 6 loops of pink and 3 of red. This braid makes this great 8-ridge flat twill structure. The name odoshige indicates that it was mainly used as lacing on odoshi , which is a word for armor. This particular one is a little wide for armor lacing, though.

9-loop AADC Odoshige in Reeled Silk

I feel like the tension on both of these braids is still a little off. I bet you can even see the change in tension over the course of each braid. I have tried to showcase the best section of each braid. In the first braid, it’s the arc at the bottom. In the second braid it is the diagonal part near the top. In both cases, the nicer part of the braid is closer to the finish end of the braid. That should tell you something about how difficult it is to tension a longer braid.

Both braids are roughly 30 inches long. The second braid also has an error in it, but I have skillfully hidden that error from the camera.

bookmark_borderPeace Braids

Posted on by Elliott Evans

Last week, we attended the “Armistice” event up at Cooper’s Lake Campground. Informally called “Pretendsic”, this was the event that the campground decided to run on their own after the SCA’s Pennsic War was cancelled again. It was a much smaller and informal version of a war, with no organized battles and many fewer classes. We did not even camp up there most nights, and brought all our own food. We spent a lot of time in camp braiding, and I completed these four braids.

Four Kute-Uchi Braids from Armistice

All four braids were made using kute-uchi hand-loop braiding. The two inner braids are Mitake-gumi 10-loop rectangular braids, both using a single ply of acrylic yarn for each loop. The two outer braids are Maru-genji-gumi 16-loop round braids. The inner of the two uses a single ply of acrylic yarn for each loop, and the outer uses two plies of cotton crochet thread for each loop. To keep the loops together in bundles for the 2-ply braid, I used rope kute handles. These were all braided while seated on a bench, and I used my toes to beat the stitches if the braids were too long for manual tightening.