Nothing In It; Being the blog of Elliott C. 'Eeyore' Evans (hosted at his domain 'ee0r.com')

This post is titled:

Braiding Argh

I really want to be able to make some flat braids that are a bit wider than the 8 strand Yatsu Rai pattern I've been using. Most of the wider braids use a different kind of braiding loom, so I was really enthusiastic when I found a 16 strand Hira Kara pattern. I started briading with it, and it turns out it makes braids that are almost the same width as the 8 strand pattern, just twice as thick. In addition, the instructions note that, "How you cross the threads in steps 1 and 2 is quite important. If done correctly, both faces will be the same width. If done incorrectly, the N side will be narrower."

This was exactly my experience; the "South" side of the flat braid was four stitches wide, and the "North" side was three stitches wide. I tried crossing the threads several different ways in steps one and two, but couldn't fix the problem. Then, I got the bright idea of switching steps three and four! This evened up the braid so it's rectangular in cross section, not trapezoidal. Unfortunately, now both sides are the narrower of the two widths. This makes a solid, and presumably very strong braid, but not as wide as I was hoping. Argh.

2008.12.24 at 12:00am EST



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