This post is titled:

Traditional Tama

For my birthday, my mother in law got me a set of 8 traditional kumihimo tama. "Tama" are the weighted bobbins/spools used by serious kumihimo braiders instead of the home-made things I was using.

Kumihimo Tama

They weigh about 3 ounces each, which is four times heavier than the weights I was using. This puts a lot more tension on the threads, resulting in a tighter braid. Most of the literature I've seen has this the opposite way, so I don't quite understand, but I'm sure I'll have plenty of experimentation. Here's the first experiment right here:

Braid 43, thick and thin and flat

Here's the first braid with the new tama. I used the Hira Nami flat braid pattern with two thick gold yarn strands and six thin black yarn strands. This yields a nice zig-zag pattern, and the braid is tight enough to be somewhat positionable.

2009.04.02 at 12:00am EDT

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