This post is titled:

Braiding Into the Future

A bit of retrospection is followed by full-tilt progressive action. Lamenting my inexperience with 16-strands braids, I dove head-first into this great braid that also includes a brand new material.

Braid 67, Royal Blue and Off White

The material is a hemp yarn. Hemp is a traditional Japanese fiber, so I wanted to try it out. I really like the royal blue hue of the blue yarn, but after I got the white yarn home I realize I had just bought a skein of string. It's the nicest string I've ever had, but it's basically string in color and texture. It briads really well, though. It isn't very stretchy, but it bends nicely and makes strongly defined "stitches" in the braid.

The braid is braid 16P from Jacqui Carey's book, Creative Kumihimo, and is essentially two overlapping edo yatsu braids. I did one braid all in blue and one braid all in white so I could keep them straight easily, but in the last couple of inches I switched the color pattern as an experiment and may do a whole braid that way. Basically you do one braid for four steps, then the other braid for four steps. This creates a tight braid at the center with large looping stitches on the exterior. The braid is solid underneath and knobbly on the outside. It seems very strong, too.

2009.10.07 at 12:00am EDT

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