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Some Recent Braids

Whoa, I haven't updated my braid photos in about a month. That sucks considering some of these braid will be given away soon.

"Side to Side" in Black and Gold

I didn't have a braid like this in local colors, so I whipped one up in short order. This is fast, fun braid. It had to be fast because I needed to free up my marudai by the end of the week to take a class.

"Kikkoid" braid in red and black

Somebody was kind enough to send me a pattern that could supposedly be used to make a "kikko" braid on the marudai with 32 strands. I decided to try it out during a workshop with Rodrick Owen, so I could get some help if I needed it. First off, I used too much thread in each strand, and the wrong number strands of each color. The braid came out super wide and thick,it's not real kikko, and it was tough to get the tension correct. Then, I kept making errors and having to unbraid the whole thing because it was impossible to figure out where I was. This 12 inch braid is the result of about seven hours worth of braiding.

Workshop Sampler in black and gold

The second day of the workshop, I made this sampler with four different patterns. The first is a Peruvian pattern that Rodrick Owen is putting into his next book. The other three are from his "Braids 250..." book. The second and third are very similar, but you should see a difference. The third and fourth are also similar, but a subtle imbalance in the braid causes it to twist naturally into a spiral. These are all 24-strand braids.

Bookmark in black and gold

As is the case with a lot of 24-strand flat braids, some of the threads are used up more than others. When 8 of the strands were used up by braid 192, I kept braiding this 16-strand braid with what was left on the other tama. I'm glad I tried out this color pattern because I was able to use it later as part of my "Creative Kumihimo" project. This short version makes a great boookmark, as it's only about nine inches long.

"Hidden Quadrants" in black and gold

The pattern I used for 192a is an expansion of a common 8-strand braid. I wasn't sure if I'd ever tried the color pattern I used for 192a with the 8-strand variant, so here you go. This looks chaotic, but it's very regular, with the complex repeating shape actually being identical for both colors.

"Triple Zipper" in black and white

I hadn't done one of these 9-strand shige uchi braids in a bit, and I wanted to try out this color pattern that uses six black threads and three evenly-space white threads. The color pattern does a godo job of masking the structure of the braid. Hee hee! This braid is only two feet long, but it will make a good component for another project of mine.

2012.05.18 at 12:00am EDT

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