Kumihimo Marudai
Japanese Braiding Stands
September 2008, October 2008, November 2008, January 2009
September 2008, October 2008, November 2008, January 2009
"Kumihimo" is the Japanese style of braiding fibers into cords. It basically consists of arranging threads on a braiding loom, then moving the threads in patterns. There are a few different kinds of looms, but the easiest to make (hence the easiest to own and use) is called a "marudai". A marudai is basically a round stool with a hole in the middle. Weighted bobbins of thread hang down around the round surface, and braid together at the hole. The completed braid passes down through the center.
I got curious about this style of braiding because I've needed cords for many of my Japanese projects and had to settle for whatever they have at the fabric store. I tried out a simple braid using a CD as a marudai, and it came out awful enough that I decided to make a real one.
This one is made from a couple of pieces of scrap wood from the basement, a few pieces of dowel, and some screws. It's finished with a water based polyurethane/acrylic, and not stained or decorated in any way. It's about 2 feet tall, and the circle is 8 inches across with a 1 inch hole in the center.
The square "base" of this marudai also has a hole in it, and can also be used as a braiding surface if you invert the loom. This is supposedly better for braids that finish up flat instead of round since it helps keep the edge threads separate from the surface threads. My experiences have not been favorable. I find that it pushes all the threads to the center of each side, while on the circular surface he threads stay where you put them. Any future marudai I make probably won't have the hole in the square part, though a square base is traditional.
Once I made the first marudai and started getting into braiding, Sharon wanted to try it out, too, so I made a second one. The second one is about the same height, but it has an eleven inch top and only three legs. The larger top will help if I do any more braids with a large thread count.
Instead of making this marudai reversible, the square part is just a base. I tried out the "Roman Ogee" bit in my router to give it a nice decorative edge, though. I also sunk the screw heads, and covered them with plugs. It makes the top really nice, and smooth.
I also made this somewhat smaller marudai that can be disassembled. It's meant to be easier to travel with, if necessary. Not only is the head of the marudai a little smaller (about ten inches) than the second marudai, the legs are much shorter (about 15 inches). The legs also end in #10 hanger bolts. The bolts screw into brass inserts in the underside of the top, and poke through holse in the base where they are secured from beneath with wing nuts. When it's all put together you can't really tell it's not permanently assembled. The short height makes it easier to use if you're sitting or kneeling on the floor, or if the marudai is sitting on a tall table. I'm also planning to make a few extra sets of legs, so it's adjustable!
I was getting tired of apologizing for the sorry materials of my first three marudai, so I decided to make a nicer one. I went to the hardware store and bought some nicer wood (selecting the flattest piece I could find), and wound up with this furniture-grade item. It's the first marudai I've made for which I could justify charging what I've seen other marudai selling for.
It has a mirror 11" across and a center hole 1.5" across. The legs are about 23" tall and an inch in diameter.
Once I started talking to people about kumihimo, I started getting two questions fairly often: "Have you thought about teaching classes?" and "Have you thought about making marudai to sell?" Being able to say "Yes" to both questions means having more marudai, so I embarked on a program of making more marudai. Lots more marudai.
For the first batch, I made four, to see if the batch production thing would even work for me. Two of them came out nice, but two of them came out not as nice. I decided that the nicer ones would be for sale, and the not-as-nice ones would be "student marudai". They're all usable, and some of the flaws are minor, so this seemed like a good plan.
Since my success rate appeared to be 50%, I realized that if I wanted to be able to teach up to six students at a time, I'd need to make eight more marudai. Making eight marudai all at once was quite a production, but now I have a big pile of them. I can sell a few to cover costs, and still have enough to teach classes.
These marudai are all about 16 inches tall, with mirrors that are 11 inches across. All edges are rounded and all surfaces are smoothed and finished.
The wood for the top and bottom is just pine, cut from some scrap 1x12 I had in the basement. The dowels are 7/8" poplar dowels, chosen because poplar is cheaper than oak, and they were out of 1" dowels.
The screws are square-drive #8x1.5" wood screws. The finish is a base coat of Olympic water based sanding sealer followed by two coats of Minwax water based polycrylic finish.
The rubber band in the above picture serves no purpose besides marking the vertical center of the marudai, which is useful for estimating the length of working threads and completed braids.
With the exception of the attachment hardware I used to make this marudai portable, all the materials are the same as the other two marudai. The legs are made from a single 1"x48" hardwood dowel. The attachment hardware is all brass. I used #10x24x1.5" brass hanger bolts, #10 brass washers, and #10x24 wing nuts. The only place I can find the brass inserts is in those drawer thingies at Lowe's. The hanger bolts and wing nuts come from Home Depot.
The nicer marudai is made from poplar 1x12 and poplar dowels. It is stained with a water-based "rosewood" stain, and finished with a gloss polyurethane. The legs are attached to the bottom with screws, but the top is simply glued on to obviate screw holes in the top.
The tops and bottoms of all twelve of these marudai are made from the absolute flatest pine stock I could find. The legs are 7/8" poplar dowel. The marudai are assembled with no screws or other hardware, instead each dowel is seating and glued into a half-inch deep socket. All surfaces were sealed, sanded and finished. The finish is a water-based polurethane that should keep the surface smooth and easily cleanable.
My bobbins (called "tama" in Japanese) are common embroidery bobbins of the kind that often come free with a big package of embroidery floss. Each is weighted with a metal (not lead) fishing weight through which I have strung a hook made of "safety wire". Most of my weights are 3/4 ounce weights, though some of the earlier weights I bought were 1 ounce.
Tama are supposed to be weighted wooden spools, but those are quite expensive and usually need to be mail ordered. The 3/4 ounce fishing weights are 4 for $1.50. Making the wire hooks took a bit of time, but the hooks are also useful to securing the thread to keep it from unwinding.
Somebody eventually did buy me real tama as a gift. It was a tremendous gift! The traditional tama are much heavier, at about the 3 ounce mark, and have introduced a new texture to my braiding.
I've also created a couple sets of wooden tama. These are shaped from 1.5" poplar dowel using either a 5/8" round router bit (for the first set of 8), or a 3/4" sanding drum (for the second set of 16). The first set is filled with short lengths of steel rod to bring the weight of each tama up to about 1.6 ounces. The second set is weighted with stacks of copper pennies to bring the weight of each tama up to about 2.1 ounces. While the cost of materials is very low (about $0.20 worth of dowel and $0.15 worth of pennies), making these is labor intensive so I can see why most online stores charge about as much for eight tama as they do for a marudai.
When I was getting started, I bought a big multi-color pack of cotton embroidery floss at the fabric store. This is the same stuff you'd probably buy a teenager for making friendship bracelets. A pack of 36 skeins (8.75 yards each) was $5. This stuff isn't fancy, but I wasn't sure how well this whole hobby would go, so I didn't want to invest in some nice silk floss until I got some experience.
So far, this has been a good idea. The variety has forced me to experiment with combinaions I might otherwise have neglected. I'm not upset if I have to throw some floss away. The braids come out pretty nice anyway. The fact that I have plenty of floss available encourages me to keep going and try new braiding patterns. I recommend this route for beginners.
Later, I branched out into yarns. You can get silk yarns, or just braid with anything. Thicker yarns are a great way to make thicker braids without increasing the complexity of the braid.
I've also tried braiding with nylon rope for strength, and strands of beads for beauty. More on those, below.
First, I cut the circle and square pieces from scrap lumber. Then, I drilled the holes in the center of each piece, and the screw pilots (with countersinks) for the legs. I edged the pieces top and bottom with a 3/8" roundover bit in the router to remove sharp edges that might catch threads. Finally, I sanded, sealed, sanded, and finished the surfaces. Finishing was easier with screws through the holes, since I could hold the screws while finishing one side, and use the screws to support the piece while I finished the other.
I started with two ~48" dowels, cut them in half to make four legs, then sanded the legs smooth. Then, I drilled pilot holes for screws in each end, and put screws in them. This enabled me to support the legs between two sawhorses by resting the screws on the sawhorse tops. This enabled me to finish the whole dowel at once, while keeping the things level while they dried. Again, each was sanded, sealed, sanded, and finished.
Once all the pieces were pre-finished, I assembled each marudai by driving screws through the tops and bottoms into the ends of the legs. The marudai were then sanded again and given a final coat of finish. If I didn't like the smoothness of the top, I wet-sanded just the top with ultra-fine paper and gave it one more coat of finish with a high quality brush.
For many of the later marudai, instead of using screws to attach the legs, I drilled sockets in the underside of the top and the upper surface of the base, and glued the legs into these sockets. This leaves the top surface of the marudai much smoother without having to plug screw holes.
The simplest way to make wooden tama is to start with some dowel that is already 1.5 inches in diameter and then carve a 1/4 inch deep channel all the way around the outside. The ways I can think of to cut this channel are:
I have used the second and third methods. For all of these, it's probably easiest and safest to cut the channel first starting 3/8" in from the end of the dowel, then cut 1.5" chunks off the end of the dowel. I found that using a 3/4" coarse sanding drum on my drill press was the safest and easiest way to go.
Once the chunks are cut, drill a hole most of the way down the axis of each. Fill this hole with something weighty. I found that copper pennies in a 3/4" hole add the right amount of weight with the least amount of work. Fourteen or fifteen pennies will make a roughly 2 ounce tama.
Once the tama are weighted, plug the hole to keep the weight in. For best results, use a dowel of the same wood that you used for the body of the tama. Plug the hole, then cut the dowel off flush with the surface.
Finally, sand each tama as smooth as possible. Round off all the edges and smooth out all of the surfaces, especially the curves on the inside of the channels.
One thing you have to understand about kumihimo is that it is not actually very difficult. You set up the threads in a particular way, then you execute the braiding pattern repeatedly until you run out of thread or decide to stop. Here's some video of me executing an 8 strand "Edo Yatsu" pattern with yellow and black threads
You can see that every time a thread is moved, it crosses over one or more other threads. As new crossings occur, they push old crossings to the center and create the braid. You don't move the threads into place by hand, you just move the threads and the braid sort of "happens" at the center of the hole. The finished braid is weighted, so as it gets longer it is pulled down into the hole. Here's a picture of the "active site" of a 12 strand flat braid:
Braid 00 (6 strand, 0'21", September 2008)
Just to see if I could do this at all, I tried a simple, flat braid using a CD as a marudai. It came out awful and uneven, but was close enough to an actual braid to convince me that I could actually do this craft, and that with better equipment I might get better results.
Braid 01 (12 strand, 6'4", September 2008)
This braid uses a 12 strand pattern that's similar to the 8 strand "Hira Kara Gumi" pattern. It takes six executions of the plaiting pattern for this braid to complete one repeat of the visual pattern and return the strands to their starting positions. Each repeat covers about a half inch of completed braid. So, to complete a foot of braid, you have to execute the pattern 144 times. I made approximately 6.35 feet of braid, meaning I did the pattern about 915 times (over the course of several days). I'm sure my friends who knit and crochet are snickering at my shock over that number, but my reaction is "Gah!".
This braid wound up replacing the store-bought cord on my drinking gourd.
Braid 02 (4 strand, 9'8", October 2008)
I decided to take a big step backwards here. How crazy was I to jump right in with a 12 strand braid for my first serious braid? Unused to complexity, I lost track of the threads a couple times, so the pattern actually changes over the course of the braid. It came out OK, but I now realize it was kind of silly. The result of that realization was the decision to make this 4 strand, 2 color braid. This braid is super boring after the complexity of the 12-strand, but it introduces some important theory. Plus, it's so long that it introduces the braider to how much time needs to be devoted to this hobby and builds up the arm muscles.
Braid 03 (8 strand, 5'8", October 2008)
Starting to work my way back up the ladder, I made this 8-strand braid using the "Edo Yatsu" braiding pattern. This braid has different results depending on the placement of colors when you start. I started with a "YY KK YY KK" pattern, which yielded this pleasing spiral. I used it to string an inro.
Although this color pattern makes the braid look like a twist-style rope, it is not. If you twirl it in your fingers, it does not separate into strands like a rope does.
Braid 04 (16 strand, 7'10", October 2008)
I decided that I had worked my way back up the ladder, so it was time for this 16 thread "Kongo Gumi" pattern. I thought this was going to be difficult, given the number of strands, but it's actually a very simple pattern. All threads move in the same direction, and you're basically just moving the end pair of threads each time. There is no "grabbing the middle pair out four and moving them in opposite directions" like with some patterns.
This pattern also moves very quickly. I timed myself at one point, and determined that I can complete 18 inches of it in one hour. This means that this entire braid was completed in about five and a quarter hours, though those hours were spread across about five days.
I really like the way the colors came out on this one. The colors variations within the spiralling bands seem to give this braid an irridescent quality, even though it's made of mundane cotton floss.
Braid 05 (8 strand, 1'1", October 2008)
Braid failure! I really wanted to try out this "Yatsu Rai" pattern, because I think the interlocked S pattern it produces is really cool. I discovered, however, after about eight inches of braid, that you really should be mostly sober while braiding. I lost track of the briad at some point and was unable to recover. Eventually I just put the threads into starting position and began again, figuring there would be a discontinuity, but the overall braid woul be fine. For some reason the restarted braid was not as clear or neat as the original portion, so I gave up.
The upper half of the braid, starting from the looped end, is the good part. See how clear and tight the pattern is? About three repetitons after the fold, you can see where the error starts, and there are a couple of sections where the apttern is messed up and I am trying to recover. Eventually, the pattern picks back up, but it's stretched out and indistinct. I don't understand why that is, but it wasn't worth continuing. Maybe I'll try this pattern again when I have more time and attention to devote to it.
Braid 06 (4 strand, 7'5", October 2008)
Went a little overboard today. First of all, I went to a local store that specializes in natural fiber yarns and I bought two balls of 100% silk yarn. (It was on sale, honest!) Then, I spent 3.5 hours straight making this braid, starting at 10pm. Yes, it was a wild Saturday night!
Braiding with with big thick yarn was very interesting. It seemed to go much faster than braiding with skinny embroidery floss. The final braid is thicker than the 8 strand braid #3 above, though not quote as thick as the 16 strand braid #4. This silk is excellent. In addition to having great color, it's super-soft and very squishy. The resulting braid is noticably stretchy. I'm going to want to make more braids with this stuff, which is good because I have yards and yards and yards of it. It might also be fun to mix it with thinner floss.
Braid 07 (8 strand, 9'10", October 2008)
This was pretty much an experimental braid. I was trying to achieve a braid that integrated a black & gold pattern and a red & white pattern. Black and gold are the colors of the Pittsburgh area and the SCA Barony that covers it. Red and white are the colors of Aethelmearc, the SCA Kingdom. I decided to try the "yatsu rai" pattern again, making the S-shaped blocks in my two color combos. That pattern is visible in the top part of the image.
Unfortunately, that pattern didn't work out so well. The colrs made it impossible to see the pattern, and the pattern made it difficult to see which colors were grouped together. So, I changed the arrangement of the threads and tried again. By changing the combination to black & red with yellow & white, I hoped to conquer the problem. The resulting pattern was much more pleasing (see the middle of the photo), but not really what I was going for.
Then, I did it. The bottom part of the photo show clear blocks of black & gold and red & white, but the overall pattern is very integrated. The dark & light lengthwise stripes in this braid are also clear.
This braid was fun to make, with all the experimentation, but with the switches and all the transition periods in between where I was trying to figure out how to arrange the threads to get a particular pattern, it's not very attractive. I even split the combos down near the end to make two 4 strand braids in each combo, just for fun. This all was great, and now I know how to do the pattern I want, but it's not very useful on its own.
Braid 08 (8 strand, 3'6", October 2008)
Once I finished up the exrimental braid, I was able to get back to the great silk yarn. Instead of experimenting within a single long braid, I decided to do a handful of smaller braids to find my favorite two-color version of the Edo Yatsu.
This "houndstooth check" pattern was the first result, the thread arrangement for this can be described as "XO XX OX OO". That is, if X is gray and O is blue, the #1 thread at roughly 11:30 o'clock is gray, the #2 thread at roughly 12:30 o'clock is blue, the #3 thread at roughly 2:30 o'clock is gray, the #4 thread at roughly 3:30 o'clock is gray, the #5 thread at roughly 5:30 o'clock is blue, the #6 thread at roughly 6:30 o'clock is gray, the #7 thread at roughly 8:30 o'clock is blue, and the #8 thread at roughly 9:30 o'clock is blue. Odd number threads are moving clockwise, and even number threads are moving counter-clockwise. Maybe that doesn't all make sense to you, but in the future I'll only give the X&O pattern.
Braid 09 (8 strand, 3'8", October 2008)
A step back towards simplicity with this "OX OX OX OX" threaded "Checker" Edo Yatsu. Grey moves clockwise while blue moves counter-clockwise. I call this checker, but you could also view this as lengthwsie alternating stripes.
I've decided to do as many of these two-color variations of Edo Yatsu as I can think of. I'm not enough of a math person to calculate exactly how many there are. There are not strictly 28, since there are always going to be 4 X's and 4 O's, plus there's a certain amount of rotational symmetry. For instance, "XX XX OO OO" is probably the same as "OO OO XX XX". There's some software that would help me experiment with this, but so far I prefer to noodle on it myself.
I might wind up having to do this one again, since there are a couple of errors in it.
Braid 10 (8 strand, 3'7", October 2008)
I've done this "OO XX OO XX" spiral pattern before, for Braid #3. It's nice to see it in these colors, though. It also marks the last variation that I have a diagram for. The three I've done so far are shown on one of the many kumihimo web pages I've been reading over the past few weeks. All the ons you will see below are ones I've come up with on my own and decided to try out. That's not to say I'm the first to have ever done them, I mean people have been doing kumihimo for a long time, but I'm trying to work out variations for myself, as a way of understanding the structure a little more.
Braid 11 (8 strand, 6'10", October 2008)
Oops, I accidentally made this one twice as long as the others. I was wondering why it was taking so long to finish. Anyway, it uses a "XO XX XO OO" thread pattern, which creates a kind of Greek Key design that spirals down the braid. I think it's really cool. If you look at the pattern, you can see it's very similar to both the spiral pattern of Braid #10 and the checker pattern of Braid #9. This interlacement is mirrored in the design that is produced. The spiral pattern's odd and even bands are replaced with alternating "dotted" and "dashed" lines. Cool.
Anyway, I immediately cut this braid in half to create one braid that matches the others in length and an extra braid. This also involved unbraiding am inch or so from the end of each smaller braid to tassels. That's the first time I've ever had to unravel any of this fancy braiding after it's off the marudai. I had to get al this cutting and unravelling done quickly, before I lost my nerve.
Braid 12 (8 strand, 3'8", October 2008)
I was trying to make a braid with block of each color but it turns out that just looks like houndstooth check. It's basically the mirror image of braid #8, which I think is very strange. It's not what I was expecting at all. I started with an "XX XX OO OO" pattern, which I thought would give me something very different from what I actually got. I guess I still don't understand this as well as I want to. Oh well, that just means I have to keep trying.
The braid did come out nice and smooth, so I guess I shouldn't complain too loudly.
Braid 13 (8 strand, 4'3", October 2008)
I decided to take a break from all this round braid, and try out a flat braid with this great yarn before I used it all up on other things. This braid is a Yatsu Rai plait with an "XO XO XO XO" thread pattern. It's super-stretchy. This would make a great tie for something that needs a bit of elasticity. It's about three quarters of an inch wide, so it would make a great strap for tying a box shut or maybe as a shoulder strap for something.
If I manage to get more of these colors, I should try this braid again with a the thread pattern that yields the S braid. Something tells me that would look really really great.
Braid 14 (8 strand, 3'9", October 2008)
Back to the round braid, but this is the very last braid using the blue and grey silk yarn. Not bad, eight braids from two skeins of yarn, over 29 feet of braid. I paid less than $30 for the silk, so less than a dollar a foot for materials and I've seen braids selling for ten dollars a foot on Etsy. If I can ever bring myself to sell braids, this might be a pretty lucrative hobby.
This particular braid uses the eight thread Edo Yatsu pattern again, this time with an "OO OX XO XX" thread pattern that gives a great "Interlocking E" spiral that I really like. I think this is my favorite pattern visually so far, and the fact that I figured it out myself instead of just following somebody's web page makes it extra-special to me.
Braid 15 (8 strand, 2'5", November 2008)
One of the reasons I started doing kumihimo was to occupy the "down time" at day long (or longer) SCA events. I completed this entire braid during the Amethyst Invitational Tournament; setting up the threads during breakfast and tying everything off during court. It's a Yatsu Rai "S Braid", which uses a "XO OO OX XX" thread pattern. I used silk yarn from the knitting store. The white yarn is glossier and thicker than the black, which gives this braid an interesting texture. I decided to use this braid as a chin strap for my sando gasa hat.
Braid 16 (8 strand, 19'6", November 2008)
While making the previous braid at an SCA event, I noticed that kingdoms and baronies often give out awards that are sometimes referred to as "danglies", that is, they are represented by a badge or medallion that hangs from a cord. It occurred to me that maybe making some cords in the baronial colors, and giving them to the barony for use with baronial awards would be a way to put my apparent obsession to good use.
So, here's the result. I used eight full skeins of cotton embroidery thread, according to a thread pattern of my own design which I wil refer to as the "Barony Braid". I did this as one long Edo Yatsu braid with thread pattern "YY KK KY KK". Once it was complete, I cut it into six award cords and whipped the ends into tassels. This meant that almost a foot of braiding was combed out. Now I know better. Anyway, I will give these cords to the Baron and Baroness when I next see them and I'm sure they will go to good use.
Braid 17 (8 strand, 3'2", November 2008)
I liked the new chin strap on my sando gasa so much that I decided to get rid of the store-bought braid I was using for the harness and do it entirely in silk braid. I used the same two silk yarns as braid 15, four black and four white. Most of this braid is Yatsu Rai S braid in a "XO OO OX XX" pattern, but the ends of each section are split into black and white Maru Yotsu sections to create ties for attaching the harness to the support basket, and the pieces of the harness to each other.
These "break out" sections were fun and challenging. I basically had to do two braids at the same time on a single marudai. Once the braid was complete, I tied off the aplit sections and cut the braid into three pieces to make the harness. So far, it's working very well.
Braid 18 (8 strand, 4'10", November 2008)
Once that braid was long enough, though, I still had a bunch of yarn left on my bobbins. I basically spent the next few days just playing around with 4 black and 4 white threads. I switched between different braids and thread patterns, trying out some of my Edo Yatsu patterns on Yatsu Rai braids and vice versa. I also did some 8-thread Kongo Gumi braiding, and made up some new braids that I don't have names for.
This was great fun, and it also gave me a sampler I can use to show off my craft to others. I carry this braid around in my pocket, not just for showing off, but also because it can be pretty handy to have a hank of cord in your pocket. I used it multiple times on a recent vacation for holding a water bottle or camera.
Braid 19 (8 strand, 2'0", November 2008)
At about this time, I manged to get ahold of some gold yarn of the same type as the blue and grey yarn I was using earlier. I was so happy with the texture of the black and white braids that used yarns of two different gauges, I wanted to try a braid two wildly different gauges. I decided to use 6 black threads and only 2 gold threads in a simple Edo Yatsu braid. The black threads did a good job of keeping the gold threads separate from each other in this "YB BB YB BB" braid, creating a braid with a great knobbly texture. It's not very long, since I started with only a yard for each thread, as a trial. This braid will probably hold knots really well, so I'm sure I'll do something like this again.
Braid 20 (8 strand, 3'2", November 2008)
I was so happy with that braid, I wanted to do another. This time, I tried a "YB YB BB BB" thread pattern while keeping to the 6 black and 2 gold Edo Yatsu. Keeping the two gold threads closer together gave this braid more of a twist feeling, with the two bands of gold bound tightly around a core of black. I started with more yarn this time, so this braid should also be a little more useful.
Braid 21 (8 strand, 3'2", November 2008)
The types of silk yarn I've been able to find in stores have been really great, but finding exactly the colors I want has been kind of a challenge. I made a guess and stopped by a store that specializes in needlepoint supplies, and hit the jackpot. Silk needlepoint thread is kind of expensive, but it comes in a very nice pallette of colors and is meant to provide fine detail.
This silk braid in my "Interlocking E" Edo Yatsu pattern uses 4 red, 4 white strands of Silk needlepoint thread in a "RR RW WR WW" thread pattern. The resulting braid is about two thirds the diameter that a similar braid would be using cotton embroidery floss. I could double or triple each thread for a thicker braid, and the color selection should enable me to match most fabrics or create customized braids in somebody's personal colors, whatever they might be.
Braid 22 (8 strand, 2", December 2008)
Most of my braids have been "for art's sake", with only the vaguest idea of practical use. This one was born of use, and designed with that in mind. I have this red/black checked fleece jacket that I've had for about twenty years. It's holding up pretty well, but in all those years it's never had a zipper pull. I decided to braid a swanky zipper pull for myself, because I knew it wouldn't take very long.
I decided to use 4 red and 4 black strands of silk needlepoint thread. The bulk of the braid is Yatsu Rai in a "KR KR KR KR" thread pattern to create vertical stripes, but one end is a closed loop of Maru Yotsu braid in a "K R K R" pattern. This is accomplished by tying the middle of the four bundled threads and doing a few inches of Maru Yotsu, then looping the remaining threads together and starting in on the Yatsu Rai. After a few inches of that I switched to a half inch of Edo Yatsu to feed through the center of some alphabet beads.
The closed loop nature of this braid will hopefully give some people a second or two of pause, and it adds a bit of frilly newness to this old jacket.
Braid 23 (16 strand, 3'1", January 2009)
This braid uses cotton embroidery floss and a 16-strand version of the Hira Kara Gumi plaiting pattern. There's no particular thread pattern, but I used four different colors of brown. The colors started in the position "1111 2222 3333 4444", but as this was my first time with this pattern they got pretty mixedup over the course of the braid. I was trying to make a wider flat braid, but instead I wound up with a thicker one. The Hira Kara Gumi plait is an annoying one to begin with, but doing it with twice as many threads made this braid a long, hard slog.
The subtle variation of color is nice, and the heaviness of this braid is great, but Idoubt I'll try this again with some really good reason.
Braid 24 (16 Strand, 6'5", January 2009)
So sick was I of the previous braid, that I did another 16 strand Kongo Gumi even though I consider this a very easy plaiting pattern to do. This version uses that great combed silk yarn in blue and white with gold accent strands. I didn't want to change the thread pattern once I'd started, but I wish I'd managed somehow to get the gold threads to create a visual anti-spiral. Maybe next time. I'm very happy with this braid otherwise. It's thick (like a half inch in diameter), soft, and slightly stretchy.
Braid 25 (8 strand, 1'7", January 2009)
I went to the library, and I checked out Jacqui Carey's Beginners Guide to Braiding: The Craft of Kumihimo. Since all six of the braids in it are 8-strand braids, I loaded up the marudai with "BW GS BW GS" and tried out each pattern in turn: "square braid", "round braid", "flat braid", "honeycomb braid", "hollow braid", and "rounded flat braid".
I recommend this book, especially for beginners. It's only 64 pages but it's a detailed guide with lots of color photos and step-by-step information. This braid is short, but it should be helpful for showing people shape variants and figuring out thread patterns.
Braid 26 (12 strand, 3'0", January 2009)
Of the six braids in Carey's BGB, the most interesting new braid to me was the "flat braid". It's fast, easy, and only as thick as the strands you use. I didn't see any reason that the pattern couldn't be expanded to more threads, so I decided to try 12. The result was this "peas and carrots" colored braid. It's still flat, and a bit wider than it would be with just 8 strands. I bet you could do this braid with any number of strands that is divisible by four.
Braid 27 (16 strand, 2'3", January 2009)
The 12-strand version worked out so well, I decided to try a 16-strand version. I still only used a single skein of cotton embroidery floss per color, so this braid is shorter even though it is wider. The braiding pattern worked fine, though I had a difficult time keeping tensions even on all the threads, so the chevrons started to get a little lop-sided. It was a bit crowded, even on an 11-inch marudai, so I'm not sure I could try the 20-strand version without a larger, or at least wider, mirror.
Checking around, I find that the most common Japanese name used for this braid is "Hira Nami".
Braid 28 (8 strand, 4'1", January 2009)
The first braid that I made with this silk embroidery thread was so thin and fine, but not very useful. For this one, I doubled the threads so that each strand of this 8-strand Edo Yatsu braid is actually two threads. There's also an extra strand down the hollow core, to try to beef it out a little more.
While I was braiding this, I got an invitation to a birthday party, so I decided to give this braid away as a present. Even though it takes time to make, I felt silly giving a hunk of string as a present so I sewed up a little bag and used this braid as the drawstring. Somehow that made me feel a little less weird about it.
Braid 29 (8 strand, 6'10", January 2009)
One of the reasons I started braiding is so that I could stop buying polyester "rat tail" cord like this every time I needed a decorative cord. So, it's kind of sick to buy several yards of this stuff and braid it. It makes a nice shiny braid, but hideously expensive at several dollars a foot just for materials. Plus, the stuff Jo-Ann sells in their trim section is very stiff, so it doesn't even braid very well. I did this Kusari Kaku Yatsu "square braid" out of the BGB because it doesn't involve sharp turns.
Braid 30 (8 strand, 4'8", January 2009)
I had signed up to teach a class in kumihimo at an SCA event, and I wanted class attendees to be able to see my threads even if they were kind of far back from the marudai, so I went to the store and bought the thickest, chunkiest yarn I could find. I wound up with two skeins of Wool-Ease "Thick & Quick" Acrylic/Wool Yarn which is not the most period material, but is certainly visible.
This is the first braid I made with the yarn, an 8-strand braid using the Hira Kara Gumi "rounded flat" braiding pattern. The braid is huge and stretchy, about 3/4 inch across the widest way.
I used a "KK KG KG GG" thread pattern to acheive this nice zig-zag visual pattern There's a book by Rosalie Neilson titled, The Thirty-Seven Interlacements of Hira Kara Gumi. Ms. Neilson determined that there are 37 different two-color visual patterns possible with this braid, and published a book showing each pattern with its thread set-up. This pattern is on the front cover of the book, as well as page 25. Now I have just 36 more braids to go.
Braid 31 (8 strand, 8'4", February 2009)
I liked the doubled silk needlepoint thread, and I liked the Hira Kara Gumi pattern, so I decided to try combining the two. This "KK GK GG KG" pattern is page 32 of 37IHKG, so now I only have 35 more to go.
You may have noticed that this braid and the two preceding braids are all black and gold. The first two were done before the Super Bowl, and the third was finished later. Go Stillers! Superbowl champeens! These are also the colors of the local SCA Barony, coincidentally.
Braid 32 (8 strand, 7'3", February 2009)
I was about to teach a class in kumihimo, and dang, I couldn't find my BGB sampler braid anywhere. How could I reach a class without that? So, everything else went on hold while I braided a new one. I decided to use the combed silk yarn again, but make the sections longer this time, so each of the six main sections (Square, Round, Flat, Honeycomb, Hollow, and Rounded Flat) is about 11 or 12 inches long. I had some yarn left over at the end, so I added a section of Yatsu Rai, and a short section of one other pattern tht I don't have a name for but that everybody really seems to like.
The length of this combined cord makes it very useful. It could be a tasuke sleeve cord or something like that, so it could serve a practical purpose beyond just showing off my braiding skills. I later found my short sampler cord after it went through the wash. That one will live with my braiding supplies, but this long one is a real show piece.
Braid 33 (8 strand, 6'5", February 2009)
I was wondering how well this 40-pound test nylon line would braid. It, like the rat-tail cord, only worked well in the Kusari Kaku Yatsu "square braid". You can see how it pushed the polyester yarn off to the sides, making it more like a flat braid instead of a square. It's reasonably attractive, but its main purpose is to have an approximate test weight capable of holding my weight, in case I ever need a braid to save my life.
Braid 34 (8 strand plus core, 7'6", February 2009)
This braid is slightly more decorative than the last one, since instead of braiding with the nylon rope, I braided around the nylon rope. The Edo Yatsu braiding pattern is hollow, so it's easy to put a core of something else down the middle. I did this once before with an extra strand of silk in braid 28, but this one uses a length of 40-pound test nylon line at the core for strength. It would be more attractive if I'd used something besides the chunky Acrylic/Wool yarn, because the braid completely hides the core. You can see how using a more attractive braid around an even stronger core would be useful for making decorative cords that still have serious strength.
I made this braid as an example to show a class. Also, to use up some more of this chunky yarn. It's not very attractive.
Braid 35 (4 strand, 6'9", March 2009)
This was the first braid for the class I taught at the Mi-no-Hi festival with Sharon's help. I wanted to start out with a simple braid to show set-up and basic method, and this maru yotsu pattern is the simplest I know. I used the chunky yarn like I planned, and the smallest of my four marudai. We spent about an hour mostly setting everything up (With some additional help, thanks Raven!) before the class, but I left this one partially set up so the students (two students, but what can you do?) could see that part. I wasn't able to complete this one during the class, of course, but it survived the trip home and was finished later.
Braid 36 (8 strand, 6'7", March 2009)
This was actually the third braid I taught in the class, but I completed it second. It uses the yatsu rai pattern, which I like to teach alongside the maru yatsu pattern to show how a minor change in the braiding pattern can yield a very different braid shape. It's not in Carey's BGB, so it also gives students a little something they can't get elsewhere as easily.
I used a "KG KG KG KG" thread pattern, which yields this thin stripy braid instead of the distinctive S pattern for which this braid is mostly known. For the S pattern see braid 5 and braid 17.
Braid 37 (8 strand, 6'4", March 2009)
This is the last demonstrator braid from the Mi-no-Hi class. It started off as a simple edo yatsu braid in a "KG KG KG KG" color pattern, but I decided that was boring me, so I switched through a few color variations until I settled on a houndstooth check pattern of "KG KK GK GG". The houndstooth check pattern is really starting to grow on me. At first, it was the kind of thing that pops up when you're trying to do something more interesting, but over time I have come to appreciate it for its pleasing staccato regularity. This is a good pattern when you really want the colors to hang in big patches instead of thin stripes.
Braid 38 (16 strand, 5'0", March 2009)
There was actually one more braid at the class, but Sharon finsihed it up so I don't count it as my work. It was a 16-strand kongou braid in red and white acrylic yarn.I liked the way the material braided, and now I have gigantic skeins of it, so I decided to do my own 16-strand braid. This one uses a braiding pattern similar to the 8 strand Edo Yatsu, but with twice as many strands.
I started out with that nice houndstooth check pattern (RR RR WW WW RR RR WW WW), but somewhere in the middle it devolved into a weird hybrid of the interlocking E pattern and the houndstooth. Apparently with the 16 strands you can acheive some interesting effects, but on my first full braid in this style it was flying blind.
I've grown inured to the truth that the first time you try a new plaiting pattern, you probably won't have the hang of it, and will probably mess it up. I used cheap acrylic yarn for this braid on purpose so I wouldn't be wasting good silk on my experimentation.
Braid 39 (8 strand, 1'2", March 2009)
Somebody I know asked me about braiding with strands of beads. I had never tried it, and other people have mentioned it to me in the past, and I was walking past a bead store, and...
This braid has eight strands of tiny seed beads, strung on "Fireline" beading cord. It's kind of a pain to string hundreds of beads onto the line, and a constant pain keeping the line tension good while you're braiding, but it makes a very shiny and sinuous piece of bling. The tension is off in a few places, but I'm very happy with the braid over all, especially for a first try.
This braid is about 14" long and about 3/8" in diameter, and uses most of two vials of beads. I added some findings and chain to the ends of this braid so that it would be useful as a necklace.
Braid 40 (8 strand, 2'0", March 2009)
This is an "8 tama" braid, plaited using eight bobbins. The four white bobbins had two strands of whote silk yarn on them, and the four black bobbins had three strands of black silk on them. This was an attempt to balance out the white yarn being thicker than the black yarn. It worked, but the braid is fairly chunky.
One of these days, I should write up this plaiting pattern. I haven't seen it in any of my books, and I may have invented it. When I show people the sampler braid (#18), they often remark on it.
I added some of those little rubber-ring-and-bead thingies at the ends to make this braid useful as an eyeglass cord. The starting end actually has the yarn looped through the ring, so there's no way to get that off without cutting. The other end has the yarn looped through the ring before it's bound with the whipping.
Braid 41 (8 strand, 1'10", March 2009)
As I mentioned above, the first time I try something new, things often go wrong somehow, and this no longer bothers me. However, if something goes well the first time I try it, I usually try it a second time to demonstrate my success is repeatable. If nothing goes wrong the second time, I'm a pretty happy fellow.
Once again, I made eight strands of seed beads on Fireline, then braided them together. I started with more beads, so this braid is about eight inches longer than the first bead braid. I also used a different color pattern, "BB LL BB LL". After this picture, I added some findings to turn this braid into a necklace as well.
Braid 42 (8 strand, 0'8", March 2009)
Took a class, actually took a class in braiding with beads, at a local bead store. I knew what the standard technique was supposed to look like, but my attempts to recreate it were awful, so I wanted to have somebody show me what I was doing wrong. It turns out that the main thing I was doing "wrong" was using a marudai, as most of the techniques use a braiding disk. So, taking the class showed I just need different techniques or something.
The underlying braid is an 8-strand Kongo Gumi round braid of "S-Lon" beading cord. Four of the strands are unbeaded, two are strung with 3 mm gold glass beads, and two are strung with 3 mm black glass beads. The thread pattern is "KG PP KG PP" where "P" is "plain". The standard technique has you only adding a bead when the strand is moving from the "2" position down to the "5" position, but the tension on my strands was not as great even after I upped the weight on each strand to 1.75 ounces, and I was going through cord much faster than I was going through braids. So, I started over and added a bead every time a beaded strand was moving. This gives my braid a double helix instead of a single helix and inspires me to find beads in green, cyan, silver, and tan, and encode something.
I also saw that Jacqui Carey has an entire book out with 192 pages of braiding with beads. I'll have to pick that up at some point.
Braid 43 (8 strand, 2'0", March 2009)
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.
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:
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.
Plied silk yarn and combed silk yarn Hira Nami "Flat Braid" BBBG GBBB Flat braid to try out new, traditional tama
Braid 44 (8 strand, Six 3' braids, April 2009)
I really need to catch up on documenting stuff. I've been posting braids to the blog here, but I haven't updated the Marudai page in months. I'm going to hold off making new braids for a bit while I get caught up, but I still even have a backlog of braids to post here. Today's braid is actually a st of braids.
These are six 8-tama braids, each about three feet long. They use the six braiding patterns from Jacqui Carey's "Beginner's Guide to Braiding". They all use the "WW RR WW RR" color pattern, which makes some of the braids more interesting, and some of them not as interesting. All of them are braided using needlepoint silk, with two threads on each tama. These will probably, some day, be donated to the Kingdom for use as award cords, but for now they are going to be examples, and possible part of a kumihimo A&S display.
There's also the possibility that I might be teaching a class or two in kumihimo in the near future, if I can work out some technical issues. Stay tuned.
Braid 45 (8 strand, 4'7", April 2009)
In the SCA, my "badge" is described as, "Fieldless, on a hexagon Or a rabbit's head cabossed sable". That's a fancy way of saying "A black bunny's head on a gold hexagon". That's a cute way of creating a "Honey Bunny" image. It's suitably Japanese, yet it can be expressed in Western terms, so I think it should be a good SCA badge. So far it's passed the Kingdom Heralds, maybe by Pennsic I'll be able to use it without worrying.
Another tradition is for artists and craftspeople to put items on display at events so others can see what kinds of things people are doing. Sometimes, this display is part of a judged competition, but sometimes it is simply a non-competitive display. In most cases, viewers will often leave "tokens" at displays they particularly enjoy. This is just meant as a "tip o' the hat" to the artisan for a work well executed.
So these are my new tokens. I've painted black bunny heads on nine brass hexagons, and attached short lengths of braid to each. The braid is an 8-strand Edo Yatsu braid with a nice "interlocking E" pattern in black and yellow cotton. The bunny was simply stencilled onto 1 inch wide brass strip, which I then cut into hexagons and drilled for the cord.
If you're an artisan or craftsperson in the SCA, and if I leave one of these tokens at one of your displays, please consider it an invitation to hunt me out at some point and talk to me about your work.
Braid 46 (8 strand, 2'0", April 2009)
Looks like I'm going to wind up making a bunch of these, as I keep giving them away as presents.
Once again, these are eight strands of glass seed beads on Fireline, braided with the edo yatsu braiding pattern. This time I used the "Interlocking E" color pattern (XX XO OX OO), which makes it very difficult to see what the actual pattern is in this braid. I think that's kind of neat. These colors together make this braid very warm.
Braid 47 (8 strand, 3'9", April 2009)
Here's a braid I made with my heavy 3 ounce tama on one of the best of the second batch of marudai.
This braid uses eight strands of combed silk yarn, 4 blue and 4 gold. As a little stylistic flourish, I braided the cords together in a 4-strand maru yotsu braid before doubling them over, so the braid has a braided loop at the starting end. The bulk of the braid uses the yatsu rai pattern, which I think is just a special name you use for yatsu sen when it makes this "S" pattern.
It's a pity we usually associate these colors so strongly with the Cub Scouts, since they go very well together.
Braid 48 (8 strand, 1'11", April 2009)
This bead braid is braided using a "Houndstooth Check" color pattern on the edo yatsu. See what I'm saying about the great patches of color this produces? You can also really see the colors travelling back and forth through the braid.
I also figured out why the tension is a little uneven on these bead braids. The start of the braid is always very tight, but it loosens up over the course of the braid. The reason is that the beaded strands have significant weight, which shifts from the outside to the inside while the strands get shorter and the braid gets longer. I need to start changing the weights as I braid, maybe starting with 3/4 ounce weights on the strands and switching to 1 ounce weights later on.
Braid 49 (8 strand, 2'6" + 4'6", May 2009)
Used the first set of home-made tama to braid some black and white silk yarn in the hira nami "flat waves" pattern.
My main goal was to make the 30" glasses cord you see in front, but I loaded so much silk on the tama that I wound up making more than four feet of additional braid.
Braid 50 (8 strand, 4'7", May 2009)
Here's a silk braid I did in brown and dark brown, using the hira nami flat braiding pattern and my second batch of tama
Instead of using yarn of multi-stranded floss for this braid, I actually did it more traditionally by buying a spool of silk thread and creating 8 strands of warp warp from 40 threads each of two different colors. Fun, but just as expensive as buying silk needlepoint thread, which is thicker to begin with and available in more colors.
Braid 51 (8 strand, 1'11", May 2009)
I seem to have worked out most of the bugs in my bead braiding process. This braid is nearly perfect, if you ask me. It uses these great matte-finsih glass beads in black and metallic gold. Nearly everybody who sees this braid in person says , "Wow."
I used the edo yatsu round braiding pattern, like I normally do for these bead braids, with a simple "XO XO XO XO" color pattern. Instead of metal end caps, I made short loops of beaded Fireline at the ends to hold the toggle clasp.
Braid 52 (8 strand, 2'0", May 2009)
I wanted to make a bead braid that combined the colors of red wine and white wine, but when you're looking at the tubes of seed beads at the bead store, it's difficult to tell how the beads will actually look once they're strung and braided. I think I got the right color beads for the 'white wine' part of this, but the 'red wine' beads are a bit too orange/brown, so together the colors look less like a wine flight and more like a rootbeer float. It's still pretty, and I like rootbeer floats, it's just not what I was actually going for.
Back when I wasn't working, I hatched the idea of teaching kumihimo classes to earn some money. There was some interest, and a few places invited me to submit class proposals. This pointed out to me that I didn't have any paperwork, and that if I wanted to take this idea seriously I should really put some together. I was going to need some curricula, background materials, and definitely some handouts.
It didn't take me too long to put the handouts together, but something was missing from them. They really needed some pictures of exemplary braids to go along with each set of instructions. I had plenty of braids, but only a few designed to be good examples for photocopied handouts.
Luckily, I had plenty of black and white silk yarn, and a scanner. The next batch of braids was all about making good pictures for the handouts.
Braid 53 (8 strand, 3'2", May 2009)
I'm not a big fan of this tsukushi braid, but it's in Jacqui Carey's book and has a braiding pattern that is very different from most other braids, so I can see why she included it.
Plied silk yarn
Tsukushi "beauty" braid
standard pattern
K W K W K W K W
Braid 54 (8 strand, 3'8", June 2009)
None of my previous work with yatsu sen was designed to show the vertical streams with such high contrast, so even though I have plenty of this braid I had to do one more.
Plied silk yarn
Yatsu Sen "Eight Streams" Gumi
Vertical stripes pattern
K W K W K W K W
Braid 55 (4 strand, 3'3", June 2009)
The maru yotsu braid only has four strands, so I used double the amount of yarn to beef it up for the pictures. Each white "strand" is 4 strands, each black "strand" is 8. It's as wide as the 16-strand braid below!
Plied silk yarn
Maru Yotsu
Vertical stripes pattern
K W K W
Braid 56 (8 strand, 3'4", June 2009)
Again, despite much work with the braid, edo yatsu, none of them were made for photographic simplicity. I also had to match the diagrams, so again with the vertical stripes.
Plied silk yarn
Edo Yatsu
Vertical stripes pattern
KW KW KW KW
Braid 57 (16 strand, 2'11", June 2009)
The 16-strand kongou isn't more difficult than the 8-strand that most people teach, but it's capable of my greater detail, so I wanted to include it. It also gave me a chance to use all 16 of my home made tama at once.
Plied silk yarn
Kongou Gumi
Simple spiral pattern
WWWW KKKK WWWW KKKK
Braid 58 (8 strand, 6'6" or so, August 2009)
I started this braid with the intention of letting other people try out braiding, but then kind of got embroiled in it and wound up powering through to the finish. It's a flat yatsu sen braid made with red and white polyester yarn. I started with a "RR WW RR WW" pattern that should have made diagonal stripes, but at some point I let my running commentary to "students" distract me from where I was in the braiding. The strip pattern somehow got reversed! I was so intrigued by that that I decided to try and do it on purpose. I succeeded! So, I then spent the rest of the braid switching the stripes back and forth every six inches or so. This braid wound up holding one of the hanging lanterns that adorned the clan gate.
Braid 59 (8 strand, 1'9", August 2009)
One of the things that's much easier to get at Pennsic than anywhere else I normally go is leather lacing. I went to Spotted Pony Traders and bought four 72" laces made from what must be deerskin or calfskin leather since it's soft "like buttah" to make this braid. I started out doing a 4-strand braid to make the loop in the center. It was a royal pain to keep the laces from flipping around while braiding. Once I switched to the 8-strand edo yatsu to complete the braid, it became much easier to keep the laces flat while braiding, so the exterior is entirely the smooth side of the laces.
Braid 60 (8 strand, 4'3", August 2009)
I liked braiding the leather laces so much that upon finishing Braid 59 I went straight back to the merchant and bought eight more laces.
This braid also uses the edo yatsu pattern, but a different color arrangement creates the interlocking E pattern that I like. I'm not sure what this braid would be good for, but it was a fun experiment in materials. It is not a whip.
Braid 61 (11'7" plus another 6' or so, August 2009, 4 light blue, 4 white)
Started braiding this hira nami braid before Pennsic, actually, but wound up having to cut it off for travel, then restart it at Pennsic and take most of the rest of the week just finishing it. I used a "BBBB WWWW" color pattern to create chevrons to match the badges.
I also made a bunch of leather diamonds displaying the badge of our household ("One Knight Inne"), and this braid wound up getting chopped into shorter sections so we can wear these as household tokens. Our household, led by Sir Maughnus has existed for a dozen years and 13 Pennsics, which is pretty special. This years is also the 20th anniversary of Sir Maughnus' knighting, so these tokens were also a gift to him.
Braid 62 (2'2" plus 3", 4" and 8"; September 2009; 4 black, 2 red, 2 white)
I'm still looking for the best flat braid to use for lacing type purposes. Previously, I'd settled on the hira nami "flat waves" braid as a nice flat and wide braid that was easy to produce with eight bobbins. However, Sharon recently gave me a copy of Jacqui Carey's book, Creative Kumihimo, which has a flat braid type I'd never tried. Carey labels it "8G", but checking around I find that others call it the Shige Uchi "luxurious" braid.
Shige Uchi is essentially the same braid as the edo yatsu hollow braid, but instead of the threads crossing over at the top to make a round braid, they reverse direction! This "unzips" the round braid into a flat braid with a little bit of cupping to it.
As is usual for me with a new braid, I messed up a bit. First, I got a couple of threads crossed, changing the color pattern, and then later I accidentally switched back to the familiar edo yatsu pattern. I managed to unbraid all that, but just couldn't get the shige uchi running again. Instead, I switched through hira nami, yatsu sen, and hira kara patterns so that I could compare finished widths. My previous choice for wide, flat briad ahs been hira nami, but this braid is just a little bit wider. If I can just do better following the pattern…
Braid 63 (1'7", September 2009, 4 black, 2 red, 2 white)
More experimenting with the 8G Shige Uchi luxurious braid. This time, I used a "WK KK KR WR" color pattern, doubling the yarn for a wider, thicker braid. This braid is very wide and thick, and super soft from the great bamboo/silk yarn I used, but very short. A nice experiment, though, and I don't think I messed up the pattern at all.
Braid 64 (4'3", September 2009, 8 red)
Finally, we get to the heart of the matter. My experiments to find a wide and flat braid were centered around the lacing used to make Japanese armor. Not that I'm likely to make armor any time soon, but the question does come up occasionally of "what's the best braid to use for armor?" In my opinion, it's this one.
This shige uchi braid is fast to braid, and is the widest 8-strand braid I've been able to find. I did this braid all in red silk thread that I bought from a mail-order place in Japan. The thread came in a big skein like yarn does, and I measured it out on traditional-style bodai warping posts. This meant wrapping the thread back and forth between vertical rods to build up a bundle wide enough for braiding. Each strand of the braid has 40 threads in it! Yet, the completed braid is only about a quarter inch wide.
Based on the rough estimate of 100 yards of braid in a typical suit of armor, I'd need to get eight or nine more skeins of thread to make enough braid for armor. I'd also need to spend about a year braiding it since all the braids I've made in the past year of braiding add up to about 316 feet of braid. Like I said, not very likely to be done soon.
Braid 65 (4'3", September 2009, 4 red, 4 white)
Since I had such good luck with that Shige Uchi braid I found in Jacqui Carey's book, Creative Kumihimo, I decided to go digging through it for a new braid to try with no ulterior motive. This braid is 8N, and the best name I can find for it is Yatsu Nishiki.
The drawings in the book make this braid look more like a chain of interlocking links, but really its'not very chain like. I used a "WW RR WW RR" color pattern hoping to get a red and white chain out of it. I got a nice looking braid, but it doesn't look like a chain to me.
This braid is one of the most labor intensive I've ever done. It's an eight strand braid, but it has eight moves in the pattern, instead of the more common four moves. Nevertheless, it's a fast braid to make. I made this whole braid in the down time of a single day-long SCA event.
Braid 66 (1'11", September 2009, 4 black, 4 gold)
It's been a while since I've done one of these bead braids, but I still had two full sets of beads left over in my box of beading supplies. The last beaded necklace I did in black and gold came out so well, that I decided to do a new one, but this time in glossy translucent beads instead of matte opaque beads. I used the same "houndstooth check" color pattern of "BG GG GB BB" with the edo yatsu braiding patterm that I used for this other braid to create those large areas of solid color.
The tension on this braid seemed really strange, but maybe it was just that I was out of practice in this type of braiding. I'm happy with the way the braid came out and will probably wind up giving this one as a gift.
Braid 67 (3'5", September 2009, 8 blue, 8 white)
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.
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.
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