A reader of this blog has come up with the first interactive braid-pattern generator for a fingerloop braid that I’ve ever heard of! A few months ago Gary Mitchell contacted me to tell me that he was working on a pattern planner for the 7-loop Spanish braid.
Various patterns, spanish braid
This was a huge surprise! I didn’t even think many braiders had even tried the tutorial I had posted for this braid. I learned this 17th C. loop braid from a recent monograph by Joy Boutrup,*1 and last year I posted a video-tutorial on it. It is a really fun braid, flatter and more intricate than the 7-loop square braid, but requiring no more loops (or fingers) to braid it. Continue reading →
Over 6 months ago Douglas Grant sent me instructions for a braid he had come up with. I meant to try it right away, but somehow it’s taken me this long to get around to it. I’m glad I finally did! [This post includes 2 alternative (text-only) sets of instructions for making this braid.]
Spiaggian Eagle braid, designed by Douglas Grant
It’s an unusual variation of a 7-loop spanish braid, with an extra twist (literally) that causes the braid’s shape to end up firmly rounded rather than rectangular in cross-section. I wish this showed better in the photos. In some color patterns, the braid looks square rather than round.
Same braid structure; different colors—5 bicolor + 2 single-color loops (doubled embroidery floss and rayon thread)
The loop braiding tutorials I’m gradually putting up on this blog are mostly for braids, or methods, that aren’t taught anywhere else. These include very basic beginning level tutorials, and range up to some that might seem ridiculously difficult before you’ve “worked up” to them. (Check out my tutorials page.) But there are a lot more great loop braids to learn than just the ones on my blog.
Gudrun Polak is an awe-inspiring and very inventive weaver, of both loom and card-weavings. Her weaving website is called The Loomy Bin. It’s a great resource— it has animated pattern-planning weaving programs as well as pattern libraries (for both card- and loom weaving). She’s also the mainstay of the braiding study group in the weaving guild I belong to—the Santa Cruz Handweavers Guild.
Here’s a loop-braided necklace that Gudrun made recently, using 5 bicolor loops in various patterns:
Necklace and pendant, 5-loop square braid, bicolor patterns, cotton embroidery floss. Made by Gudrun Polak. (very interesting closure!—see below)
I can’t believe how long it’s been since I posted. I’ve been really busy the last three months, and somehow this blog got left behind. Meanwhile I’ve accumulated two readers’ gallery posts-worth of beautiful braid pictures and now, finally, a whole luxurious free Sunday to start posting them. Thank you to everyone who contributed pictures—both for your generosity and your patience!
Ricky was one of the first readers who tried out any of my tutorials, before I even had videos for them. He made some great original interpretations of the braid patterns in my bicolor loop magic tutorial, and came up with other patterns as well. I love his happy colors, and also the way he photographed his braids—with that lush greenery setting them off:
Tomorrow, Wed the 18th, I will be supporting the (U.S.) internet blackout in protest of the two U.S. internet censorship bills SOPA and PIPA. So my site will essentially have a big protest sign draped over it for a day (this will be until midnight EST, I decided to follow the timeline Wikipedia is using for its blackout protest). That sign will be clickable to find out more about the problems with these bills and to send an email to your legislator about them. Wikipedia has a great synopsis of the problems with these bills.
I also want to announce that I’ve posted a much better video for my tutorial on the Spanish braid that is the “root” braid of the doubled, 14-loop letterbraid. My previous videos on it were embarrassingly blurry, so I am really happy to have a better one in place! Maybe it’ll encourage more braiders to try this braid, it is a VERY fun braid, with a lot of possible pattern and shape variations. Continue reading →
I’ve finally made a video demoing a fingerloop braid of 7 loops, showing the divided, square, and flat variations, plus how to unbraid back a few cycles to fix a mistake. Learn the 5-loop square and flat braids in my “Start Here” tutorial first. Once you’ve braided a few of those you’ll be ready to try this 7-loop version. In this video there is less slo-mo for practicing along with, as I was trying to squeeze all the variations into one video.
7-loop braids:
On one hand all 4 fingers hold a loop, and on the other hand index, middle, and ring fingers hold a loop. With 7 loops, the bare little finger is the “operator,” instead of the ring finger. The little finger will go through three loops on the other hand to take the index-loop, instead of through two loops as in the 5-loop braid. The sequence is exactly the same—take the loop, shift, tighten, repeat on the other side…
[I show how to unbraid toward the end of this video. If you want to skip to that part, slide the little bubble under the video up to 23:50 on the timeline.]
Don’t be discouraged if the loop-shifting suddenly seems harder with 7 loops than it did with 5. The ring and little fingers have to learn how to detach from each others’ movements during the loop shifting move—it can sometimes take a couple of braids before they figure this out. It really will happen! And very quickly… One to three practice braids at the most should do it. Continue reading →
I’ll be teaching a 2-day loop braiding workshop the last weekend of January, and there is room for a few more participants. It’ll be in the San Francisco bay area (Redwood City), email me if you are interested, and I’ll send you more info about it.
UPDATE: The workshop is full now. There’s been enough interest that there is a possibility of a repeat workshop in the near future. Let me know if you are interested (S.F. bay area)
Here’s a rather slap-dash post to announce two things—1 is that I recently made a couple of video tutorials on kute-uchi braiding (a Japanese hand-held loop braiding technique). I really wanted to finish up a Readers’ Gallery post and get that posted first, but it just ain’t done yet! Whereas these videos got dashed out in a hurry in answer to a video request, and they ARE done.
The other thing is my (tentative) new blog format—more about that below. Any feedback on this change is welcome—I am not wedded to this format, but certain things about it do seem better than the old one…
Here are the 2 new videos, each demoing one basic Kute-uchi move:
(these were video requests from Petr in the Czech Repuplic! He is very interested in both Kute-uchi and Kumihimo braiding—has now acquired plans for a marudai and is building it himself.)
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Thanks for visiting!
5- and 7-loop square and flat braids are great-looking and easy to learn… For an even easier intro to loop-braiding, click on the links to my videos for 3-loop braids…(Click title to see whole post)
Loop braiding is a way of making cords and bands, using only your hands and some yarn or string…
I’m hoping to promote and teach loop braiding in this blog, as well as meet other braiders and textile craftspeople, and share pictures, ideas, and inspiration. Please comment under any of the posts! Or send me an email–click Contact at top of page. I would love to hear about what you are making! (Click title to see whole post)
