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Braids 2012

19 Sep

It’s been weeks since the conference and I still keep having dreams about interlaced strands…

While the classes were the official focus of the conference, a lot of the enjoyment was also the fun and excitement of being around so many other people as interested in obscure textile techniques as myself, sharing some of these, seeing braid exhibits, chatting, (eating!), and exploring Manchester and the nearby city of Macclesfield. There were people from all over the world—a few familiar faces, a few whom I’d only known “virtually” before the conference, most whom I had never met before.

Braids 2012, exploring Manchester

John Whitley (Seattle,USA), Dominic Taylor (UK), Tulvi Turo (Estonia), Joy Boutrup (Denmark)

And there were several participants who had come specifically for the two loop braiding workshops. To me this was completely amazing and wonderful! Continue reading →

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Tutorial: 11-loop braids

1 Jun

[Notes on color patterns, unbraiding to fix mistakes, techniques for carrying multiple loops, structure, Unorthodox braids of 11 loops, etc  follow the written instructions.]

11-loop square braids: Learn 11-loop braids only after the moves for 9-loop braids are automatic, meaning you can talk, or look up occasionally, while still braiding. There is no new finger to train with 11-loop braids, but there is a new step to remember in the loop-shifting. Your fingers need to have a lot of automatic control over the loops so you can manage them easily while thinking about the new step and keeping track of two loops on the d-finger. The following 2 videos are at slo-mo practice speed, but they do assume that you already know how to braid using my “thumb” method for 9 loop braids.

Below is part 2—I had to break my initial video into 2 parts because it went over the youtube maximum of 15 minutes. Both have useful tips for learning this braid: Continue reading →

Tutorial: 9-loop braids

31 May

Before learning 9-loop square braids, learn the braids in my 5-loop square braid tutorial, and then the 7-loop square braid, and braid a few of those before following this 9-loop tutorial.
Notes on historical references, so-called ‘unorthodox’ variations, how I learned 9-loop braids, etc, follow the photo-tutorial.

9-loop video, part 1 of 2
(these 2 videos assume that you already know how to braid with 7 loops, so they are not at slo-mo practice speed, except for the parts that demonstrate how to use your thumb in braiding.)

The video below shows the divided and flat variations of the 9-loop braid: Continue reading →

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Bicolor loop magic (tutorial)

17 Mar

Departed loops, two-color loops, bicolor loops—in fingerloop braiding, all these just mean loops made out of two colors, tied or linked together. Bicolor loops produce very different braid patterns than the patterns you can get from single-color loops.

With bicolor loops you can also make really dramatic pattern-changes in your braid. And not just in these mega-loop braids that I’ve been posting about lately. Here’s another one, though:  (click twice on any photo to see the braid structure)

Finger loop braiding: 2-person braid made by a solo braider.

Another bicolor 14-loop Spanish sampler, dmc embr. floss

I promise I won’t post any more Spanish bicolor samplers!

Before I leave them though, I’m posting this booster/ plug and a tutorial for  bicolor loops.   Bicolor loops add so many patterning possibilities to any kind of loop braid, which is why they have been used worldwide in connection with both fingerloop and hand-held loop braiding. In the old English braiding manuscripts they were called departed bowes, or boes—a bow being a loop.

fingerloop braids made with bicolor loops, departed bows, bowes

bicolor loop braids–cotton, wool, linen (click for more detail)

Continue reading →

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