Color Set-ups for the Square and Flat braids in my post on Color-Pattern Planning:

5-loop braids:
(braiding method here)

Here are the color setups for the braids above:

Fingers: A = index, B = middle, C = ring

The three pink and black braids:
Left to right – square braid, flat braid, 3/4-flat braid (overly-tightened flat braid).
5 loops—1 gray, 1 white, 1 black, and 2 pink.
Left hand: A pink, B pink, C gray
Right: A white, B black.

The two yellow and blue braids:
Left to right – square braid, flat braid
5 loops, all bicolor yellow/blue
Left A, B, C yellow shanks all uppermost
Right A, B blue shanks all uppermost

The three orange, white, black braids:
Left to right – square braid, flat braid, 3/4-flat braid (overly-tightened flat braid).
1 black loop; 4 bicolor orange/white loops)
Left A and B: orange up and white down; C black
Right A, B: white up and orange down

For the exact pattern of the two flat orange/black/white braids (“Kaitlyn’s Pattern”):
You must do the single turned transfer on the left hand loops, the way I teach flat braids in my 5-loop tutorial. If you did the single turned transfer on the right hand’s loops instead, you would still get a flat braid, but the color pattern would turn out a bit different with the loop set-up above. (This is because of the bicolor loops; turning on the left vs. the right wouldn’t change the pattern if each loop were a single color.)

[Click link to return to main post on Color-Pattern Planning]

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7-loop Braids:
(braiding method here)

A few of these braids have all single-color loops, but most have a mix of bicolor and single-color loops.

Color setup for the braids above:

Fingers: A = index, B = middle, C = ring, D = little finger

The pink-grey-blue square braid at center-left has blue chevrons from 3 single-color loops (blue, light blue, blue). Its other 4 loops are each bicolor (pink + gray).

Left: A,B,C,D all bicolor (pink shanks up and gray shanks down).
Right: A blue, B light blue, C blue
Square braid—all transfers turned.
[note: my Bracelet with Chevrons tutorial also teaches this pattern.]

White, blue, and brown square braid to its left is another one of my favorite square braid color patterns. This color-pattern requires 8 loops, which means using the thumb of one hand to hold a loop, as in 9-loop braids. (Check that tutorial for correct way to shift loops to the thumb, and how to tell which is the “upper” shank of a thumb loop. Shown in photos as well as in the video.)

4 white loops, 2 blue loops, 2 brown loops
Left: A and B white; C and D blue
Right: A and B white; C and D brown
Square braid. First move is to shift Right loops up one position – to Thumb, A, B, C so right D finger can be the operator for the first transfer.

Here’s a close version of that white, blue, brown braid but with only 7 loops (no thumbs):
3 white loops, 2 blue loops, 2 brown loops
Left: A and B white; C and D blue
Right: A white; B and C brown

Orange, black, and white flat braid at center-right (“Kaitlyn’s pattern“): 7 loops
1 black loop, 6 bicolor orange/white loops
Left: A black.
All other loops, both hands: bicolor with the same color up.
Flat braid—only the loops on the LEFT hand are transferred with a turn (or the pattern will not be as shown)

On the right side of the photo, the first braid has same pattern with different colors: red instead of black and brown instead of orange. (Not a good shot of this braid, hard to see the pattern)
1 red loop, 6 brown/white bicolor loops

The blurry black, white, and gold square braid towards the left side is another ‘chevrons over bicolor stripes’ pattern of 7 loops.
2 gold loops, 5 bicolor black/white loops.
Left A, B gold; C, D bicolor (black up)
Right A,B,C bicolor (white up)
square braid, all transfers turned

To its right is a version with only one single-color loop:
1 red loop, 6 bicolor white/light brown loops
Red loop can be on any finger.
Left hand: bicolor loops white up/ brown down
Right hand: bicolor loops brown up/ white down
Oops! I was wrong about this braid, sorry! I assumed it was one of the 7-loop braids, but it’s actually an 11-loop square braid of fine linen, with 2 consecutive red loops, not one. However the setup above that I crossed out does produce a nice braid with a similar look.

Here’s the correct set-up for the 11-loop braid:
2 red loops, 9 bicolor white/light brown loops
Left: Thumb and A red. B, C, D-low, D-high all bicolor (white up)
Right: Thumb, A, B, C, D all bicolor (brown up)

2nd braid from right is a flat 7-loop braid.
1 black, 2 purple, 2 dark blue, 1 light blue, 1 off-white loop.
Left: A black, B,C purple, D dark blue
Right: A dark blue, B light blue, C off-white

3rd braid from right is flat, with color-linking to keep the purple and gray colors in separate columns:
5 bicolor purple/gray loops, 2 orange loops.
Left: A,B orange C,D bicolor (purple up)
Right: three bicolor loops (purple up)
Flat braid, but each time a loop is to be turned, turn it twice, ie give the loop a 360º turn instead of a 180º turn. With this double turn, the purple shanks should always be in the upper position on fingers. (for a contrasting zig-zag section, turn loops the normal way, a 180º turn, for several cycles).

[update: my recent tutorial on square braid pick-up patterning has a video showing two ways to do that double turn – last video, bottom of page. The first part of the video is on something else – skip to 3 min,31 sec to see ‘turning twice’.]

4th braid from right (pink and grey “M”-shaped zigzags) is an 8-loop flat braid that was called Lace Dawns, or Daunce in the 15th C. loop braiding manuscripts. Link goes to my tutorial for this braid. Requires using the thumb of one of the two hands.
(The classic method doesn’t require using thumbs, instead it requires making several extra moves. See other loop braiding sites for those directions.)

[Click link to return to main post on Color-Pattern Planning]

More square braid color-pattern set-ups are in these posts: More square braid color set-ups, and Rock Your Square Braid. Plus, all the set-ups for Triangle Braids make great square braid patterns as well.
More flat braid color-patterns: The Power of Six, and Flat Braid Pick-up, as well as Color-linking in flat braids (color-linking requires extra braiding moves). Double braids can also be made flat (or thick) – they are twice as wide as ‘square-type’ flat braids and have different color patterns.

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originally published Aug/9/2011, last updated May/15/2018

© 2011–2018 Ingrid Crickmore

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