Pick-up patterns are made by using bicolor loops to braid a 2-layer braid, the top layer in one color and the lower layer in another. The patterns are created
“stitch-by-stitch” by dropping a thread of the upper color down to the lower layer, while simultaneously picking up the equivalent thread of the opposite color from the lower layer, so the two colors switch positions. This is done by turning a bicolor loop over so its upper and lower shanks switch sides. Both surfaces of the braid will exhibit a color change at that point. The upper and lower surfaces of the braid will have the same pattern but in opposite colors. The term “pick-up” usually implies (but isn’t limited to) selectively turning or not turning loops, rather than turning them ‘automatically’ with the same order in each row of work.
Gary Mitchell’s new pick-up planner for Doug’s Braid allows you to design and braid new and surprising patterns for it – patterns that might require different moves in successive rows of braiding.
1. Loop set-ups for several great color-patterns for 5 to 7-loop flat braids! (no ‘pick-up’ required)
2. How to switch between different bicolor patterns in a flat braid (using pick-up)
3. Some “real” pick-up patterns for flat braids
Mixing it up with several easy bicolor patterns within one 6-loop square braid. Charts, tips, tricks, and cautionary notes (how much is too much?) – plus video
Pick-up patterns are ones that may require different braiding moves from one row of braiding to the next. The 17th C. loop braided ‘letter braids‘ were made this way. But pick-up patterning can be done in any two-layer braid – even a square braid!
Dominic will be teaching knotting at Braids 2016! His 2-day class is called Cylindrical Braids, which refers to nautical-type knotted ‘braids’ that can be formed around solid objects—like handles of tools, etc.
The first photos I’ve received back since sending my Nun’s Book letterbraid tutorial out into the braiding ether! —Of knots as well as letters…
I’m already very excited about the upcoming international Braids conference: Braids 2016. The loop braiding workshop I’ll be teaching there is on braiding and planning designs and motifs—like the so-called ‘letter braids,’ but with a braid that is much easier to make…
Video-based tutorial on my workaround method for braiding the 17th Century Nun’s Book letterbraid of 10 loops as a solo braider. I learned the traditional method from Noémi Speiser and Joy Boutrup’s Instructions for Letter Braids in 17th Century Manuscripts. Includes printable charts for my versions of the letters J, V, and Q…
I promised a long time ago to make a tutorial for one of the two known 10-loop letterbraids…
This is a ‘what I’ve been braiding lately’ post. It’s a letterbraid variation that I came up with last summer on a camping trip—an eighteen-loop version of the 17th Century letterbraid of fourteen loops. (Click on photos for more detail)…
Bicolor loops are loops made out of two colors, tied or linked together. They can create very different braid patterns than the patterns you can get from single-color loops. Tutorial and tips for using bicolor loops, including 3 basic bicolor pattern variations that can be made with 5 or more loops, and how to switch between patterns within one braid…
Ok, I finished the last bit, and decided to take a couple more pics after washing it and before sending it off. After shrinking less than an inch, it’s 46 inches total–40 inches to the point where it splits into 2 separate parts for the first half of the “tail.” A little over 1/2 inch…
I’m almost finished madly braiding a letterbraid to send in to the Braid Society’s Traveling Exhibition*—still fiddling with the braidlets at the end. The orange is DMC cotton embroidery floss, doubled, so 12-strand, and the light green is an unknown brand of silk knitting yarn of similar weight (sport? or maybe thinner). The braid is…
Loop Braiding 