posts that include photos or ideas sent in by readers of this blog
Update: Now with videos!!!! This Kute-Uchi site now has videos and tips on how to organize and handle hand-held loops in making traditional Japanese braids, including how to deal with large numbers of loops!
Fumiyo Kitahara’s Kumihimo with Loops (in Japanese and English).
“How I spent my summer vacation” and some braiding ideas from camp!
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…
Thanks Chris, Caroline, Dan, Terry, Traci, Colleen, Faustine for sending me your braid photos!
Requests from readers, my answers and updates, also a note on European loop braiding history.
Thank you everybody who clicked in on my sidebar poll! There’s been a lot more response than I expected…
The class I taught at Braids 2012 was two days on how to make double braids as a solo fingerloop braider. I also learned a lot from my students, including that one of them had learned how to braid 9-loop braids using thumbs as well as fingers in China during the mid 1900’s! This is totally new information for the history of loop braiding!
Here’s a video to go with my tutorial—a few posts ago—for Douglas Grant’s Round Spanish Braid of 7 loops. I love this braid! The video also demos a new color pattern for the braid…
This video shows how to follow one of the charts you might come up with in using Gary Mitchell’s interactive pattern-generator for the 7-loop “Spanish” finger loop braid. It also demos a slightly different way to turn the loops, which gives the braid a more evenly rectangular cross-section…
A reader of this blog has come up with what may be the first interactive fingerloop braid pattern-planner! 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. This was a huge surprise! (Especially since at that point the tutorial hadn’t even garnered many views.)
This braid is an unusual variation of a 7-loop spanish braid, with intricate color-patterns and a shape that is firmly rounded rather than rectangular in cross-section. Invented or discovered by Douglas Grant, a reader of this blog, who allowed me to share it here. (Thanks, Doug!) [A more recent post has the video for this braid, but this post has photos + instructions for several different color patterns.]
Thanks, Gudrun, Julie, and Annie!
Thanks, Ricky, Sawyer, Ramona, Patty, Dominic and “Aunt” Janet!
How to set up the loops on your fingers to get the color order you want in your square, flat, Spanish, or double braid. Also, many square and flat braid color-patterns with setup instructions (and some flat double braid patterns contributed by Dan Gaiser). Part 2: hints and ideas on how to choose effective color combinations for your braids.
Update: Dominic Taylor 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.
Here are photos sent in by a reader, Dominic, of some of his “bicolor loop magic” braids. Beautiful braids, and the knotting he’s done with them (and other cords) is fantastic!
Loop Braiding 