Leap Day Fingerloop Braids

A few more fingerloop photos...  Dunno if this is it for me for today or if I'll add to this post later (or put up another one tomorrow).

First is the sampler I did from 5 different colors of yarn (no bi-colors, though), that I mentioned yesterday.  It's a bit hard to see, but I'll try to describe what I did.

Upper left -- this is the section where I treated each loop as its own unit, never pulling a loop through other loops.  It's not really the same as a 5-strand pigtail, I don't think.  It's flat, very similar-looking on both sides.  The freehand 5-strand pigtail braid I do tends to look more square.  So that's something for me to think about the next time I do freehand 5-strand pigtail braids.  This one looks a lot like the braid I did with 3 loops when I did the same thing (i.e. the operator finger goes through 0 loops), except of course it's 5 loops instead of 3.

Then I did an inch or two of an A-fell square braid, with my index finger going through both loops on the same hand before picking up the loop on the ring finger of the other hand (through the bottom, to reverse it).

Then it was a small stretch of the D-shaped braid, A-fell, where my index finger goes through the middle finger loop and skips over the ring finger loop before picking up the ring finger loop on the other hand (reversing it).  The part that shows in this photo is the flat side.  The other side is flattish but not flat.  It doesn't look quite like the square braid, but it has 2 Vs instead of the basketweave-like interlacing.  I think this is what the old Medieval European sources call "a broad lace of v bows".  Jean Leader calls it a "square 5 loop braid with some loops missed".  Ingrid Crickmore calls it a "D-shaped braid".

On the bottom towards the left (after some less successful experiments) is a section of the square braid done as a flat braid, where one hand takes the loops reversed and the other takes them unreversed.  I like this one a lot.  Next time I do it, though, I'll try to tighten up the braid a bit better since it's lovely but a bit on the loose side.

I haven't tried the flat-braid method (i.e. one side reversed and one side not) with the D-shaped braiding technique.  Maybe next time.  And if so, I should see if A-fell looks different from V-fell.

This next one is the same as the 4-loop one I showed yesterday (Makusua Maize Blossoms, done by the Guajiro Indians of Columbia, from L-M BRIC 10), except with two colors.  I tried the two color patterns that were suggested -- Vertical Strips and Helical Stripes.  Although it's not easy to see, I also tried taking loops reversed vs non-reversed.  Reversed vs non-reversed made almost no difference, similar to how it makes almost no difference when one does a 4-loop spiral braid where the loops exchange through each other.

This photo is of the other 4-loop fingerlooped braid presented in L-M BRIC 10 from the Guajiro Indians of Columbia.  It is called Wayanatouya, which apparently means "a small piece of flat board", though the text then tells us that "we don't know the meaning of this name".

Masako Kinoshita writes, "This is a combination of two 4-element 2-ridge flat braids."  She also writes, "This is a rare kind of braid that has two identical faces of 3 ridges with a S/Z/S-pattern. "

The top photo is monocolor, of course.  The second one is done with two loops of each color, one in the "diagonal stripes" variation and the other in the "fish bones" variation.

This feels a lot like doing cat's cradle or another string figure!  There are some moves where you're using your fingers to transfer loops from one finger to another on the same hand, much easier if it's assisted by fingers from the other hand.

The braid has a spiral to it, also.  It's possible I was doing it wrong or that there are several ways to do it, some of which give a spiral and some which don't.  Or that it's more pronounced in the worsted-weight acrylic I was using.  Clearly more experiments will be necessary should I feel so inclined.

And so ends Fingerloop February 2024...  It'll be interesting to see what I am inspired to do in March.

More February Fingerloop Braids

 I keep forgetting to record and write down what I've been playing with lately.  I have been busy with non-narrow-ware things, too, of course.

Here are a few of the recent braids.

This one is a plain 5-loop square braid (apparently this is "a round lace of five bows" in the Medieval European sources).  I made it from something finer than #10 cotton, dunno if it was #20 or #30 or what.  Wow, so fine!  It took a lot longer than I expected based on how long the #10 takes.  I was surprised at the thinness and gauge of the braid.

This next one is a new-to-me braid made from the instructions on this page: https://loopbraider.com/2017/08/07/uo-triangle-5-7-9tut/   I did the 5-loop variation because I'm doing 5-loop braids at the moment, mostly.

Except that Ingrid Crickmore sez that this is merely the V-fell version of the common D-shaped A-fell 5-loop braid.  Hmm.  It's like the square braid except that the operator finger only goes through 1 loop instead of 2 loops before picking up the traveling loop.

Dunno if she's right that it's the same structure or not.  I'll have to redo this one in several colors of yarn and then do the A-fell version to see what I think.  She discusses it (I'm not sure how accurately, but I don't have enough experience yet to assess it) here: https://loopbraider.com/uo-vfell-afell-mystery/

Since I've been thinking about different patterns of picking up, skipping, swapping, going through, reversing, etc., various loops in these braids, this inspires me to keep on experimenting.

This maybe does look a little bit different from the one I did with the A-fell method.  It's still flat on one side and rounded on the other, but the flat side looks a bit different and more compact.  Maybe.  I need to make this again both A-fell and V-fell and try a few other things to see what differences there are, if any.

This last one in today's post is from L-M BRIC News Illustrated Instruction Series No. 10.  It is a braid that is done by the Guajiro Indians from Colombia, as described by Marta R. Zapata.  This braid is called Makusua, meaning maize blossoms.  It has 4 loops, with each loop acting as a single element. Masaka Kinoshita writes this about it: "You may see this recipe as an application to the 1-m technique of the free-end method of making a 4-element round braid commonly seen the world over, that is, exchanging a pair of diagonally positioned elements one pair after the other."

It took me a little while to catch the rhythm of it, but it definitely sped up and got more consistent as I kept going.

There are two pairs of loops.  Each pair swaps with itself but not with the loops in the other pair.  It is not like the spiral braid because the loops do not go through each other.

I forgot to take a photo, but several days ago I also did a 5-loop braid with various methods (I changed every few inches).

If one never goes through any loops, then one gets something that looks like a 5-strand pigtail braid.  I did the D-shaped braid that is supposedly the most common one in the world (one goes through one loop before picking up the loop next to it).  I tried a few contortions to try some under-over-through variations, without too much success.  And I did the flat 5-loop square braid (go through 2 loops, pick up a reversed loop with one hand and unreversed with the other).  I quite like the flat braid.  Hmm, I didn't try the flat braid with only going through 1 loop.  Maybe that will be another experiment.

I should play around with planned color patterns at some point. I also want to look at the other 4-loop patterns in Noemi Speiser's Manual of Braiding.

I really need to start labeling my little experiments so I can remember which is which.  The pile is growing.

The class I taught went well.  I'll probably do another sometime in March -- the one I've already done on the 7-strand fill-the-gap disc braid.

More quick fingerloop braids (3 and 5 loop)

I haven't had much time, but here are a few more braids I've fingerlooped in the past several days.

Three-strand braid of acrylic, bicolor loops.  (Color A on upper loops of La and Lb, Color B on bottom loops of La and Lb, Color A (both loops) on Rb, A-fell method).  I wanted something relatively subtle, which this is.

The same in #10 cotton (and different colors, of course).  I did a pair of these, suitable for drawstrings on a bag.  They too are subtle, with two colors that are similar in value, one of which has a mylar ply to give it a bit of sparkle.

The above were all done with the common method of the operator finger going through one loop and then picking up (while reversing) the next loop.  In particular, since I used A-fell, the index finger went through the middle finger on the same hand and picked up the bottom of the middle-finger loop of the other hand.  Walk down the index finger loop to the empty middle finger and repeat with the other hand.

Five-loop square braid in cotton, 3 colors (Color A on La and Lb, Color B on Lc, and Color C on Rb and Rc, A-fell method).  I tried a different pattern with bicolor loops but apparently I charted it out wrong.  So I retied my loops and went for this simpler pattern.  Again, I did a pair of these braids, mostly because I cut too many loops for the 3-loop braid, oops, so cut a few more and made another set of cords in a different pattern.

For this braid, also quite common, the index finger goes through the middle finger loop and then the ring finger loop of the same hand, then picks up the ring-finger loop of the other hand (from the bottom, to twist it).  Walk down the index and middle fingers to the empty ring/middle fingers and repeat with the other hand.

I'm pleased that my tension is fairly consistent along the entire length of the braid, and that the two braids are closely matched.  Ditto for the other braids, but with this color pattern in the 5-loop braid, it's very visible.

I'm teaching a class this weekend on the 2-loop chain sinnet aka finger-crochet aka zipper sinnet.  This photo shows what the resulting cord/sinnet looks like when done with 2 different colors or only 1 color, done in fairly thick cotton so the details are relatively easy to see.  I started one with a knot and one with just looping, just to see how fiddly it would be.  I'm going to start people off with a knot unless they're doing the fold-in-half method.  They can always unknot it later.

I looked through the books on my shelf to see where I could find this described.  After just a few minutes, I found it in a knitting book, ABOK, a decorative knots book, a book on tassels, a book on decorating with ribbons, and a book on weaving-associated techniques.  And that doesn't include the internet, where it is most easily found under the term "zipper sinnet" or "zipper sennit" and usually shows it as a paracord braiding technique.  I have no idea how old this is.  My guess is pretty old just because it's so easy to play around and invent this little structure.  19th century, for sure, given that it's in ABOK.  But beyond that?  I'll keep my eyes open when I cruise around for old pics and reports on historic cordage and knots.

Sinnet and sennit are both accepted spellings.  The word can be dated to at least the early 17th century.  It seems to mean something like braid, so it might well be a more general reference rather than a reference to this crochet-like looping techniques.  Straw plaiting often shows up in my searches in addition to discourses on rope-management techniques (i.e. shortening a rope so that it behaves better in storage and transport).

Drive-by fingerloop pics (4-loop loop-exchange spiral and 5-loop square)

This first one was done the same day as the last post's braids, but I forgot to take a pic and post it.  It's a 4-loop spiral braid, each loop a different color.  About half the braid has the loops exchanged without reversing and about half exchange with reversing.  The index-finger loop always went on the outside.

There's not much difference between the two.  I might try it with bicolor loops to see the structure difference a bit better.

This next one is a set of two braids that are meant to be a set.  They are the same length, same threads, same braiding pattern.  I will trim the ends to match after blocking, just in case they end up slightly different lengths after that.

It's the 5-loop fingerlooped square braid, A-fell method.  I used vintage big-box store crochet cotton (the same stuff I've been using lately for inkle and tablet woven bands), 4 loops of yellow and 1 loop of yellow with a shiny mylar/glitter ply, for a bit of bling.  I started with a bit more than a yard for each loop (before folding it in half) -- there's some take-up with the braiding, but I haven't measured how much yet.

It's good enough to pass on to the recipient, which is the intent.

I want to do a few 5-loop braid variations soon.  I've done the square braid, going through 2 loops before picking up the traveling/running loop.  I've done the D-shaped braid, going through 1 loop before picking up the traveling/running loop.  What about 0 or 3 or (if not too fiddly) all 4?  Or different loops?  Or skipping some loops, either over or under?

But I might do a few more quick braids for various other recipients first.  Maybe I'll play with color patterns on some of these 3, 4, and 5-loop braids.  Or I'll check out the other 4-loop braids I was yammering about a few days ago.

(also, both inkle and tablet weaving project ideas are whispering to me)

5-loop fingerloop braids and a 3-loop flat fingerlooped braid

Today's little experiments, in between other projects.

First, the 3-loop flat fingerloop braid, done by alternating reversed and non-reversed loop-taking.  It is cute, yes.

I had initially tried to do a 6-loop spiral braid to see if it would make the pattern of the Hedeby apron plait.  But it did not.  So I unraveled it and did the flat braid for the sake of completeness and also to see how it compared to the structure of the Hedeby apron plait.  It is not the same.

The Hedeby apron plait looks like it ought to finger-loop, maybe.  I am pretty sure it can easily be done on a disk, too.  Maybe it is the same as the 6-loop spiral, or it's a 6-strand kongo-gumi style of braid, done loosely or with specific loop-tightening to keep it flat rather than round/square.  Or maybe not, since the crossing threads aren't opposite each other.  Hmmm.  I'll probably jump to free-end braiding at some point, and then this plait will be on my list of things to do, along with seeing how it would work on a disk or marudai.  I don't know if it's good or bad or "just is" that I'm willing to speculate so cluelessly about stuff.  I don't yet have an intuitive understanding of thread path and braid structure and the equivalent braids done with different braiding techniques.

I've already done the split/divided braids, nothing novel there, so that's unlikely to be the special focus of a post.

When I had a bit more time, I did a few basic 5-loop braids.

The dusty rose band is done using the A-fell method, following the instructions from Jean Leader's class notes from the Braids and Bands class she did in 2021.  It can also be found here.  The yellow braid is done using the V-fell method from Ingrid Crickmore, here.  They look pretty much the same, at least in monochrome yarn.  That is reassuring.  Using the ring finger as the operator finger is a bit more fiddly for me than using the index finger.  Both of these are described as "square braids" and that indeed is what their shape pretty much is.

The green braid is from here and can also be found in the archived list of braids from silkewerk.com.  It is known from historic sources and seems to be the first one discussed in the fingerloop.org and silkewerk.com sites.  It is a broad lace of 5 bows (spelled somewhat more randomly in the original sources), which, as it turns out, is not at all the same thing as the square braid.  It is a flat-looking braid on one side and a round/curved braid on the other.  The only difference from the square braids is how many loops (and which loops) the operator finger goes through before picking up (and reversing) the running loop.

I'm not sure why I thought they might turn out the same, but it was probably something about how it was the first braid described in the above websites and how it's claimed to be easy and very common.  Poking around the loopbraider.com website, I see that it is described elsewhere on her site as a "broad lace" and a widely-found example of an unorthodox braid.  (which means that some but not all loops are gone through, in Speiser's usage).  It is indeed kind of D-shaped.  Crickmore says that "The most common loop braid worldwide is a 5-loop unorthodox braid. It is even easier to make than a 5-loop square braid, because you only have to insert the working finger through one loop, rather than two."  Yup.  Well, playing around with different over/under/through patterns was already on my list of things to do.

Dunno what the next round of fun will be.  More of this?  Something else?  Both/neither?

Thoughts about fingerlooping a 4-loop spiral braid

 Still thinking about fingerloop variations...

In Jean Leader's class notes, she talks about the difference between A-fell and V-fell.  She says that A-fell uses the index finger as the operator loop.  The index finger goes through loops on the same hand, then fetches the closest loop from the other hand.  She says this is the method described in the European Medieval pattern books and is also found in the Middle East and Africa.  With V-fell, known in Asia and the Pacific, the littlest finger (ring or pinky depending on how many loops there are, usually) is the operator finger.  It goes through loops on the other hand and brings back the loop that is farthest away (often the index finger or sometimes the thumb, I believe).

When I was playing around yesterday, I found that I could mix them a bit.  Whether the operator finger was the index finger or a smaller finger, I could go through loops on either hand and pick the loop I wanted, as long as I cycled through all the threads in a predictable way.  That may be true only for these 3-loop braids, but I will see what I think as I play around more.  Also, I'm not sure what method or methods are found in the western hemisphere or sub-Saharan Africa, and if those methods were developed independently or picked up and disseminated through contact with other people doing fingerlooping.  Oh, wait, Masako Kinoshita says in LM-BRIC News Illustrated Instruction Series #1 that the A-fell method is used in Central and South America.  Though I think she mentioned some other methods used in the western hemisphere in one of her later newsletters.

I suppose Slentre is an example of a mixed method -- using the index finger as the operator, going through the loops on the other hand, and then picking up one of the farther-away loops to bring back.  This is found in some north Atlantic communities.  Methods using the whole hand rather than fingers is yet another variation.

Some of these methods are described with terms like palm-up or palm-down, but that doesn't seem to correspond to whatever I'm doing.  My hands wiggle and rotate into position to make it easy to manipulate the loops and don't seem to consistently keep any particular orientation.  Or maybe I'm doing something that I don't yet recognize as falling into one of these categories.  I do understand what is being referred to by others as A-fell, V-fell, and mixed-method based on the above.  I think.

Anyway.

While I am thinking about the three-loop braids I played with earlier this month, I am considering what Ingrid Crickmore calls the 4-loop spiral braid.  There are video and pdf instructions on the page for those who want to play along.

These are also called loop-exchange braids, I believe.  There are pairs of loops that trade places with each other but not with other loops.  This reminds me a bit of the kongo gumi braid that is so well known in kumihimo circles.  It may also make some of the other 8-strand braids one finds in Japanese kumihimo, Peruvian sling braids, and elsewhere, I believe.  I may eventually do some experiments with 8 separate strand of yarn to confirm which braids are equivalent to each other, since I confuse myself when I try to work it out in my head.

This 4-loop spiral braid, whether done as a 4-loop braid or an 8-strand braid, is a braid that is known from history/archaeology from a lot of places.

There are a few variations I can think of with these 4-loop loop exchange braids.

1.  Exchange the loops, with the right loop always going through the left loop, without twisting/crossing the loops as you move them.  I think this is the method that Crickmore shows.

2.  Alternate which loop goes through which.  In other words, the index finger always does the grabbing and pulls through the middle finger (or vice versa).

3.  Cross/twist the loop as you pull it through.  (same twist direction each time vs twist each loop in the opposite direction?)

4.  Some combination of the above, along with any other variation I haven't thought of yet.

The variations do look a bit different in my first explorations (using a monochrome piece of yarn tied into a loop and folded twice to get four loops).  I'll have to use more colors to see what's really happening.

On Crickmore's site, she quotes Noemi Speiser from LM-BRIC 6, as having found this "described in a bound collection of 15th-16th C. German manuscripts. Speiser describes it rather than giving it a name: 'Two loops mounted on each hand are made to cooperate crosswise through one another. RH upper with LH lower, then RH lower with LH upper.'"  

OK, here's more about that braid.  The text from Noemi Speiser is indeed in LM-BRIC News No. 6 (it starts with "with palms facing" and then the instructions above, as she translated from whatever version of German it was originally written in).  There is more info written and shown in the accompanying LM-BRIC News Illustrated Instruction Series No 6.  My comments are in brackets.

It looks like this 4-loop spiral braid twists the loops that are pulled through, and also alternates which loop goes through which (in other words, I think, the loop that is being twisted goes inside of the loop that merely moves to the other hand.  I think that means the index-finger loop is on the outside and the lower/littler-finger loop on the inside.)

Anyway, here are the instructions from the illustrated instruction series.

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The Karlsruhe Documen"  [should that be document or documents?  My guess is that this is a typo.]

Braiding instruction: Mount a loop on each of the small fingers and the index fingers of both hands. [I don't think it matters which fingers one uses.]

With palms facing. Give RH upper loop to LH lower finger going over the loop, and on the way back scoop up the LH lower loop. (RH upper and LH lower has been exchanged.) Then do the opposite with LH upper and RH lower.

Two color variations:

1) Cork screw: on the left two fingers DD, on the right two fingers LL.

2) Vertical column: on the left two fingers DL, on the right two fingers LD. Dark and light is exchanged

[diagrams of the moves and a few black-and-white photos are shown.  I may add a screenshot of them later but not at the moment.]

By exchanging diagonally opposite two loops by one going through the inside of the other many times in the same direction, you produce a pair of oppositely twisted yarn. By exchanging two pairs of loops crossing each other, the two pairs of twisted yarns are interlaced and form a braid with a square (or round) cross section. This braid has the same structure of one of the most basic 8-strand braids (NARABI KAKUYATSU) of the "Genji" family in KUMIHIMO.

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I'll have to look around to see what other interesting 4-loop braids I can find, not just the spirals.  Most of the info really gets going for 5 loops and above, and indeed, the square 5 is one of the most common braids found (and taught).  But for now I want to explore some of the things one can do with 4 loops.

It looks like there are a few 4-loop fingerloop braids in the Loop Manipulation chapter of Noemi Speiser's Manual of Braiding (14*34e, 14*35a, b, c, 14*36, 14*37, 14*38, and maybe more).  Alas, that I do not (yet) own many other books/booklets specifically on fingerlooping.

At some point I might also add free-end (or bobbin/disk/marudai) braids and what-not to my explorations since I believe there are more options for 3 to 8 strand braids than only the ones that are fingerlooped.  I'm sure I can find a few in the Ashley Book of Knots, and probably also some of my other books and also websites that talk about braids.  This would mostly be to look at fun variations one can do with X strands, not necessarily to compare them to fingerloop braids.

I have no idea if any of this will still make sense or be at all interesting by tomorrow, but I wanted to write down my current thinking.  I'm probably just an ignorant noob, but that's OK -- ignorance is one of the early steps on the path to enlightenment.  Hopefully I'll follow up on some of these ideas and share the pics (and my thoughts) on this blog.

Three-loop fingerlooped braid exploration, part 2

So...  today I looked again the Jean Leader version of the 3-loop fingerloop braid to see if and how it was different from the Ingrid Crickmore version.  I had speculated that it was the difference between A-fell and V-fell (i.e. using the index vs the middle finger as the operator/picker finger).

Nope.  It's different.

Oh, wait!

I screwed up again, and didn't follow the instructions properly.  I ended up with a true 3-strand braid, with both loops always traveling together and never crossing/intersecting with other loops.  It is fairly flat as one would expect from a 3-strand pigtail braid.  One side of the braid is going V up and the other side is V down.

It is, of course, adorable. 

The basic method for this one:   With this version of the 3-strand fingerloop braid, one has 2 loops on one hand (index and middle finger), and one loop on the middle finger of the other hand.  The empty index finger goes into the middle-finger loop on the other hand and scoops it from the bottom loop, which reverses it.  The other-hand index finger loop moves to the now-empty middle finger.  And then one repeats with the other hand (i.e. the now-empty index finger scoops the other-hand middle-finger loop from the bottom, move the unworked index-finger loop to the middle finger, etc. and repeat).

OK, now to try yet again to do the braid using Jean Leader's instructions...

And yes, whew, finally!  It is pretty much the same triangular braid as I produced with Ingrid Crickmore's instructions.  It's not exactly the A-fell vs V-fell instructions, though it is that, too, but it's still about the picker-finger going through one of the other loops before picking up (and reversing) the third loop.

Jean Leader's instructions (for real this time):  One has 2 loops on one hand (index and middle finger) and 1 loop on the middle finger of the other hand.  The empty index finger goes through the middle-finger loop on the same hand and then scoops up the middle-finger loop on the other hand from the bottom, putting a twist in it.  Move the other-hand index finger loop to the middle finger.  Then repeat starting with the empty index finger, as before.  It's pretty fast and automatic after you get the hang of it.

So...  do I get the same structure with the Crickmore/Leader instructions if my picker finger goes through the other available loop before picking up the loop that will be changing hands?  Probably?  Though maybe it'll be a less ergonomic move, depending on one's ergonomic preferences.  I'll have to check in order to see for myself.  (Yes... see below, and it's very ergonomic no matter which operator finger one uses.)

I know I'm easily entertained, but I do indeed find it entertaining that there are several different braid structures that can be made with this 3-loop fingerloop set-up and basic instructions, depending on how many loops the operator finger goes through before picking up (and reversing) the loop that will be grabbed.  It also entertains me that there is more than one way of producing the same braid structure for some of these braids.  That doesn't even include the split/double braid or the flat braid(s), both of which include some non-reversing loops.  I suspect that there are some different flat braids possible, too, given that half the moves of the flat braid are identical to the square/round/plain braid.  And obviously these structure variations depending on loop-intersections will apply to larger braids and will generate even more possible variations.

In case it wasn't clear...

In the above photo, the top braid is made using Ingrid Crickmore's instructions.  The middle one is my misunderstanding of (or not remembering) a different set of instructions.  The bottom one is yet another misunderstanding of Jean Leader's instructions.  There is no pic of the 4th braid, but I am pretty sure I did indeed follow the instructions properly, and it looks pretty much like the top braid.  I used one loop each of three different colors.  I didn't feel like doing 6 different colors, but obviously one can make lots of cute braids by varying the colors of the different loops and the different sides of the loops.

Later, I tried the Jean Leader version of the square/triangular braid using the middle finger as the picker/operator and picking up the loop from the top to reverse it.  Yup, it worked, seems to be the same structure, and it's faster and easier to keep snug than the Crickmore version whether one uses the middle or index finger as the operator finger.  I also was able to make the 3-strand braid with no intersecting loops using the middle-finger and hooking the loop from the top.  Cool.

I can now envision a class to be taught on different ways to make 3-loop fingerlooped braids.

Hmm.... Another idle thought/speculation here -- for Ingrid Crickmore's 4-loop loop-exchange braid, would I be re-creating an 8 strand kongo-gumi braid if I always reverse the loops in the same direction, and if so, how much of a hassle would that be?

Probably everyone who's done any fingerlooping already knows all about this, but what the heck, it's my turn now.  I've known how to do different kinds of basic fingerloop braiding while following instructions for many years.  But I never thought about it much beyond following the instructions.

Rainbow stripes (an easy tablet-woven band) and a couple of 3-loop fingerloop braids

This wove up quite quickly.  Well, no reason why it shouldn't have -- just keep turning the cards, no counting or thinking to do.

I like how it looks.  This is the same on both sides and would make a good strap or belt.  It's about 67" long and not quite 1.25" wide.  There are 33 tablets, 4 threads per tablet, alternating / and \ tablet orientation, with all 4 threads in each tablet being the same color.  The colors are rainbow -- red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, 2 tablets of each, with 3 tablets of black between and around each color stripe.  I used my usual stash of big-box-store crochet cotton #10 with the slightly finer black #10 cotton as weft.

I'm not sure why the lines aren't crisp for some of the colors.  Differences in tension?  Funky weaving?  Uneven cotton thread?  \ and / instead of / and \ for the tablet orientations?  It'll probably mostly even out with blocking and/or wearing.  It's still a cute band.  I still like stripes.

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Next up are two 3-loop fingerloop braids.  I wanted to really see the difference between two slightly different braiding patterns.  I used loops of 3 different colors to have some sense of what was going on.  (Six colors would have been even more clear, but eh, maybe a future experiment.)

Yup, definitely different.

The first braid is the one from Ingrid Crickmore's instructions at https://loopbraider.com/2012/08/02/easy-3-loop-braids/.  (It was originally a tutorial/class on the Braids and Bands mailing list.)  I did what she calls the square braid, which indeed is more triangular than square.

The other braid is based on a different loop-braiding tutorial/class on the Braids and Bands mailing list, by Jean Leader.  It is a lot rounder that the first one, and for me at this point, it's looser and stretchier than the first one.  It's still pretty cute and would be perfectly respectable with better color and yarn/thread choices.

For both of these braids, I was using my middle finger to get the loop from the other hand.  Leader's instructions (now that I look at them) suggests using the index finger.  Actually, Leader's instructions are definitely different from what I did.  Hmmm...  Clearly I need to follow her actual instructions instead of the ones in my imagination.  Or maybe I really did see what I did somewhere and have just forgotten where.  Or maybe I am mixing the instructions for the double-braid (aka divided braid) and the square braid.

Let's see if I can describe what I did without a good graphic...

For both braids, there are 2 loops on one hand and 1 on the other.

For the square/triangular braid -- I used my middle finger as the picker.  It went under the loop on my index finger, through the loop on the middle finger of the other hand, then around the top of the loop of the index finger on the other hand, pulling that loop through.  The loop on the middle finger moves to the empty index finger, leaving the middle finger ready to take a loop from the other hand.  Then the moves repeat using the other hand.

My second braid is done just like the first Crickmore braid, except that the empty middle finger goes through the loop on the index finger as well as through the middle finger of the other hand before picking up the loop from the index finger of the other hand (through the top, so it reverses).

Jean Leader's version is a bit different from that -- she uses the index finger as the picker and hooks the loop through the bottom and doesn't go through the same loops as the other versions, I don't think.  I will do this one and see how it compares!  It might just be the A-fell vs V-fell version of the same braid, though I'll better after I do it.

I am not including the double-braid (i.e. no reversed loops) or the flat braid (alternating reversed and non-reversed loops) in my playing around.

Once I get bored with simple 3-loop braids, maybe I'll move on to the 5-, 6-, and 7-loop braids.  There are lots of possibilities with those!  I'll also post pics of my 2- and 4-loop loop-exchange braids and maybe do the 6-loop version or beyond, as well.  The 4-loop one looks very much like some of the 8-strand square braids I've done on the marudai.

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I'm not sure what tablet-weaving project will happen next.  I'm also feeling a vague urge to warp up my inkle loom (now that the big one has returned to its owner) and make a few inkle bands.  And so on.

Not tablet weaving (an inkle band and some fingerloop experiments)

 

I warped up and quickly finished the commissioned inkle band on a borrowed inkle loom that I mentioned in my past post.  It was very straightforward -- 48 threads total, strips of yellow-and-white checks separated by black stripes, using my stash of big-box-store #10 cotton crochet thread.  I ended up with a bit more than 5m (5.5 yds) of band, approximately 11-12mm (3/8") wide.  It went pretty quickly, though rotating the band around all of the pegs took a bit of oomph and/or easing it around.  Given the length of my finished band plus fringes, this is probably a 6-yard inkle loom.

I'm hoping that some of the irregularities ease out after blocking, though really, it's not too bad, and the width is nicely consistent.  The yellow and white don't have quite enough contrast to really pop.

I'm planning my next tablet weaving project, probably another commission/gift.  I'm thinking narrow rainbow stripes (2 tablets each) separated by slightly wider stripes (3 tablets each) of black.  It'll be simple to warp up and weave, and it will look good on both sides (it's meant to be a strap).  There are other ideas crowding my mind, though, so it's possible I'll do something else entirely.

Other than that, I've been playing around with simpler fingerlooped braids, inspired by the class I taught last week.

In my last post I mentioned 4 loop spirals.  Those are still fun.  I'm also messing around with 3-loop braids.  Interestingly (though of course it's entirely predictable), the results are slightly different if one takes the working loop through one or both of the other loops.  Different sources give different instructions for how to do a 3-loop fingerloop, which is when it finally occurred to me that there were different ways to do this.  Duhhhhh.  That's in addition to the reversed vs non-reversed working loop thing and also the various color/texture arrangements one can set up.  So there's another quick braiding alternative to add to my mental toolbox, or whatever the proper metaphor is.

To try to describe it a bit better...  For the 3-loop fingerloop, there are 2 loops on one hand and 1 loop on the other.  The hand with one loop gets a loop from the other hand.  So...  the empty finger can go through one of the loops on the other hand, or it can go through the loop on the same hand before going through the loop on the other hand.  Plus, now that I'm thinking about it, there might be other variations.  I'll have to do more experiments.  I'm sure this is a kindergarten-level understanding of how it all works, but heck, we all gotta start somewhere.  Sure, I can just follow instructions, and I do, but it's kind of fun to see how small choices can lead to different outcomes.  And of course all of this extrapolates to braids with a higher number of loops.

At some point I'll take a pic of my braid experiments.  Most look kind of dumb since I'm usually using whatever acrylic worsted weight yarn that happens to be around, the uglier, the better, and I don't care if it clashes.  I sometimes try different things in the braid rather than using only one method for the entire braid and I don't always braid to the end of the loops.