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.
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