This might be my final post on this particular braid. Or not -- you never know!
The above is a fingerlooped braid. It spirals Z for part of the way, then S, then back to Z.
For the method where you shift the index finger to the middle finger, then pick up the other-hand ring finger and put the middle finger loop onto the other-hand ring finger...
If Color A starts out on the index fingers and Color B starts out on the ring fingers, it will spiral Z. If Color A starts out on the left hand and Color B starts out on the right hand, it will spiral S.
You can shift from S to Z or vice versa by waiting until the colors are arranged the way you like, then repeating a move. So... you do the first exchange (either right or left hand), which brings the yarns into the other configuration. Then repeat that first exchange instead of doing the second exchange. Keep going from there, as before, until you want to shift the other way.
I haven't tried it yet, but my guess is that it's the opposite for the version of this braid where one moves the ring finger loop to the middle finger, then swaps the other-hand index finger loop onto the ring finger with the middle finger loop going to the other-hand index finger. That's because with the first method, the index finger loop goes under the ring finger loop, while it goes over the ring finger loop in the second method. With both (if I'm thinking about it correctly), the switch/twist between index and ring fingers goes clockwise when the right index finger swaps with the left ring finger, and counterclockwise when the left index finger swaps with the right ring finger.
I tried doing the loop exchange in one move but I wasn't dexterous enough to be able to switch loops without one going through the other and without dropping something. So the two-step method works best for me so far. (Transfer loop to middle finger, then swap the two loops pretty much at the same time.)
So. How was the Skjodehamn hood braid done?
The argument for fingerlooping -- it's a short braid, made from two strands of yarn per braiding element, and fingerlooping is pretty fast.
The argument against fingerlooping -- it is not clear if any of the other braids are fingerlooped. They might be, but they might not be. In general (with a lot of exceptions), I'd expect to see some 5-loop fingerloop braids somewhere in this outfit, since in general (with a lot of exceptions), odd-number fingerloop braids and especially 5-loop braids, are so common in areas that do fingerlooping. On the other hand, most of the braids are made from two strands per element, which is an argument for strong consideration of fingerlooping. One more argument against fingerlooping -- this braid is not mentioned in any of the medieval braiding manuals, as far as I know. Though I don't know if it would have been considered too simple to record.
Whipcording -- there is no evidence for the existence of this method at this time. It's possible that long lengths were wound onto sticks rather than heavy bobbins, but that grades into the freehand braiding methods. Whipcording (hanging the braid from a hook, then passing the bobbins back and forth, preferably with two people) is pretty fast, especially for making long lengths of cord. The argument against this method being used, in whatever form, is that these are short ties, hardly worth the effort of setting up anything with bobbins.
Disk/stand -- again, no evidence for the existence of this method at this time, and the arguments are similar to the ones about whipcording. It's definitely possible -- maybe a small table or tablet (for tablet weaving) with a hole in the middle could have been used, with a counterweight for the growing braid and sticks or small bobbins holding the cords. But again, it would be better for longer cords. It's an idea for portability, though. I'll have to think about it. A plain tablet (or square piece of something with a hole in the middle) would be easier than moving threads in and out of slots. It could be pretty fast and would require only one person.
Freehand/in-the-hand -- This is a low-tech way to do this braid, pretty easy to rediscover anytime you need to do so. There are several ways to think about how you do it. It's a little slower than fingerlooping, but requires very little set-up or thinking about it. It too is very good for shorter braids, and entirely possible for longer braids if one has a way of dealing with the long ends (such as wrapping them around a stick or small bobbin).
Other methods? I don't know! I'm still a wee small braider, with so much left to learn and understand.
Of the ones above, freehand and fingerloop are the most plausible. In my opinion. Given my current level of ignorance, which is pretty high. My guess is that the person who sewed the hood (and/or the person who wanted the ties) might well have grabbed a bit of yarn and banged out the cord right then and there. It is possible, of course, that there was already a much longer length of this cord hanging around (done on a disk or through whipcording or freehand) and they just whacked off a couple of short pieces of it to make the ties.
I don't have a good enough pic of the cords, nor do I have sufficient knowledge about braiding or about the culture that made these specific braids, to rule out the various possibilities.
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I knew I had done a fingerlooping version of the 4-element braid before, and I tracked it down, yay!
It's the Makusua Maize Blossom braid of the Guajiro Indians (from northeast corner of Columbia, in South America), and it's in L-MBRIC 10, shown in the Illustrated Instruction Series (no. 10, of course, from 2007). This one is similar to the Potosi method except that loops are swapped from hand to hand first, then shifted back to the original finger.
So, loops are on B and D fingers (calling them Lb, Ld, Rb, and Rd). Ra takes ld. Ld takes rb. La takes rd. Rd takes lb. Shift loops a to b on both hands. Tighten the structure every other step.
They give the three basic color patterns that can be done with two colors. For Z spirals -- Color A on both b fingers, color B on both d fingers. For S spirals -- Color A on one hand, color B on the other hand. For vertical (as with the above) -- the diagonals are the same (i.e. the b finger of one hand and the d finger of the other).
So maybe I'm not quite done with this topic. I might try both this method and the Potosi method to see which one flows more smoothly and easily. I've done the Makusua braid before but don't remember much about it beyond the fact that I've done it.
I don't know why I get hung up on these picky little details. They're probably very basic to most people. But it helps me to do and explore things, thinking about why and what. It does help my overall understanding of the underlying principles, I guess, even if I have to do it the slow and hands-on way.
Masako Kinoshita describes the Makusua braid as "new as an L-M recipe", interesting.
See my posts from February 28, 2024 and February 29, 2024 for my first exposure to the Makusua braid.
(edited later to add -- the Makusua and Potosi methods are both quick and efficient, as is my own variation.)
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Maybe I'll move on to the six-strand Skjoldehamn braids soon. These too were done with two strands of yarn per element. They can be done freehand or, I believe, through fingerlooping. There's no point to doing them with whipcording, I don't think.
I think my class is likely to be this 4-element braid from the Skjoldehamn hood as done with fingerlooping. I'll probably show or at least talk about other ways to make the braid (freehand, disk, maybe a description of whipcording), and also encourage people to experiment with using more colors, doing other color patterns and/or monochrome cords, etc.
Or I'll do the 6-element braid, and if so, probably freehand since that way is easy to demonstrate, and it generalizes to a lot of other braids in this style.
It's interesting that most or all the braids on the outfit use even numbers. I wonder if that means something? Ditto for the use of two strands per braiding element for most or all of the braids.
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