Initial exploration of the braid on the knitted Sion bag 269

 

Two posts in one day!  I didn't want to combine this topic too much with the last post, and there's no reason to wait until tomorrow to post again.  If I make more of these braids or have more things about it I want to write down, I'll probably add it to this post and/or wait until tomorrow.

The above photo is a first try at the Sion braid.  The braiding starts at the right and goes to the left.  I used six different colors though I made no attempt to line them up in the right order.

First is a loop exchange braid.  Rb and Ld swap strands (with the left hand loop going inside the right hand loop), then Rc and Lc, then Rd and La.  Repeat.  And nope, this is not the braid used for the strap of the Sion purse.

I didn't do a version where the elements were kept separate, though.  Hmmm, I wonder if that could be a kongo gumi equivalent?  Anyway, I don't think the structure will look too different from the one where loops travel through each other, and it's not gonna be the right structure anyway.  I'll try to remember to test it next time.

Second is a pigtail braid, where the outside element goes into the middle, first the right hand and then the left hand.  No loops go through each other.

Nope, that's not it, either.  It's too flat and the colors don't repeat quite the same way.

Third is my initial hypothesis for how the braid was created -- as a square/orthodox 6 strand fingerlooped braid.  I did V-fell, using my little finger as the operator finger.  The finger went through the strands on the other hand and picked up the other-hand index-finger loop, taking it reversed, then I walked the loops as necessary.  On one hand there will be two loops to go through while the other hand will have three loops to go through.

Yup, I still think that's it.  I also did it for a while with unreversed loops, to make sure it made the proper split braids that looked about right for the actual purse loops.  As far as I can tell, it matches the photos of the original.

I did another stretch of pigtail braiding to make sure I understood what I was doing, since the 6-strand pigtail braid is used for the Skojdehamn outfit as a decorative edge for the clothing.  It can be done freehand, but also with fingerloop methods.  I also wanted to be very sure it was different from the square orthodox braid, which it is.

And I finished up with a little bit more of the orthodox braid as a square and as a split braid.

Yay.

Here is a photo of the original braid:

And where it splits:

Here is mine again (just the area of the square braid and where it splits in two):

And a side view of the braid so you can see that it really is little Vs like the original is.

One more thing -- the original braid uses double strands.