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).

Continuing the theme of two-hole tablet-weaving

 Here are the most recent bands.

This one is worsted-weight acrylic, probably something like Red Heart.  I wanted to re-do the band I did in wool, the one from Tablet-Woven Treasures where the \ pattern tablets are threaded AC and the / pattern tablets threaded in BD.

For about half the band, one of the tablets was threaded BC instead of AC.  Oops.  It's pretty subtle, even after I changed the threading.

For an acrylic band, it's not bad.

Someone on a Facebook group mentioned this one.  It appealed to me so I followed the links to see what I could find out.  The description and chart are here.  Apparently it's from a 2022 Advent Calendar on the Historical Textiles website/blog.  It's apparently from 17th century Falun (Sweden).  I was immediately charmed and had to try it.

It's very cute.  It alternates two tablets threaded in all 4 holes with a thin yarn, with two tablets threaded in only 2 holes with thick yarn.  The original was silk but since I don't have silk, that wasn't going to happen.

I found some random leftover pink cotton to use.  The darker pink is a bit thicker than #10 to my eye -- was it perl cotton, maybe?  The lighter pink looks like DMC Cebelia, probably #30 but maybe #20.  The weft is the same light pink thread.

The two thicknesses don't show enough contrast to my eye, but I do like the color and texture contrast.  It's a very elegant little band.

I'm almost certainly going to do this one again.  It could easily be made wider by adding tablets in multiples of four (2 four-threaded and 2 two-threaded).  I like the idea of using different colors for the stripes.  I should also try making the two-hole yarn quite a bit thicker than the four-hole yarn.  I think it would look good in wool, too.

It would seem that I'm not over my obsession with stripes.  Good thing that it can run in parallel (haha) with my other current obsessions.

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In Collingwood's Techniques of Tablet Weaving, he talks about patterns where textural contrast occurs by idling some tablets while turning others.  I've been mulling this over.  There are also the types of patterns and ideas in the "structure weave" chapter in Claudia Wollny's Tablets at Work.  The El Cigarralejo band and the Draft 14 band I did fall under that category, I guess.  So apparently monochromatic bands are still calling to me.  Though so are two-hole bands.  Chances are I'll do a few more two-hole patterns before doing more than superficially exploring other techniques.

Also, and also completely unrelatedly, I've been thinking about possibly creating a quickie class about doing one braid using three different techniques.  The simple four-strand (two loop) fingerlooped braid that I showed in my previous post about simple cords can also be done on a disk/marudai or as a free-end braid in the hand.  Hmmm.

I also found another source for the finger-crocheted cord (aka two strand chain sinnet aka ABOK 2896 aka Zipper Sinnet).  In Tassels: The Fanciful Embellishment by Nancy Welch, in the chapter on cords and braids, she shows something she calls Finger Crocheted Cords.  She says that other names she knows this by is "monkey chain" and "idiot's delight".  The drawings are a little different from the one in Montse Stanley's book, but I'm pretty sure this is the same cord.  Interesting...  And of course she also includes the same 4-strand braids I see elsewhere, done as free-end braiding.  She has a section on fingerlooped braids, too!  She refers to them as Slentre (and says it's called "puncetto" work in the Italian Alps).  I knew that Slentre referred to a style of fingerlooping (fingerloop braiding with some quirks), but I hadn't heard about puncetto involving any kind of fingerloop braiding techniques before.

A few quick cords

 While I've been dithering over what to tablet-weave next, I cranked out a few quick cords.

The small cotton cords are two-strand chain sinnets, aka finger crochet aka zipper sinnets.  The variegated purple one is a two-loop finglooped braid.

The zipper sinnets are not true braids since the two strands are interlooped rather than obliquely intertwined, according to my understanding of current braid/cord terminology.

My tensioning with the fingerlooped braid isn't half-bad, all considered.  The strands were fairly long so I worked with shortened loops, letting out the additional length when needed.  It's not a perfectly-made braid, but that's OK.  It does spiral a bit, like it's supposed to.  I wonder if I should try to make one where I alternate which way I twist the loop?  If I did that, it would probably look like the same 4-strand braid one sees with free-end braiding and marudai-kumihimo braiding.  It's so fast and mindless the way it is now, though.  It's still worth maybe trying it as an experiment.

The two sinnets are made from random leftover crochet cotton, both roughly #10, though the blue/purple might be a little finer than that, maybe #20.  The green and yellow sinnet uses big-box crochet cotton (so a bit thicker than #10) which has a thin strand of tinsel/mylar wrapped around the cotton. Shiny!  I did roughly 3 meters (roughly 10 feet) of each cord.  The fingerlooped cord is made from leftover Red Heart acrylic.  The variegated yarn hides most of the irregulaties.  It is roughly 2 feet long.

I think I know what I'll be tablet-weaving, but I haven't yet warped it up.  So maybe there will be more quick cords until I'm ready to cut the yarn, thread the tablets, and start weaving.

Vague ruminations on easy-to-make cords

I've been thinking of doing a class on easy ways to make cords.  It's not so much a follow-up on the class I did for the Fill-the-Gap braid, but more of "one in a series of".  I like cords.  Narrow wares.  Etc. I'm not wedded to any particular technique, either.

So...  if I were to do a class on something like "Three Easy Cords"  (or four, or five, and yes, that's a slight riff on Five Easy Pieces), what would I include?  Some of it would depend on the length of the class.  Too many things would cause people's brains to shut down.  But all of these are easy, so might not be enough for one class per cord.  Though I did the Fill-the-Gap braid as a single (30-minute) class, and it requires less than 5 minutes to teach/learn.

The criteria to be included in this imaginary class or series of classes would be something easy with few or no tools needed.  Here are some ideas.

1.  Twisted cord.  This is so dead easy I'd hesitate to include it.  Except that some people truly haven't learned it, or at least it doesn't occur to them to use it when they need some cordage.  It's an easy way to make something useful and fun, and of course is the basis for things like making rope.  And heck, cordage, since this is basically making a 2-ply from some kind of single ply.

There's a second way to make it, which I see in basketry videos -- twist the cords, then kind of do a weird flip to wrap them around and equalize the twist somehow.  I'll have to go back through the videos and see exactly what it is and how to do it.  It seems useful for doing the twisted cord for a short segment at a time rather than the entire length of the cord.

Showing how to do this for the fringe ends after weaving/braiding/etc. could be useful, too.

2.  Two-loop fingerloop.  This is crazy fast and fun to make.  I still haven't quite mastered keeping the tension even, however.  It helps to have a second person, but there ought to be some other things I can do to keep things semi-even when a second person isn't handy.  Also, This cord tends to spiral, which some people might find slightly distressing.

There are a lot of other ways to make this particular structure.  Some of those would be preferable, especially when you want to keep your options open about how long the cord needs to be.  The fingerloop method is a lot of fun, though.

The 2-loop fingerloop braid is well-illustrated here: https://loopbraider.com/2019/12/28/spirals-and-2-loops/

It's also in one of the little booklets I have on Friendship Bracelets, though done freehand rather than with finger-looping.  And I'm pretty sure it's the same structure as one of the first braids in Rodrick Owen's book on Braids -- 250 patterns from Japan, Peru & Beyond.  The simple "worldwide" braids in his book can be made in the hand as well as on a disk or marudai.

3.  Finger crochet.  This is something in Montse Stanley's knitting book.  She calls it finger crochet, but I'm not sure exactly what other names it's known by.  It makes a nice cord that is somewhat square in appearance. 

After checking the Ashley Book of Knots, I believe that this might be a version of what he calls Idiot's Delight, knot 2896, p.477 -- also check out his other sinnets on nearby pages.  Also, after doing a bit of searching online, this seems to be known as a Zipper Sinnet in the paracording community.

4. Finger knitting.  Who needs a lucet or chain fork or knitting spool when you have fingers?  There are a lot of instructions out there for anywhere from 1 finger (which looks mostly like crochet chains) to at least 4.  Two fingers is pretty easy.  The structure is kind of loose if you don't pay attention to tightening the loop at each step.

5.  Three and four loop fingerloop braids, also found on the loopbraider.com website.  See this one as well as the one above: https://loopbraider.com/2012/08/02/easy-3-loop-braids/

6. Macrame.  Take two cords.  One makes half-hitches over the second, maybe alternating which one does the half-hitch and which is the holding cord.  Booklets and websites on friendship bracelets have many variations on this kind of theme.

7. Those scoobie-braids, the type kids make lanyards from in summer camp.

8. Paracord braids, some of which are fairly straightforward.

9. Plaiting and other braids.  The three-strand braid is known by just about everyone and is very historic.  I happen to love 5 strand plaits (aka rope braids), partly because they too are very historic.  Of course there are zillions of braids out there.

For some of the above,  you need some way to keep tension on the cord as you make it, and that may well require tying it or pinning it to something.  Others just need your hands/fingers.  Some need just one strand (or bundle of strands), while others use two or more strands or loops.  All would make smallish cords that would then be used for something else -- ropes, shoelace, tying packages, running through eyelets, simple bracelets, fringes, and so on.

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I'm still dithering about what tablet-weaving pattern to do next.  Something tubular?  I have enough wool yarn left for 16 strands.  So I could do a monochrome tubular braid from Tablet-Woven Treasures, with 8 tablets having 2 threads each.  Or I could do a 4-tablet tubular braid with all the holes threaded with alternating \ and / tablet orientation.  Or I could add another color.  Or I could try to do some kind of braid with the yarn instead of tablet weaving.  I'm kind of inclined towards the monochrome tubular 2-hole braid as what I'd like to tablet-weave with the yarn, but I haven't decided for sure yet.

Or, I could go back to cotton and/or colors and/or some other wool I have and do something else.  Another El Cigarralejo braid?  More brick-patterned bands?  Vestrum or Snartemo II?  The little 2-hole Antinoe grave band or another 2-hole that is mostly Xs and diamonds?  A checkerboard, either threaded-in or double-face?  The monochrome-ish 2-hole/diagonals Hochdorf wallhanging?  Some of the 8-tablet 2-hole patterns from Eva Sandermann Olsen's Tablet Weaving pdf?  Something else from Randi Stoltz?  Or something else entirely?  There are so many possibilities.

I may need to put away the tablet-weaving work area for a few days, so if I don't decide soon, the decision will be made for me -- i.e. no tablet weaving for at least a few days.

But while I'm dithering, I think I'll crank out some more cords and think about how to organize classes to show them to others.