Even More Braids!

Last week I wrote about how a chance meeting with the Braid Society lead me to be obsessed with fill the gap braiding and wanting a lucet. I still want a lucet. October is the month of bills for us. Or, to put it more dramatically, The Month Of Bills. Either way buying new toys is out of the question. We learned last week that the world of braiding is vast, so there must be something else I can do that would require nothing more than what I already have.

A chair!

At this point I found Loopbraider.com and loop braiding. It requires fingers, string and something steady. As I have all three of those I was set. As I've not been able to go out much because of asthma I got a lot of practise in.

First I started with the Easy 3-Loop Braid which is, as the name suggests, really easy.

Then I moved on to five and seven, at some point between the two I figured out decent tension. Incredibly pleased with myself I moved on to make these bracelets from yet another cool tutorial. This one.

So loop braiding is a fun and addictive way to braid and Ingrid Crickmore is an incredibly generous genius. Go over to Loopbraider.com and read everything. It's amazing!

Braids

I was hanging out at Stitch, Sew and Hobbycrafts Show, knitting with the UKHKA (if you were there on Thursday you may recognise my blue hair) We were busy putting together the worlds largest knitted chain but I did get a little time to roam.

I got a jumpers worth of wool half price and I think I may be joining the WI, but the thing I was most enchanted by was The Braid Society stand. The Braid Society work to (to quote them) 'promote the education and practice of the art and craft of making constructed or embellished braids and narrow bands'

My braids 'spun sugar' and... well I'm thinking 'goth circa 2004' for the second one

You can see on their site that it includes things like Japanese Kumihimo, weaving braids on looms, braids on a lucet, plaiting things about... I had no idea the world of braiding was so diverse but now I do I'm totally intrigued.

I walked up to the people running the stand and asked the best way to start and got handed a super simple 'Fill The Gap' kit for £1. It came with the instructions, the card for braiding on and the beginnings of a braid (the black/pink one in the pictures) He quickly showed me how to use it and I ran back to my knitting.

My (by now much abused) Fill The Gap kit

That night with an enormous headache from the artificial lights and air conditioning I finished my first braid and got started on the second one (the brown and gold, I'm calling it spun sugar) using some perle cottons and lurex thread Stephen's Mum gave me.

I'm totally addicted to fill the gap (online instructions here) and, as you need no more than string and cardboard to get started I might have to try this with the Brownies. As for me? I 'll cary on experimenting with the type of effects I can get from fill the gap and I totally see a lucet purchase in my future.

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