Getting Into Kumihimo

Four or five weeks ago, I was reading a blog post written by a woman who tats and knits. On this day, she was talking about doing kumihimo--a Japanese braiding technique. My interest was piqued, so I googled, watched a few videos, and got all excited--as you do. I knew I could make my own kumihimo-style loom out of cardboard to do some basic braids, but decided to look for a foam loom that would give me more flexibility. I knew I could get them from various online shops, but I went to ebay and found two for a euro with free shipping, so Bill ordered those. They arrived yesterday and last night I tried one out, making a basic two-colour spiral braid.

You can use any kind of yarn/cord/thread for this. I used some worsted weight kitchen cotton for this because the texture is smooth and it's thick enough that I could see what I was doing. I love the way this came out and am excited about trying various kinds of braids--there are a lot of different things you can do, with and without beads. A good introductory this one, which also shows examples at the end of some of the results the woman got from different kinds of yarn and thread. I also like the Prumihimo channel.

This is what my loom looks like:

 They also come square so you can make flat braids. It was recommended in one of the videos that I watched, that you mark the one that you use for thicker cords because eventually, the slots could stretch out, making work with thinner cords more cumbersome. Since I have two looms, I'll use this one for thicker yarn and my other one with thread.

Fun stuff!

I hope there's some fun stuff in your day as well!

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