Playing With the Band

Another chapter in the story of the Guild Challenge.

I'm putting a lot more work into this challenge than I need to, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it. I'm even learning a thing or two. For instance, I have finally got around to trying the little Kumihimo kit I bought at the last Fibres West.

I found that the long lengths of yarn needed kept getting tangled as I was weaving the narrow band so I first tried bobbin lace bobbins. I know there is supposed to be a way of using these for Kumihimo and also as bobbins when doing intarsia, I've seen it done, but even with a half hitch over the top they keep unwinding on me. Frequently!

So I've switched to the only other thing I could readily find, what I'm calling my "IKEA bobbins". I wound the yarn around the outside of the little bag clips and then just tucked the end into the clip before I closed it. It's working very well actually, and I may just use the idea for knitting intarsia as well.

So here's a close-up of my little braid. I'm finding that Kumihimo braiding takes a long, long time to produce any length.


The braid pictured above is shown much larger than life. In reality it is only about the width of a shoe lace for a sports shoe. That was a bit of a disappointment. There are eight strands of reasonably thick yarn in there! I thought the braid would be much wider. With it being so narrow, it isn't going to work for my original purpose, BUT I can still use it for this project, just not where I originally intended.

Of course that means I had to come up with another idea for the wider bands I will still need. In waltzes another new-to-me project. This is the first time I've warped my larger, chair height inkle loom. I've used table top inkle looms before, but this is the first time for the big guy.


Wondering where all this is going? Stay tuned. More will be forthcoming as it is worked out and worked on.