There were also several booths selling kits for kumihimo, which also looked interesting. I thought I'd look it up at the library first instead of plunking $17 for a kit, and found this really great book, which explained what I wanted to hear:
And had diagrams!
Which has plenty of information to get started.
I only cut out a cardboard loom from an empty kleenex box and look what I made!
It is just fascinating how it works, and there comes the braid out the other side.
The downside: it would take For. Ev. Er. to make any length of braid this way.
This is all the further I got even after doing it (it is a very relaxing activity for the hands) a whole afternoon while we had some friends over. Oops, the picture doesn't show, but it's a sample about 6" long.
A real polished wooden stand, with the braid weighted down beneath, and a practiced worker, could probably do it a lot faster.
Back to "fingerloop braiding" which the 14th c lady had been demonstrating. She provided this link,
http://stringpage.com/braid/fl/fingerloop.html
I cut some lengths of thread and got started. It takes just a few minutes to get the hang of it and then it requires no further attention and goes like lightning.
I braided all the way down to the ends of the loops while still standing there being amazed at how cool this was. I didn't even have time to get bored. WOW! Look how pretty it comes out!! And these were just the colors of cotton thread that I happened to have in the top drawer.
