I thought I'd better give a slight lesson on Fillgap braiding since I mention it
so much.
it's a braiding method adapted from straw plaiting and corn dollie making.
What you start out with is an flat cardboard polygonal shape with a minimum of 8 sides
and a hole in the middle.
How ever large or small your piece of cardboard is, you must have a hole in the middle,
whether it's square, round, small or half the cardboard, you've got to have
that hole - it's how your braid develops.
Anyway - you start with an flat cardboard polygon - for an example, I'll use an
octagon (8 sides).
Cut slots in the middle of each side - 8 sides, 8 slots. They don't need to be
very deep - you're using them to hold a thread or piece of yarn in.
You then cut 7 LONG pieces of yarn or embroidery floss. Why not a thread for
every slot?
Well, it's the reason this is called "fillgap" braiding. You leave a slot free
so you can "fill the gap".
Take your 7 pieces of yarn or floss or whatever thickish thread you want to use
and gather them together evenly at one end. Put an over hand knot about 1" (2 -3
cm) from the end.
Stuff this knot through the hole, and taking the LONG ends, but nearish to the
knot, snug in one piece of thread in one slot. You'll end up having a slot
free - a gap.
Pull down on the long ends of the threads so the knot comes up level in the
middle of the hole and the threads hang free off the edges but secure in the
slots.
Gather the threads in your hand so the cardboard sits on your fist/thumb edge
with the threads underneath the cardboard but running through your fist AND with
the gap facing you.
Now, counting anti-clockwise from the gap, pull up out of it's slot (and your
hand) the 3rd thread from underneath the edge of the disc
(gently put the thumb of the hand you grab the thread with on top of the disc
near the edge - you can move the thread out easier)
- you'll be moving this thread over 2 other threads - and put it in the
previously empty slot.
Pick up the cardboard, turn it so the slot is facing you, gather up the threads
again and counting anti-clockwise from the new empty slot, pick up the 3rd
thread and pull it out of it's slot and put it in the empty slot.
Keep repeating this thread movement - count 3 threads anti-clockwise from the
gap and move this thread into the empty gap.
And frequently pull downwards on the knot underneath the hole as that's your
braid forming underneath. You also need to keep all the threads taut beacuse the braid forms nicely this way. I know, it's fiddly - but it makes the braid nice.
If you're using LONG threads, you can wind them on cardboard bobbins to keep
them from tangling - and this way you can hold the edge of the disc. It gives
you more freedom to move the disc around.
If you want a way to stop having to pull down on the knot/braid, then find an
old plastic film canister with a snap lid on it - remember those? fill it with a
bit of copper change (about four or five 2p pieces work nicely) and attach a
doubled knotted thread in an overhand loop to the inside edge of the lid before
it's snapped on.
To make an overhand loop, you: put out your first and second fingers of one hand and drape a section of the
loop/circle over them with the rest of the loop held in your other hand. Holding
the loop/circle slightly taut in one hand, Dip/drop those fingers over the rest
of the loop (one finger next to one thread) so your first and second fingers
each have a loop on them. put the tips of your first and second fingers together
and wiggle those two loops down your fingers and together. If you're careful
you'll find you now have an overhand adjustible loop in your fingers.
Take the other end of the loop, and making another overhand loop, put that on
the end of your developing braid above the knot (if you put it below the knot,
it'll slip off the braid.). You can then carefully move this weight up the braid
gradually as it's being formed.
The numbering method I use on some of my fillgap braids - like 10/4 or 14/4?
Well, that's the number of threads, movement and thread counted from the gap -
for the 10/4 one, there's 10 threads on an 11 sided cardboard "disc", and I
count anti-clockwise 4 threads from the gap.
If I had written 7\3 it would mean I'd had 7 threads in an 8 sided "disc" and
counting clockwise, I'd moved the 3rd thread into the gap.
There are a couple rules you use making these braids. it gets slightly
complicated. Not terribly, but they're important. The braids don't work if you
ignore them.
So, for any fillgap braid:
1) you can't have a thread number that divides into the number of threads - e.g.
if you have 10 threads, you can't move the 1st, 2nd or 5th thread from the gap.
This is because you will end up moving the same threads over and over from gap
to gap and you will NOT form a braid.
2) You can't have a thread number that divides into the number of sides on the
disc - if you have a 9 sided disc, you can't move the 1st, 3rd or 6th thread
from the gap. You'll be doing the same thing as in rule one - and you won't be
forming a nice braid.
3) You can't move a thread into the gap that is half the number of spaces (5th
thread in an 10 sided disc) or greater than half the total number of threads
(8th thread in an 15 thread braid) - because you'd either be moving one thread
back and forth from one gap to another (e.g. moving the 7th thread in a 14 sided
fillgap), or you'd be working continuously backwards (e.g moving the 9th thread
counting anti-clockwise in an 15 thread braid is really moving the 7th thread
from the gap counting clockwise).
So, as an example, using a 10 sided disc with 9 threads, you can't move the 1st,
2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th or 9th thread. this is because 1 divides into 9 and
10. 2 divides into 10. 3 divides into 9, 5 divides into 10 and 6, 7, 8 and 9 are
greater than half the number of threads.
So a 10 sided disc can only have a workable braid of 9/4(moving anti-clockwise)
or 9\4(moving clockwise).
Anyway, that's working a fillgap braid.
When you run out of thread, you can whip stitch the ends (a good sewing book
from the library will tell you how to do that), or do another knot and cut the
loose ends evenly to make a little tassel.
If you decide to try it, have fun -
but remember to keep notes of exactly what you've used and done for each braid
(the number, colours and type of threads and the placement of each thread on the
disc and which thread you've moved and what direction)
- because you might want to repeat that nice looking braid you make OR, you
might want to note what DOESN'T work.
Bye for now.
