I've recommended Mountain Loom company for years as my source for kumi equipment, and after waffling—literally for years—I finally decided to purchase another set of 8 100g tama, bringing the total up to 24. Good thing I didn't wait any longer, because Mountain Loom is basically out of the business; so, should I want any more (not that I think 32 would fit without going to a bigger marudai) I'd have to find a new vendor.

The good news is, evidently there are a lot of ’em out there now. Or so they implied when I talked to them about this.

This braid is roughly 2’ long and perhaps an inch or an inch and a quarter (25–30mm) wide.

This is a flat pattern I've actually been doing, on and off, for nearly two years: I decided to make quite a long braid with 16 strands of rainbow colored crochet cotton, and kept screwing up the pattern, which meant it took me a very long time to finish it. So I made this shorter version to practice the sequence, which is simply called 16L (p.58) in Jacqui Carey's Creative Kumihimo. It's a pretty braid, not quite symmetrical: you can see a long stitch running down the center of the braid, but I'm ready to take a break from this, and return to my beloved keiruko no himo (tabby weave round braid) which I seldom screw up and know how to fix when I do.

I didn't achieve anything particularly earth-shattering in my arrangement of the colors, but it's kind of cool to me just because it is so wide and there is a bit of a criss-cross moving through the braid, so it's not totally random looking (I can show that one next time...;)

file created 24nov07. Braid completed fall 2007. Hand painted cotton.

Unless otherwise noted, text, image and objects depicted therein copyright 1996--present sylvus tarn.