This was the second of a pair of braids I made in fairly quick succession while I was able to do yoga: I would do a brief morning practice, then braid (instead of shivansa), which in addition to the meditative aspects was also helping to open my hips.

This braid has not quite two repeats, and the braided portion measures 6’ (slightly stretched) long and 3mm in diameter.

“raspberry” braid. 16 strands, 100gm bobbins, plain tabby/keiruko no himo, twisted diamond pattern. Completed early 2012. Photographed 2mar12.

I used two similar colorways of lizbeth brand size 20 ombre colored crochet cotton. On the right, color #124, which has a 4 color repeat (olive, lime, fuchsia, pink), totaling about 4’; there were, iirc 3 sets of repeats (i.e. 12’) which braided down to half that. The left spool, which despite the different shape of the ball is the same brand, though I've lost the card. It is lavender, dark magenta purple, dark pink (more orange than the fuchsia) and olive.

Though the lavender and olive sections of the braid are rather bland, I'm very happy with the remainder—I love the way the diamonds transition to the subtle shifts in the dark pink parts. There is at least one error near the beginning of the braid, which reversed the diamond and ground, and the quality of the braiding is not especially high, as it's quite uneven.

Nevertheless I'm very happy with the way it came out.

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