So the question was, as I was digging around in the archives, why include this fugly, except for completeness’ sake? But as I slowly detangled my old notes, and put photos of braids with the notes, I realized I had a very specific problem these samples were designed to address. This would be the first time I actually made samples before just wading onto the ‘good threads’.

experimental oval braid. Section I is closest to viewer, at the bottom of the image in this photograph.

• ecru 2 ply needlework wool (E/W)
• pink and brown ‘sugar'n’spice’ cotton (N/S)
• 1st section: heavier pink for square part of braid
• white wool (on sides, e/w) for tabby/keiruiko no himo part
• 2nd section: same as above, but 2x2 repeats of each pattern
• 3rd section: rotated setup 90deg, reversing fibers, 1x1
• 4th section: 1 repeat cotton tabby (sides); 2x square wool (N/S)
• 5th section: 2 repeats cotton tabby; 1x square wool (?)
• 6th section: 3 and 3, with a 1x1 break
• 7th section: mystery (very short) probably where I went to 1x1 of weird tabby
• 8th section: 3x3 of weird tabby (on the wool)
• 9th section: rearranged ends in 8 sets of 2, commenced oimatsu
• 10th: standard keiruko no himo

completed 04apr12

It was kind of exciting to figure out what I was attempting three years ago. What's most interesting to me is how some of those patterns echoed what I would learn, almost exactly three years later, in Tada-sensai's class. Which means, I guess, that I had better hurry up and finish off the sample braid I started in that class!

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