Anyone exploring these pages for long will have deduced that I enjoy gradual shifts, particularly color–what is known as ombres. I create ombre-shaded strands of beads all the time by careful color selection, enjoy using ombres in my embroidery (particularly with satin stitch) and so incorporating ombres in braids was a very natural decision for me.

To really get them to work, however, one must carefully cut the strands in order to control how the colors combine over the length of the fiber (or over time in braiding), and I'm too lazy, usually, to really control these factors. Even with my sloppy approach, however, the use of ombre yarns can yield some attractive effects, as with these orange braids.

As you can see below I also enjoy making extravagant tassels. It's quite likely these braids came out of a demo for my elder child's kindergarten class. At any rate, the braids, made of inexpensive “sugar'n’spice” 100% cotton yarn, are 1cm in diameter. They make nice ties for glass rod wraps.

Cotton yarn. 16 strand “keiriko no himo”—a twill, or over under pattern. I think of this as the “star” pattern, for the appearance of the point of braiding, which rather resembles one of those islamic 8-pointed stars. Though perhaps the simplest of all weaves, it's nonetheless elegant, easy to do, and attractive, and my favorite braid to do.

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