Kumihimo Cord

Day 64: A friend asked me to weave a strap for one of her musical instruments, and although I'm not done with the weaving yet, I decided to get started on the cords she'll be using to attach it. Since I don't know what will work best, I'll be making an assortment of cords in various weights, using several different techniques including kumihimo, as shown in this photo. Kumihimo could be called a type of weaving, although it is more often referred to as "braiding" and is closely related to sinnet-making as seen in marlinespike work, but on a much smaller scale. Progressing around the disk, the threads are brought over one another in a specific order to achieve a pattern (in this case, a spiral of three colours). As each sequence progresses, the disk is rotated in the hand. It's relatively mindless work and somewhat time-consuming, but it provides a nice break from the focus required in weaving the matching band.

Fiber Artist In Residence

Day 57: Just so nobody thinks I'm slackin' off during the pandemic, I thought I'd pull a few of my current projects together for a group photo, emphasis on the words "a few." There are others which, for want of space, simply couldn't be accommodated, like spinning, weaving on the floor loom, piecework for another quilt. I do not believe in letting my hands rest idle unless they are holding a book or puzzle, and as I have said repeatedly to friends of late, I have the attention span of a nervous gerbil. Some processes demand longer stints of activity than others, but many of these crafts are such that I can do a row here, a few throws there, fifty stitches in another place and then move on to something else. This keeps me from getting bored (a mood I fall into all too easily), and a bored Crow is a cranky Crow, and a cranky Crow should really come with a big red warning label.

A bit of backstory here: one of the first full-time jobs I ever held was that of art-needlework consultant for a chain of three stores on the east coast. I was already well-versed in many forms of needlework, although at the time, I leaned more heavily toward knitting than anything else. It was during my employment that I learned to tat with a shuttle, rounding out a knowledge base of the most common types of needlcraft. As I matured, I kept searching out other needlework methods: tvistsom, Russian knotwork, netting, cardweaving. Admittedly, I found that I didn't enjoy each as much as the others, and some were abandoned forevermore (I will never be a fan of macrame, although I love marlinespike work). For the most part, I prefer to work with finer threads than with yarn, although knitting still ranks among my favourite pastimes, and when I do crochet, I seldom use a thread larger than size 30. Weaving, whether on the floor loom or my small rigid heddle, is also high on the list. It is a rare day when I don't have a knitting project in progress or the big loom stands empty.

So...to the details, then. My living space has been occupied with one quilt or another for at least the last four years straight, so the Hexagons form an appropriate background for (top left, going counterclockwise): kumihimo (beaded), crochet (a pineapple tablecloth motif using ecru vintage thread), peg-loom knitting, rigid-heddle weaving, nalbinding (an Ugly Yarn project), knitting, and last, hanging on an inprompu loom in front of the fireplace bricks, sprang (again using the Ugly Yarn seen in the nalbinding legwarmers). Ya think I have enough to keep me busy for a while?

Kumihimo At The Next Level

Day 31: I find kumihimo to be a very relaxing craft, so I decided to change it up a bit to add beads to the customary braided cords. This makes the third technique I have used to create the flower pattern shown here: regular beadwork, crochet and now kumihimo. Each method has its own drawbacks and advantages. Beadwork tends to be more rigid, and while that is fine for short sections, it doesn't work well as a full-length necklace. The advantage is that each bead is picked up individually, and doesn't require meticulously accurate stringing of a pattern. Crocheting with a slip-stitch is a lengthy and somewhat tedious process, plus the beads need to be strung in order on the thread prior to starting the work, making a rather cumbersome mass when wound back onto the ball. The advantage to crochet is that it is more flexible while still being reasonably compact. Made in kumihimo, the work is more open, leaving thread visible if the beads are irregular, but the necklace has a nice fluidity and a more obvious spiral. An additional plus is that more beads can be added to the strand as required, and errors in picking are easy to remedy. I started with 120 on each thread and have added more in batches of sixty several times. However, given the construction of kumihimo versus that of crochet, accidental breakage of a strand in the finished product would result in a major disaster in the kumihimo version as opposed to a minor (if annoyingly demanding) repair in crochet.

Attention Span

Day 11: I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but presently, my attention span is equivalent to that of a nervous gerbil. I can't focus, can't stick with any project more than five minutes, am flitting from craft to craft like a butterfly in a summer meadow. A twenty-throw sequence on the loom seems interminable, two full rotations of the kumihimo disk almost more than I can manage before I feel I can no longer sit still and dart out to feed the birds. Fortunately, I'm not a nail-biter or I'd have them chewed to the bone. That said, I want to feel I've accomplished something, completed a project, finished a task to reassure myself that I have some marginal control over the pattern of my life instead of feeling like Sisyphus, endlessly pushing his rock up the hill only to have it roll back down again. To keep from tearing out my remaining hair, I turn the disk again, draw the weft across the warp, finding little of the comfort I once took in watching fabric grow beneath my hands.

Crow's Rule Of Projects

Day 294: The success of any venture necessitates a little self-analysis in order to form a game plan. Recognizing your weaknesses is crucial, to wit, I have a short attention span. I get bored with projects quickly. Having recognized this failing when I was still in my early 20s, I formulated a "rule of projects," and by sticking to it religiously (whether I want to or not), anything I start gets finished eventually. What's Crow's Rule of Projects? It's simple: I can't have more than one craft of any type going at once. If I want to weave something different, the project currently on the loom has to be completed before I can start a new weaving, or I have to finish knitting the Perpetual Afghan before I can start a hat or pair of socks. Sometimes I need a little extra push, like finding a yarn I particularly want to use for a garment or having a brainstorm with respect to something I'd like to give as a gift. That's motivation to finish up the current work. I should also mention that it's okay to have more than one project going, but only one piece of knitting on the needles, one doily on the crochet hook, one quilt in the hoop at any one time. In fact, it's preferable because it keeps me from getting burned out.

These are a few of my current boredom-beaters. The silver Gotland wool arrived on Wednesday and I've already spun about two ounces out of twenty-four. I re-warped the loom yesterday to make a couple of knitting worsted bags (quick work), and then there's the ongoing quilt and a kumihimo braid. With each of these, I set minimum goals per sitting, i.e., I will spin three tufts of wool each time I work at the wheel, stitch one rectangle and two squares whenever I quilt. I generally exceed the minimums, but there are times when I move from loom to spinning wheel immediately after the requisite throws in the pattern have been made. Some things can be dropped in mid-work; kumihimo is easy to lay down, so I haven't established a minimum for braiding. It's "filler" for when I need a break between long-term crafts. Crow's Rule of Projects works!

Kumihimo Braiding

Day 177: I have to admit that I don't know much about the history of kumihimo beyond the fact that it originated in Japan and was traditionally made on a barstool-like table called a marudai. Wikipedia goes into greater detail, as do many websites. I became interested in it as a means of making sinnets such as those created by sailors and depicted in "Ashley's Book of Knots" and other nautical references. Kumihimo can be done much more quickly and at least in my hands, with more even tension than working with untensioned cord, and of course by using a kumihimo loom (disk or plate), much finer threads can be employed. Durable closed-cell foam looms are available in many craft stores. Good threads are somewhat harder to come by. The craft outlets push nylon rattail and hemp, both of which give a coarse, clunky product unlike silk, rayon or floss. Kumihimo has seen an upsurge in popularity over the last few years thanks to the attention it has received from the jewelry trade, and much modern kumihimo is done with beads strung on the warp. However, I feel that its true beauty lies in the intricate patterns which can be woven with variously coloured cords. Here, I've done up some samples in simple 8-strand and 12-strand braiding. The blue/green/purple strand is a work in progress.