A simple lace cord project
While I was sick this week, I had a hard time doing anything requiring my hands to hold anything fine (no embroidery), or standing for long (no fabric cutting) or, well much of anything but sitting which got boring after a short time. While I could have played Angry Birds, and did, it also would hurt after awhile.
So I realized that I needed an easy project, that would be easy on the hands. On a FB group, we got talking about laces (as in cords for points), which reminded me I needed more lace for a couple of projects, and that reminded me that I had the simple supplies I would need already. So I got to work making up a new cord making tool - based on the first one I got some years ago but lost after I had made only one cord.
Jagged Striped Cord
This shows the cord's striped pattern, which slowly angles to the right as I turn the disk to the left. I'm over 2 yards at this point, which will be used for a couple or three different projects.
Cord Setup Pattern
To recreate this jagged striped pattern design, setup your cords in this manner with your chosen three colors.
Cord in progress
There are seven bobbins of cord, 3 of yellow, 3 of blue and 1 of white. The small binder clip provides initial weight to the cord and later helps keep it all in a neat bundle.
The tool is called a braiding disk, and it was the first cord making tool I learned about when I joined the SCA, from a class taught at our Academia by Lady Kaolin Sundafyller, who is our local small goods weaver. It was taught so we could make award cords for the Kingdom, but I've yet to make any to do that - but I will. I've got enough threads for that.
The first cord I made changed its pattern a couple of times from me not realizing what I was doing, so I use it for lacing up my effigy pair of bodies. I need a new lacing cord for my next kirtle, and I need a nice cord to hang my brass needle case from, so that's why I am making this cord.
There are various instructions for it online, so I won't repeat any of it here. I will just post a few links, as there are a number of braiding disks available - mostly for kumihimo which this might be related to (I don't know):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glorioushats/sets/72157621001711086/
This is the best of the three links I found for the shape of the card (mine is modified a bit), how it all goes together, and how the braiding happens.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-friendship-bracelets-using-a-braiding-disc/
This has a good video showing the braiding in process
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-weave-medieval-cords-for-trimming-bracelet/
This one has another template, but round instead of an octagon. I like the octagon shape better for some reason.
I made mine 3" across from graph paper in an octagon shape, cut it out, traced it around a 3/8" thick craft foam sheet I bought at Joann's (the thick, soft squishy kind of foam kids use for crafts), and then cut it out with a pair of craft scissors. I snipped out the center into a vague hole, snipped the centers of each edge into a V with a slit at the point (this slit is what's important), and then gave my hands a rest before continuing.
Then it was time to measure and wind 7 different threads of pearl cotton which I had bought a few years ago for this. I put on 5 yards of each color onto the cardboard embroidery bobbins with a loop to hold the threads under a little tension (don't remember the name of the loop - half-hitch maybe??), then rested again. Ok, so this was supposed to make things easier on me than my other projects - but I was getting close to done so I continued making sure to rest my hands when they would ache.
Knotting the ends of the strings, I stuck that in the hole, placed the little binder clip on the that knot, and laid out the threads across the top in some sort of pattern, which you see above. How you set up the initial cords is what determines the patterns. Most are some form of 3/4 colors, but I wanted to use my SCA colors which is mostly blue, gold, and of course that silver streak of white. I had no idea what my pattern would look like initially, but I like how it has come out, and I call it a "jagged stripe", since that's what it looks like. The stripe slowly winds around the cord, which is interesting. The white dots kinda disappear among the yellow, but that's ok - I know it is there.
And yes, working this has been easy on the hands as I don't have to really hold anything for long, and I can put it down whenever I need to without worry.
The main thing about this is the tension. The sites comment on that a little, but really, if you want the cord to be firmly woven together, you have to make sure to put each cord into the proper slit, and that the top of the disk has the strings flat and smooth so it all feeds into the cord evenly. Once you get the hang of moving the cord into the slit, and then moving the disk, it all kinda falls into a nice zen-like rhythm which can go pretty fast - until the bobbins are near the top and they have to be let out again for more thread.
The nice thing about this kind of cord, compared to a lucet cord is how it has a little stretch - like fingerlooped braids do. Once I'm done with the cord, I'll cut it into pieces, add an aglet to the lacing cord, make tassled ends for the needlecase, and make a few friendship cords for my daughter to wear or give to her friends. I'll post followup pics later.
So I realized that I needed an easy project, that would be easy on the hands. On a FB group, we got talking about laces (as in cords for points), which reminded me I needed more lace for a couple of projects, and that reminded me that I had the simple supplies I would need already. So I got to work making up a new cord making tool - based on the first one I got some years ago but lost after I had made only one cord.
Jagged Striped Cord
This shows the cord's striped pattern, which slowly angles to the right as I turn the disk to the left. I'm over 2 yards at this point, which will be used for a couple or three different projects.
Cord Setup Pattern
To recreate this jagged striped pattern design, setup your cords in this manner with your chosen three colors.
Cord in progress
There are seven bobbins of cord, 3 of yellow, 3 of blue and 1 of white. The small binder clip provides initial weight to the cord and later helps keep it all in a neat bundle.
The tool is called a braiding disk, and it was the first cord making tool I learned about when I joined the SCA, from a class taught at our Academia by Lady Kaolin Sundafyller, who is our local small goods weaver. It was taught so we could make award cords for the Kingdom, but I've yet to make any to do that - but I will. I've got enough threads for that.
The first cord I made changed its pattern a couple of times from me not realizing what I was doing, so I use it for lacing up my effigy pair of bodies. I need a new lacing cord for my next kirtle, and I need a nice cord to hang my brass needle case from, so that's why I am making this cord.
There are various instructions for it online, so I won't repeat any of it here. I will just post a few links, as there are a number of braiding disks available - mostly for kumihimo which this might be related to (I don't know):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/glorioushats/sets/72157621001711086/
This is the best of the three links I found for the shape of the card (mine is modified a bit), how it all goes together, and how the braiding happens.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Make-friendship-bracelets-using-a-braiding-disc/
This has a good video showing the braiding in process
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-weave-medieval-cords-for-trimming-bracelet/
This one has another template, but round instead of an octagon. I like the octagon shape better for some reason.
I made mine 3" across from graph paper in an octagon shape, cut it out, traced it around a 3/8" thick craft foam sheet I bought at Joann's (the thick, soft squishy kind of foam kids use for crafts), and then cut it out with a pair of craft scissors. I snipped out the center into a vague hole, snipped the centers of each edge into a V with a slit at the point (this slit is what's important), and then gave my hands a rest before continuing.
Then it was time to measure and wind 7 different threads of pearl cotton which I had bought a few years ago for this. I put on 5 yards of each color onto the cardboard embroidery bobbins with a loop to hold the threads under a little tension (don't remember the name of the loop - half-hitch maybe??), then rested again. Ok, so this was supposed to make things easier on me than my other projects - but I was getting close to done so I continued making sure to rest my hands when they would ache.
Knotting the ends of the strings, I stuck that in the hole, placed the little binder clip on the that knot, and laid out the threads across the top in some sort of pattern, which you see above. How you set up the initial cords is what determines the patterns. Most are some form of 3/4 colors, but I wanted to use my SCA colors which is mostly blue, gold, and of course that silver streak of white. I had no idea what my pattern would look like initially, but I like how it has come out, and I call it a "jagged stripe", since that's what it looks like. The stripe slowly winds around the cord, which is interesting. The white dots kinda disappear among the yellow, but that's ok - I know it is there.
And yes, working this has been easy on the hands as I don't have to really hold anything for long, and I can put it down whenever I need to without worry.
The main thing about this is the tension. The sites comment on that a little, but really, if you want the cord to be firmly woven together, you have to make sure to put each cord into the proper slit, and that the top of the disk has the strings flat and smooth so it all feeds into the cord evenly. Once you get the hang of moving the cord into the slit, and then moving the disk, it all kinda falls into a nice zen-like rhythm which can go pretty fast - until the bobbins are near the top and they have to be let out again for more thread.
The nice thing about this kind of cord, compared to a lucet cord is how it has a little stretch - like fingerlooped braids do. Once I'm done with the cord, I'll cut it into pieces, add an aglet to the lacing cord, make tassled ends for the needlecase, and make a few friendship cords for my daughter to wear or give to her friends. I'll post followup pics later.