More Fun With String--Chinese Buttons

The Byzantine himation, like the Byzantine shirt I've already made, will need a small button to close the neckline, just . Instead of using a small bell as a button, I decided to make a Chinese string button for the purpose.

To make the button, I began by making thread loops of strong, bright blue (and probably synthetic) string and fingerloop-braided them into a six-strand cord. It went quickly, proving that I hadn't forgotten the technique I had taught myself with the aid of my readers. :-)

Then I started looking on the Internet for instructions on how to knot a Chinese button. I quickly learned that there are an amazing number of instructions on the Internet showing how to knot the most basic style of Chinese button, and each one of them is different. Very different. Some of them I found too confusing to follow. Moreover, many of them require about 20 to 30 inches of cord. My little bit of six-strand cord was less than a foot long. Oops.

Eventually, I found this page, courtesy of Google Books, from a book called "The Complete Book of Decorative Knots". I can't explain why I was able to use this set of instructions, when the web pages with careful step-by-step instructions mystified me. The result of my efforts is shown in the accompanying photograph. (The photo is a closeup--the actual size of the button is about 1 cm in diameter.) It's not perfect, but it will do well enough. I plan to wrap the strings together to form a shank, and use some of the remaining cord to make a loop that will go around the button to fasten the neckline.

So, now I have a button for the neck, and the entire rest of the himation to make. Progress!

Fun with String--Part 6 (and last)

Success! of a sort.

Starting with 45-inch bowes, I managed to make a 30-inch braid of three "bowes," despite the fact that two of the bowes broke, near the end. It's not perfect, but overall it looks good enough to use.

The problem is that the completed braid will not reach from the bottom of the trim I intend to apply around the bust of the dress all the way to the hem; it falls about six to eight inches short.

I may use it anyway. After all, we don't really know how long the braid on the Hedeby dress extended; for all I know, Beatson's suggestion that the braid ran all the way down each side of the dress from top to bottom may be based on nothing more than modern ideas of what looks "right."

I think I'll make another braid (starting with slightly longer bowes) and continue pondering the question for a bit. Since I seem to have learned enough fingerloop technique for my purpose, I don't intend to post again on this subject for now.

Fun with String--Part 5

At this point, I can consistently braid a single braid with my three loops.

The only problem, as this photograph of a section of my long braid shows, is that the braid is more stretched out and not as tight as I'd like. I have been keeping tension on the braid as I work, and pulling my arms outward while holding the loops to try to tighten the braid, but it's not...quite... working.

I will continue to experiment, since even this loose braid is not as regular as I'd like. Any further suggestions will be gratefully appreciated.

Fun with String--Part 3

Last night, after only a little bit of tinkering, I came up with the following improvised set-up to make the 6-strand "bread braid" without going entirely crazy. (The ends of the strings, with their improvised bead weights, are hanging off the end of the table, out of view.)

The primary virtue of this set-up is that it helps keeps the strings from tangling into each other while I do the braiding. That's because the comb lets me keep each strand far enough away from the others to avoid tangling while maintaining the position of each strand in the sequence. Pearl was right--the beads don't do much to prevent tangling; they even tend to encourage it by giving the strings enough momentum while hanging to whip around each other. Clothespins, as she suggested, might be an improvement, but I don't have any handy (Curse my decadent American use of a clothes dryer!), so I won't be exploring that possibility.

The second photograph shows the amount of braid I've made so far (about 2 cm, more or less). Except for a few misplacements of strands (which I doubt will be noticeable in the ultimate use of the braid) it looks like what I have in mind; a round braid with alternating red and yellow bits.

Still, I need to make another braid for the other side. This method is taking long enough that I will probably try a stitch in time's suggestion for making it as a 3-loop fingerloop braid. Doing so *should* be faster, and it's okay by me if the result is flat on one side and round on the other, since the braid is being made to be sewn onto a dress. I can always put the braid on the dress with the flat side down.

Fun with String--Part 2

I took a look at the book I had, Compleat Anachronist No. 108, Fingerloop Braids, but could not find any directions for 6 strand braids (and only one for 6-"bowe" braids that I didn't understand).

So I went back to my sample piece and my challah-dough directions, and tried again. I think I'm getting the hang of it; I just need to take things slower. After I prove to myself that I can braid a reasonable length without screwing up noticeably, I think I'll cut a set of pieces long enough to make a braid to go entirely down one of the dress sides and try braiding it.

I also think that I'll weight down each of the string ends with a bead or something like that. One of the toughest parts to this is keeping track of which string is which after they've stuck together farther down than where the braid is forming.

Fun with String--Part 1

One of the Hedeby fragments that inspired Peter Beatson's proposed Viking apron dress pattern has a six-strand braid, made with red and yellow threads, sewn onto it. I've decided I want to do the same with my dress, so I started combing the Internet for directions on how to make a six-strand braid. Any 6-strand braid would do, since I don't know how the one on the Hedeby fragment was made, and I can't visualize well enough to deduce the braiding directions from the sketches of the braid I've seen.

Guess what? One can easily find lots of sites with directions for making four, five, eight, even 12-strand braids and fingerloop braids. But six? that's much harder to find, for some reason.

The first site I found with real directions was this one, and I wasn't sure that I could effectively execute that technique effectively with long strings (I figure I need two completed braids each of which is about 40 inches long--one for each side of the dress).

An amazing number of 6-strand braiding sites involve the making of challah, a kind of braided Jewish bread. Still, the directions given on this bread site appear to be both simple and effective, even if the pictures showing the braiding of glistening bread dough make me a bit queasy. :-)

Come to think of it, the pictures on the braided bread site look a *lot* like the sketches I've seen of the braid on the Hedeby piece (such as those are) and are so simple even I'm not likely to screw up too much.

I may as well try the "bread" braid first. After all, what do I have to lose, other than a few feet of yarn and some time?

(15 minutes later) I now know the answer to my question; I could lose my mind. I've tried both sets of directions, and find them confusing even with the 12-inch strands I cut for a "test run."

Fortunately, I have a book about fingerloop braiding; I should look that up and see if it has directions that confuse me less.