Week 9 - Activity - Braiding with no earworms

 So, what people (other than April) might not know about me, is that my guilty pleasure is watching The Bachelor on TV. When people find this out, they often act surprised. I think it is a form of escapism - I hardly remember any of the names once the TV goes off, so I'm not super invested but still quite dedicated. It all started with a teacher friend and then 2 teacher friends (we all lived within 4 blocks of one another) - Monday night ritual: leave school at a decent hour, get some exercise (together or alone), and gather at one of our places for tea or wine, snacks, and The Bachelor/Bachelorette. If we had mindless school tasks to do (cutting things out, etc.) we might do that at the same time. We don't all live so close anymore and have different schedules than we used to for various reasons so it gradually fell off.

So, what does this have to do with this week's activity?

Me in my pigtails selling lemonade.

Well, there were TWO episodes of The Bachelor on this week. But there is also homework and projects to do.  Thanks to April's brilliant mind, I found myself doing homework and watching The Bachelor at the same time! OK...the activity took more visual attention than I thought so I really have to say I listened to the Bachelor while I did the activity!

I chose to do the braiding. I taught myself to braid my hair when I was in grade 1 (I am sure I had watched my mom braid my sister's hair to get a 'feel' for it). I wore pigtails and would play with them during carpet time at school. I remember being so proud that I figured it out and announced it when I got home from school. My mom's reaction was more about "why weren't you listening to the teacher?" than excitement that I had learned to braid, but I still felt very accomplished! It is a very distinct memory for me.

I watched the braiding videos that were recommended to us (all except the Seven Strands of Alphabetically Braided Crows - sorry, no more earworms for me! (see poetry week)). I already know how to 3-strand braid and the 5-strand and 4-strand seemed pretty straightforward. I was most intrigued by the 7-strand double braid and although the steps in the pattern (over the adjacent, under the next two) made sense I really wanted to see how it came together.

I dug out some 1mm beading cord I had and gave the 7-strand double braid a go and this is what I got:

7-strand double braid - 1st attempt

My total braid is about 15cm long and has some mistakes in it. It took me the whole second hour of The Bachelor to get through this!  The cord is quite slippery but also a little bit rigid and the braid wanted to flip around on me (I had it tied to a key ring which was safety-pinned to a pillow). The process and brain work was satisfying and I like looking at parts of it but I knew I'd be coming back and trying again.

Braiding material!

At work the next day, I noticed a pile of approximately 1m lengths of cotton string on my desk that was collected at the end of a circle investigation last week in a school (testing out an activity from the project I am doing with Cassie). Braiding material!  Into my bag it went.

The Bachelor second episode, here I come!

Tuesday night, I tried the 7-strand double-braid again, with string this time. There is a mistake it in (if I lost the "rhythm", it was hard to sort the strands out again) but on the whole, the cotton string was more satisfying to work with.  Here is the result:

7-strand double braid - 2nd attempt

Then I worked through braids with 3 strands (so I'd have a picture), 4 strands, and 5 strands:

3-strand braid

4-strand braid

5-strand braid

I found the 5-strand braid most satisfying because of the process and the result.  I could "choke" up on the braid with how I held my fingers and get a tight, even "layering" of the strands. The final result is quite firm but also flexible. It feels really strong.

The 4-strand was interesting just to try the process of the pattern. I found the little twist in the middle (2 over 3) interesting and hard to hold onto and keep twisted while making the next two moves. I really had to keep talking myself through the moves, out loud to start (with The Bachelor on pause) and then in my head. Once I got a few centimeters away from the starting point, it was easier to maneuver the strands rhythmically.

3, 4, 5, and 7-strands done!  I could move on...

...onto more braiding.

Wednesday night with no silly TV to watch, I got curious about what the 5 strand braid might look like in different colours. I pulled out the beading cord again and cut a length of blue and one of magenta (which I called 'red' in my head) each of which I folded in half, and then I cut a gray.  I tied them together so they were from left to right, blue, red, gray, red, blue. I started braiding. This was interesting because the colours prompted a little chant in my head that didn't stop even when I had a rhythmic flow going - blue, blue, red, red, gray, blue, blue, red, red, gray. It was interesting to see that the pattern started on the left the first time, the right the second, and back to the right and so on.  Here is the result:

5-strand in coloured beading cord

I started to write this post after braiding the 5-strand coloured braid. However, I remembered that one of the videos mentioned Celtic braiding and I had to investigate that.  The result was a quick exploration of a Celtic Bar and here it is:

Celtic Bar

I'm interested in trying this again with some material that will show the definition better. The pattern to this was a neat combination of folding loops over and behind and crossing them over each other alternating with doing the same with single strands.

I'd like to think I am done so I get on with other things but I have a sneaky feeling I might be trying out some other braiding/knotting crafts. Check back for edits to this blog post!