Kumihimo tutorial: flat braid with hearts

I got the pattern for this braid from a friend of mine, who found it here: http://www.qvade.dk/paulette/Swap4.htm . It makes a flat braid, with a heart pattern running up the center. I am using 10/2 Uki red cotton weaving yarn for the background of this braid. The hearts are in an unlabeled cream colored cotton from my stash, that is about twice the thickness of the red. The finished width is about 1/8", which makes for a cute little delicate braid. I'm picturing using this as friendship bracelets, as necklace cording, as drawstrings, or as trim on a little bag.

Here's the finished braid:




And here's the process on my foam disk. This would probably go much faster on the wooden marudai stand, but I like carrying a project along with me, tucked into my purse. Somehow, the wooden stand just doesn't fit!

Here's the starting position. Notice, I've put a pencil mark on the foam at the bottom of the disk. That helps me keep track of which way I'm supposed to be holding this one, on the occasions that I have to put my braiding down.

We'll start with the threads at the top of the disk. The inner two threads will be moved. The outer two threads will stay on top for now.


Take the right hand, inner thread on the top. Move it over to the threads in the 9:00 position, and put it just below them.






Take the left hand, inner thread in the top position. Cross it over to the threads in the 3:00 position on the disk, and put it just below them.






Take the two remaining threads in the 12:00 position, and move them closer together.

That is the end of the first sequence.




Now, we're going to do something similar with the four threads at the bottom of the disk. The left hand inner thread will cross over to the 3:00 threads, and settle in above them.




The right hand inner thread at the bottom crosses over to the 9:00 threads, and settles above them.







Now, move the remaining two threads in the 6:00 position closer to each other.

That is the end of the second sequence. We started with 4 threads at the top and bottom. Now we have 4 threads on the sides.


Starting with the 9:00 threads. Again, we are only really concerned with the inner set of threads. Take the top inner thread on the left side, and move it down to the 6:00 threads. Put it to the left of these threads.



Take the bottom inner thread on the left hand side. Move it to the threads in the 12:00 position, and put it to the left of these threads.






Move the remaining threads closer to each other.

That is the end of the third sequence.





Finally, take the top inner thread at the right of the disk. Move it down to the threads in the 6:00 position, and settle it in to the right of them.






Take the bottom inner thread on the right hand side. Move it up to the threads in the 12:00 position. Put it to the right of these threads.






Move the remaining two threads closer to each other.

That is the end of the 4th sequence, and you have completed one repeat. You again have four threads in the top and bottom position. Start over from the beginning.