I was chatting with IronGoober about even-stranded braiding patterns(6, 8, 10, 12 etc) and stumbled across something I feel like some of you may enjoy.

The original idea was to find a way to make an even-stranded flat braid - since doing the traditional pattern from a 5 or 7 strand braid with 6 strands(or any even number) results in one side being thicker than the other (3 on one side, 2 on the other) which causes the braid to naturally twist as you go along.

So I figured that part out. But in doing so, I found that modifying that new pattern could result in some really cool looking slings with alternating colors, not to mention that it creates a cool braid that I don't think I've seen before in a sling.

So the basic idea is the same as a standard 5-strand braid: you pass the "outside" strand on each side to the center. But the change is where the "center" is in this case. The basic pattern is this:

Right strand passes over 3 strands
Left strand passes over 2 strands
Right strand passes over 2 strands
Left strand passes over 3 strands
etc...

So it goes 3,2,2,3,3,2,2,3,3,2,2,3,3,2,2,3,3,2,2 and on.

However, this doesn't result in a normal continuous braid. If you do this with tight cord rather than fibers, it's a little more obvious what's happening - see my first photo.

Those little air gaps between are the "2-pass" parts. And what's actually happening there is you are creating a small section of 3-strand twisted rope.

Then, when you switch to the "3-pass" part of the pattern, you are passing one of the strands of the twisted rope over to the other side(and vice versa with the other side), which locks the two twisted strands together into a more traditional looking braid.

But then when you switch back to the 2-pass part, that passed-over strand gets locked into the next section of twisted rope.

And on and on from there.

But now for the cool part - you can extend the 2-pass part pretty much as far as you want, creating longer sections of parallel twisted rope on each side, crossing over whenever you like to create a specific pattern - see my second photo. These are each maybe 5 or 6 rounds of 2-pass section before doing a 3-pass.

This could get particularly cool using different color strands since you pretty much have full control over where each color ends up and could even change that pattern at any time during the braid by simply making a slightly longer or shorter twisted section before passing a strand over to the other side. So you could have alternating patterns inside your alternating patterns! I don't have the patience for anything beyond functionality in a sling, but there are plenty of you out there that make some serious works of art that I'm sure could give this an incredible treatment!

Some other cool features of this pattern:

[olist]

You can transition to a pouch whenever you'd like without any complicated "knee" pattern - simply extend your 2-pass parts even longer to make a 3-strand twisted rope pouch, then merge them back together with the same 3-pass you were using for the rest of the sling and resume your retention cord pattern.

Or if you want a flatter pouch, you could transition to a regular 3-strand braid for each side of the pouch, then merge them back together the same way as you would the twisted rope pouch and resume your retention cord pattern.

You can do the original 3223 pattern for any sections where you want a fairly tight traditional braid like the finger loop or the grip section of your release cord. It does leave little air gaps, but when pulled tight with fibrous material like polypropylene or natural fibers, the gaps will be quite small and it will look and feel much like a 5-strand braid.

In theory, you could do this with any even number of strands, but it would get complicated real fast. I would say it's probably best to just double-up strands rather than adding extra strands to manage.

You could probably also set it up to have your pass-over strands cross at different times rather than on top of each other, leading to a cool zig-zag pattern. You'd have to figure out how to balance the thickness of the two sides and I haven't dug into that yet, but it seems like a decently easy problem to solve.
[/olist]

But now some cons/notes:

[olist]

Nothing holds the pass-over strands apart, so there's nothing keeping the two twisted strands apart unless you've got ammo in the pouch putting tension on the sling overall. So this pattern probably wouldn't make a particularly stiff sling, but that's also true of most single-strand slings so I don't think it'll really be a problem.

The pass-over strands are somewhat single points of failure. If they get nicked, that section of the sling will open up and could cause a problem. In practice this probably won't cause any issues, but definitely protect the connections near your pouch.

You can't continue the 3-pass section any further than one round on right and left. It's hard to explain why without showing it, but basically the very middle strand ends up not moving at all and eventually falls out the back and you will have transitioned into a 5-strand braid. Try it and you'll see what I mean.

It's very easy to get lost and mess up your pattern. Different color strands would help with this, but overall it's a lot more to keep track of than a standard 5-strand braid. Not to mention the muscle memory doesn't translate well. Be prepared to go frustratingly slow for the first couple of feet ;D
[/olist]

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https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?action=downloadfile;file=2026-03-02_14_55_18.jpg (204 KB | 9 )

https://slinging.org/forum/YaBB.pl?action=downloadfile;file=2026-03-03_17_47_44.jpg (300 KB | 9 )

You can make netting this way.

Braid two or three braids like this in parallel at the same time.
When you get to half way on one of these these 2-pass parts, connect it with the same part on the adjacent braid for a short 3-pass section, then return it to the original braid.

erricrice wrote on Mar 3^rd, 2026 at 6:32pm:

The original idea was to find a way to make an even-stranded flat braid - since doing the traditional pattern from a 5 or 7 strand braid results in one side being thicker than the other (3 on one side, 2 on the other) which causes the braid to naturally twist as you go along.

I'm having issues understanding this part.

Braids are supposed to be braided from an odd number of strands, 3, 5, 7, 9 etc. They don't twist.

5 strand braid (odd number):
3 - 2
   \
2 - 3
   /
3 - 2
   \
2 - 3
(this produces a flat and straight braid).

6 strand braid (even number):
4 - 2
   \
3 - 3
   /
4 - 2
   \
3 - 3
(this braid is thicker on the left side and that produces a twist).

RhonanTennenbrook wrote on Mar 4^th, 2026 at 2:23am:

erricrice wrote on Mar 3rd, 2026 at 6:32pm: The original idea was to find a way to make an even-stranded flat braid - since doing the traditional pattern from a 5 or 7 strand braid results in one side being thicker than the other (3 on one side, 2 on the other) which causes the braid to naturally twist as you go along. I'm having issues understanding this part. Braids are supposed to be braided from an odd number of strands, 3, 5, 7, 9 etc. They don't twist.

Oh wow thanks for catching this! I omitted a key part in my original post. Edited now. What I meant is if you try to do a standard braid pattern, but using 6 strands(or any even number), you will end up with a twist.

I suppose I may as well include a photo of my experiment for that - I did this uneven 6-strand braid for a while to see how bad the twist would get, and it was pretty bad ;D


RhonanTennenbrook wrote on Mar 4^th, 2026 at 2:19am:

You can make netting this way. Braid two or three braids like this in parallel at the same time. When you get to half way on one of these these 2-pass parts, connect it with the same part on the adjacent braid for a short 3-pass section, then return it to the original braid.

Oh yeah I hadn't even though of that! But you could break these twisted strands down even further so there is only one yarn per strand to create a 6-strand net for the pouch as well.

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