Man am I glad this battle of attrition is over. 11 strand braids are not for the faint of heart!
I was prepared for the knee and belly to be more difficult(although really they weren't that bad). But what I was not prepared for is the fact that it would take 3-4x more time overall to make!
Since there are more strands, each strand is smaller in diameter(I was targetting the same final weight as my 5 strand) which means that each pass results in less length and you have to do many, many more passes than you would with a 5 strand. Especially after the taper when the strands get teeny tiny! I swear that last few inches took an eternity.
When I finished, I told myself I'd never do another one of these...but man this thing is WAY stiffer than a 5 strand, even with my messy braid job. Significantly better angle control on release. I think it's going to be my daily driver for a while, we'll see if I feel the need to make a backup.
...and yes the dirty one is the new one, don't ask