Teg
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There are actually a couple possibilities, which can be done in flat as well as round braids. General rule: The finer your thread is and the more strings you take, the better it will look. Loosely sorted in order of difficulty:
1) as mentioned by Drakolith: Just drop it, continue braiding, cut off closely once done. Drawback: will not look nice with large diameter string, possibility to unravel if you do not take that many threads (secure it with glue, tape, sewing or wrapping).
2) If using plied string or twine (much commercial string is 2 or 3 ply), cut one ply, unravel and drop it, continue braiding, do the same with the next ply, etc. until the string you want to drop vanishes. Cut close to the finished braid once done. There is the possibility to also only remove parts of plies if a really smooth transition is required.
3) If using multiple strings per strand, separate the plies as in 2), twist remaining plies to another string in the strand and continue to cut plies while braiding.
4) Pull the string to be dropped into the core and cut it there or taper it by removing plies as in 2). Except reduction in diameter, no loose ends or fibers will be visible on the surface. Pulling the string into the core is obvious with round braids. The flat standard braid actually has two cores. One on the left, another on the right. See appended picture on how to do it: a sketch with a track plan (how the strings move), a drawing and the actual braid. I used core 2, but you could use both cores at the same time. Up to now, I never bothered to do this in a sling.
Hint for the ambitioned braider: Variation 4) can also be used for changing colors in flat braids. Hide one or more colors in the cores, braid the other one, then swap out threads.
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