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What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids (Read 737 times)
JudoP
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What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Jan 12th, 2021 at 11:40am
 
Hello all,

I'm looking at some of the designs in my new book of Andean sling braids. I was just wondering what kind of yarn weight you all use. I've made a couple wool slings with DK (light worsted) and then aran (worsted) however to get any thickness you need a truly huge number of yarns, I think I reached 48 or 52 in my last one and that was with aran/worsted. Of course this does have the advantage of simpler tapering.

Do you double/triple them, or use thicker yarn to begin with? the rate of progress using single strands of DK is truly glacial as they become what looks like sub-mm thickness when put under tension. Also, even a 24 strand braid with a core of 16 wouldn't give enough thickness for me with this weight (close though).

I'm working with the card at the moment and not sure if multiple strands will work very well with it(?) I've done some small fist braided 8 strand stuff with thicker nylon cord and seems ok, but I can't get particularly good tightness even pulling pretty hard after every pass.
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Teg
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #1 - Jan 12th, 2021 at 12:35pm
 
Doubling / tripling will depend on the project. Usually I choose very light Merino for bracelets and the like (it's not a good choice for slings and it might be tricky to work with for beginners!).  I don't remember the weight.

Regarding slings, I've made good experiences with sock wool. 170 g per 100 m, 3 ply. 24 strand braids usually, single string per strand (i.e. not doubled).

JudoP wrote on Jan 12th, 2021 at 11:40am:
I'm working with the card at the moment and not sure if multiple strands will work very well with it(?)

Do yourself a favour and throw the card away, and go fist-supported braiding or marudai Cheesy
You will curse a bit more in the beginning, but it is worth it in the long run. I never got along with the card. It's slow and proper tightening is a pain with the card in my opinion.

JudoP wrote on Jan 12th, 2021 at 11:40am:
I've done some small fist braided 8 strand stuff with thicker nylon cord and seems ok, but I can't get particularly good tightness even pulling pretty hard after every pass.


Pull/tighten mainly the lowers. The uppers don't need to be tightened, but just be firm-ish.
Thin-ish slippery cord can be tricky to tighten.



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Morphy
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #2 - Jan 13th, 2021 at 2:49am
 
Teg and Jaegoor are just about the most knowledgeable people here on braiding. You can't go wrong listening to either of them. Also there is a long thread on braiding questions I set up if you want to peruse through it.

The other day I bought 48 skeins of embroidery floss. It's naturally made with 6 loosely twisted sub plies which makes tapering easy even if each cord is a single ply.

It also comes in a wide range of colors and is fairly cheap and  easy to find.

Though it also has plenty of drawbacks so it's not exactly ideal either. If I have success with it I'll post the finished sling hopefully in the next week or so and give any more details on how it worked.
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hubert
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #3 - Jan 13th, 2021 at 6:23am
 
For 16 strands of round braiding, I will use 100m to 100g yarn. I also worked with 80m on 100g. Remember that you can braid a lot more tightly with thicker yarn, making the sling less stretchy. 

https://hansafarm.com/alpakawolle/baby-alpakawolle/
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MirkoSling
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #4 - Jan 13th, 2021 at 10:02am
 
Teg wrote on Jan 12th, 2021 at 12:35pm:
Do yourself a favour and throw the card away, and go fist-supported braiding

Do you have any good resources on fist braiding? Like how to get started, different patterns and that sort of stuff.
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JudoP
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #5 - Jan 13th, 2021 at 2:21pm
 
Alright I'll have a proper go at fist braiding then. Making a marudai is a longer term project- I have to ask what do you make of the marudai with a the hanger above which holds core strands (presented in the book)? Do you bother with core strands? If so, are they a problem on a normal marudai, or with fist braiding?

In terms of weights it looks like I'm definitely gonna want to double strands, the stuff I currently have is about 230m/100g so pretty thin compared to what you guys are using.
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hubert
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #6 - Jan 14th, 2021 at 9:51am
 
Fist braid is better for wool because it can be braided very tightly and the end product becomes less elastic.
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Teg
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #7 - Jan 15th, 2021 at 3:28pm
 
My advice is to not bother with a core unless you really want one for patterns / color substitutions / other uses like tapering.

Fistbraiding: A core is not a problem, just an added challenge  Wink . You just have to shuffle it around while braiding, so it requires a bit more organization. Making the correct pattern can be a bit tricky until you memorized it.


Marudai: This type of hanger I never tried. I think it could work quite well. Cores with the marudai are not really a problem. Currently I'm using a simple gallow to make my cores, but I might make a more elaborate setup once I have a need to. I found balancing core thickness and tensions a bit more difficult compared to fistbraiding.

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Teg
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Re: What weight of yarn do you use for sling braids
Reply #8 - Jan 15th, 2021 at 3:41pm
 
MirkoSling wrote on Jan 13th, 2021 at 10:02am:
Do you have any good resources on fist braiding? Like how to get started, different patterns and that sort of stuff.


Free of charge: https://backstrapweaving.wordpress.com/tutorials/tutorial-palma-and-margarita-br
aids/
https://www.jeanleader.net/othercrafts/peruvianbraid.html

Books:
"Sling Braiding: Traditions and Techniques" by Owen (focussed on braiding with a stand, also shows how to make the pouch)
and
"Slingbraiding of the Andes" by Cahlander (focussed on fistbraiding)

If you like crazy stuff: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emwKrYT2f0s
(merging braids, some core-like stuff)
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