Kumihimo Continues...

My new project is a 10 strand laramie braid using the lace weight merino.  Each spool has two strand of yarn, 7 feet per strand.  They're all carefully woven around a rat tail core.  Note to self:  Find core material alternatives as I only have so much rat tail and it makes a good cord all on its own.

Here's the yarn with a piece of the braid in front of it.

Here's a close up of the braid.

Here's what the under construction part looks like on the braiding disc.

The rat tail core is that yellow bit sticking up out of the middle of the disk.

When I finish it's either going to become the body of a necklace with an added pendant, or might become a tether for eyeglasses.  I won't know until I get there.

.....

On another note, I decide to jump into a BNS treasury deal on Etsy.  We'll see how it goes.  For those of you that have no idea what I'm talking about, Etsy is an online marketplace for people to sell their handcrafted goods, vintage goods and crafting supplies.  A treasury is where someone puts together a collection of picture of items from the Etsy shops around a theme of their choosing.  A treasury can feature anywere from 1 to 16 items in it.  Finally, a BNS treasury is a marketing beastie.  The idea is that you spend a predetermined amount shopping from one of the 16 people currently listed in exchange for getting one of your own items listed for sale in the next round.  Since I haven't made any sales directly from the Etsy marketing options, I decided to try this.  At least this way, even if I don't sell my item, I'll still have the other item I bought to show for my efforts.

I bought this from the last treasury round:  http://www.etsy.com/transaction/80519169

And here's the treasury for the next round.  My item is the bracelet with the Evelyn Leinbach lampwork bead.  http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MTI4MzMwMjh8MjcyMjc3MTk2MA/open-best-of-etsy-by-ecochicsoaps-rnd 

Lace Weight Yarn

I think I finally have an idea on how to integrate my beautiful lace weight yarn with other crafts. 

I broke out my Kumihimo (Japanese braiding technique) supplies after the bead show - after buying some gorgeous ribbon and cording.  Looking through one of my books, I found a pattern for something called a Laramie braid.  It uses 10 spool with two strand of fiber per spool and is woven around a solid core.  When I finish my test piece, it'll be time to cut into the good stuff.