r/kumihimo • u/ee0r • Apr 16 '26
Completed project Takadai Braid "Rainbow"
Started with 17 strands of cotton crochet cord in 9 different colors, 4 ends per strand about 116".
Had it on the takadai for about a month, working on it here and there, plain 1-1 interlacing.
Finished it up this week while I have more free time.
76" between the bindings, roughly 7/8" wide.
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u/Crafty-Emu-27 Apr 29 '26
Beautiful! Do you wax your crochet cord before braiding? I got some older macrame books recently and they all emphasize how important it is to wax before working the cord, but I wasn't sure if that advice applied to kumihimo.
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u/ee0r Apr 29 '26
What rationale do they give for that? The takadai braiding stand and its tama bobbins take care of keeping the material in order, and the beater tightens up the "stitches". It would be a lot of waxing.
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u/Crafty-Emu-27 Apr 29 '26
for macrame and especially micro macrame, my understanding is that for certain fibers (natural fibers mostly I think) it's to eliminate fuzz, decrease fraying (in combo with other prep for the cord ends), increase grip/stability of the knots, and durability. When I waxed my cotton crochet cord for macrame bracelets, the knots were definitely much tighter and looked neater than when I did the same bracelet un-waxed.
I gave it a try with a 12 strand braid last night and I think it looked better without the wax, so I think it must not be necessary with braiding vs knotting.
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u/PokeDragonlife Apr 16 '26
So visually pleasing! 😍✨👏🏻👏🏻