Well, this is a post that I thought I wouldn't get to until I at least did the video for handlooping moves. But this has been an area of small research and experimenting for me and would have taken longer to get around to if not for Masina Da Ferrara asking questions about Single Over Course Twinning (SCOT) braids (really the recent spurt of posts and videos are credited to her and her inspirational questions). It's a style of braid that is pretty universal around the world and finding European SCOT patterns is pretty easy nowadays. This another aspect of Kute-Uchi that Masako doesn't cover on her website and appears to be exclusive to her book.
On the other hand, so far I've only seen one Japanese SCOT pattern and it's for handlooping. The possibility of a Japanese fingerlooped SCOT has been discussed but no actual moves described to make them* just the European method and pattern. In searching for fingerlooped SCOT patterns I only found the one 2-braider handlooping pattern in Masako's Study of Archaic Braiding Techniques in Japan. I was trying to figure out how to translate those move sets for a single braider fingerloop pattern. One of the 'moves' Masako describes is a Z pickup C move. I've already been experimenting with S and Z pickups and gotten some nice braid shapes and pattern changes.
Before I end up splitting off on the SCOT pattern, let me explain these pickups first. Just like in weaving where individual wefts need to be pushed or pulled against the majority direction, loop braiding also has these pickups. In the S pickup, you use your operating finger to pull up the bottom shank of the loop above the top shank and move onto the next loop until you get to the operating loop. In the first photo, you can see the bottom shank being pulled up followed by the second photo where I do the same for the next loop before making an open move. And the third photo shows the operating loop being pulled through.
And here are the Z pickup photos, showing the top shank being pushed down instead.
Notice that in the S pickup photos the loops are being twisted clockwise and the Z pickup photos show a counterclockwise twist. Something to keep in mind, this is what the loops do on the right hand. When doing the same pickup on the left hand the loops will twist in a mirrored fashion i.e. S will then go counterclockwise and Z will go clockwise. The idea being the S pickups are twisting the loops away from the center of the braid and Z pickups twist towards the center. In European loop braiding, this is accomplished by making the open move then rotating all of the individual loops counter/clockwise as needed.
Now before you go trying to use these S & Z pickups to make the SCOT braids, I'll cover that pattern in the next post. Oh, and if you do only S or Z pickups open you'll get a D or half-round shaped braid. The type of pickup doesn't matter, it only changes the side the half round is on which once done doesn't matter. Otherwise go explore and experiment with these new 'moves'. The link to the companion video showing the S & Z pickups https://youtu.be/qvY4KGC3AdI
*If you do find a pattern for a single braider Japanese SCOT, finger or hand, please share so that I can update this post.