The Chevron SCOT Pattern

In my last post I talked about S & Z pickups which are the backbone of Japanese SCOT braids no matter the loop braiding method. Significant changes are made through color placements, number of loops (to allow for more colors), and adding more braiders*. For the diamond patterns, I'll have to describe yet another braiding move. Let's move onto the chevron discussion.

To get a feel for what the Japanese fingerlooped chevron SCOT loops should be doing, I practiced doing some European chevron SCOT braids. The sense I was getting was that twisting the loops after making the first two moves created the same effect as doing the Z pickup in Japanese braiding. So I tried doing that instead of the open followed by individual twisting and it worked.

From there, I went back to the one Masako patterned in her book. Looking at the move sets and ignoring the second braider and linking moves, I broke down what each move set was doing. And I was able to connect the dots of how it translated the European SCOT to a Japanese SCOT, within the realm of known Japanese moves.

The first image is the European SCOT braid, the right half I had the color placements on my right hand wrong. The teal line is where I moved some of the loops around to get the chevron pattern. I wasn't to happy with my tension as it kept loosening up when I'd do to beat each twisted loop. The second image is the Japanese SCOT using the S pickup I showed in the last post. Here I'm much happier with the tension and more closely compares to proper tensioned European SCOT braids. These SCOT braids used eight loops, four per hand; this can be a handful for those not accustomed to so many. So in that frame I experimented on the Japanese SCOT using only seven loops to see what would happen. On the left side of the second photo, you'll notice that the black sections are asymmetrical. It appears that to have symmetrical chevrons, each color group must have an even number of loops.

Now the part that some you want to skip to, the pattern that I used. I haven't tried it with a Z pickup but I suspect that the change will be minor. Unless noted otherwise, S and Z pickups apply to all the loops before grabbing the active loop just as the normal through moves.

Left Hand Right Hand

WWBB WWBB

SL Open (or SL C if doing handlooping)

SR Open (or SR C if doing handlooping)

Open (or C)

Open (or C)

Yep, it really is that simple. I wasn't quite flummoxed when I figured it out but hey there's a reason experts keep saying stick with the basics. The companion video showing the pattern https://youtu.be/qvY4KGC3AdI

*At least so far, as I often say in my classes 'More Research is needed'.