[Artemisia] this nifty thing I bought at GL 12th night

[Todd Rich]

>From: Georgia Foster <jo_foster81 at hotmail.com>
>
>It is designed for the purpose of making heavy cord. It is not a lucet. It
>is wooden, has four rods each 12 inches long separating two panels each six
>inches across. The instructions and the ring weight did not come with it.
>The name of this marvelous device starts with the letter M. Past that, I
>don~Rt remember. I would LOVE to download the instructions and start using
>this new toy. I am sure I can come up with a center weight but without the
>name of the device, searching is going to be difficult.

As it has been pointed out, it is a marudai, for making kumihimo.  I run a
kumihimo e-mail list with about 1000 subscribers, of which about 1/3rd are
Scadian.  It is located at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kumi2/ and the
archives are open to the public, so you don't have to join to read what is
there.

>From: bengta1 at aol.com
>
>The name  of this marvelous device starts with the letter M.
>
>You have a Morodai for making Kumihimo - Japanese cord.  When  finished, it
>is impossible to differentiate the product from Norse Whipcord  Braiding.

Close.  Marudai, from Maru = round or circle, and dai = table or stand.
Though there is more than one meaning for dai.  For example, dai marudai 
is like the marudai in shape, but much larger with some detached 'rests', 
and the name translates out to great (or large) round stand.  There are 
several other stands that also fall under kumihimo.  The takadai which is 
a high stand, and the ayatakedai or wooden stand, and the karakumi dai, or 
chinese braid stand.

>From: Georgia Foster <jo_foster81 at hotmail.com>
>
>That is the item.  I remembered our conversation about how to operate it,
>but the item was incomplete.  Now to make the bobbins .... needed
>approximate weights and such before deciding how to go about it.

I don't know how far back it goes, but for the marudai, most tama (the 
bobbins) run about 35 grams, 70 grams, 85 grams and 100 grams.  I tend to 
use 100 gram tama the most.  It also depends on the type of braids you are 
making.

>From: bengta1 at aol.com
>
>If you are using rattail, think 1 cm dowel cut 2 inches long, and glue 4
>pennies to each. But to try it out and practice, wind your cord around
>anything handy .  Your bottom weight needs to be more or less the same as
>the total of the bobbins .

Actually the center weight depends on several things.  Most of the braid
patterns you will find in books use a center weight of about 1/2 your 
total tama weight.  You can adjust the weight to make the braid tighter or 
looser. If you want a tighter braid, reduce the weight in your bag.  This 
raises the point of braiding on the marudai and gives a tighter weave to 
the braid. Increasing the center weight pulls down the point of braiding, 
resulting in a looser weave.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy your marudai.  They are quite fun to use, and
I like to use mine when when listening to the radio or watching TV.  And
if you get a chance to try it out, takadais are quite fun too.

 		Torin Ironbrow