Day 4 and the Uncut Braided Fleece

Have you ever been to Disney World, Cedar Point, Busch Gardens or anywhere that small personalized leather name bracelets make for popular souvenirs? You may also have attended a summer camp where one of the arts and crafts was such a bracelet or a keychain!

Here is that exact technique in scarf form. The layered fabrics make this a warm scarf and the fact that the layers are not attached to each other allow it to drape naturally and comfortably.

Follow these steps and use some trial and error of your own.

First, cut your fleece at least twice as wide as you want the scarf and about 40% longer than you want the scarf. Feel free to eyeball this. The measurements make very little difference as the technique will be the same no matter what.

Next, leave about 3 to 5 inches of fleece at either end uncut and cut the center section into 3 equally wide strips.

Now, make 3 passes of a traditional 3 strand braid. 1) right over center 2) left over center 3) right over center. Then take the bottom left corner and keeping it flat, rotate it clock-wise below the center strip and above the other two. The corner will pass through the strips and the braid will still look twisted at this point. I suggest putting a safety pin in the uncut area at the bottom to mark the right side. The right side should always be face up!

Make 3 more passes of the braid. 1) left over center 2) right over center 3)left over center. This time take the bottom right corner and rotate it back through the strips counter clock-wise. Once again, the corner will pass through the strips below the center and above the other two. This time the rotation will straighten the strips back out.

Repeat the last 2 steps until your braid is as tight as you like and you have no more strip length with which to braid. Go back the the top and gently tighten and tidy the braid. You may find there is room for one more pass.

Pinning down the very top of the scarf will help you work as the top end should remain stationary the entire time.

You can find videos by others on youtube using the search term "mystery braid" and "trick braid" as well as "leather braid" as this is such a common leather technique. Someday when I get myself a good video camera, I'll post one as well using my rotation method.