Difference between kumihimo and macramé

Typically macramé uses four strands of cord where kumihimo usually uses eight strands of cord.

I started doing macramé projects as a teenager. I made bracelets and plant hangers (remember hanging a fern in the corner of the living room inside a rope looking thing? That was macramé!). I used an old cardboard insert from a bolt of fabric to work the cord. I would pin the four strand cord by a knot at the top of the board then work my design down the board using a pattern of a forward or backward number 4. There has been a recent increase in macramé friendship bracelets.

More recently I discovered the more intricate work of kumihimo, an old Japanese technique. Kumihimo uses eight strands of cord and a braiding disk. The patterns change based on the color of cord and the placement of the cord on the disk. The braiding disk has a hole in the center and the finished product hangs from the center. The resulting product can be flat or round, thin or thick depending on the size of the cord.

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