I have heard of loop braiding, where loops of yarn are placed on the finger tips and given tension, rather than gripping the cut yarn ends, but haven’t tried it before. I found a fantastic website, https://loopbraider.com, with many, many rabbit holes. I started with a simple 5-strand square braid. I wanted to do a thirty minute example, but my arms aren’t long enough. To get the braid tight, you spread your arms to 90 degrees on either side of the new braid. I tried longer lengths, but just couldn’t get the braid tight.

So my limiting factor on braid length in this case is my arm span rather than time. For my 5’7” arm span I can make 17.5” of cord with worsted weight cotton yarn. The cord is strong and stiff with 10% stretch.

I have looked again through the Loop Braider website and found some references to ways to make longer lengths. I will have to try the different beater methods. The finger braiding itself was a remarkably natural movement for me.