Patent ID: 8448555

Claim:
A method, comprising: (a) providing a braid unit having a body braid section, at least two first arms at a first end of the body braid section, and at least two second arms at a second end of the body braid section; (b) passing each first arm in through the second end and out through the first end of the body braid section; (c) passing each second arm in through the first end and out through the second end of the body braid section; (d) pulling the first and second arms after steps (b) and (c), so as to gather the body braid section into a ring, wherein step (a) includes: providing a bifurcated braid having continuously woven alternating tubular body braid sections and non-tubular arm sections; and cutting two successive ones of the non-tubular arm sections to form the braid unit.