the maypole group is indeed a subgroup of a braid group. juat add the pole itself as the rightmost strand.
Ah ! Of course.
Have been silently enjoying the recent interest of HN on topics of knitting and weaving. I find weaving far easier to understand.
Tempted to get a multi-shaft loom, but they are expensive.
There are some interesting parallels between the algebra of fundamental particles in theoretical physics and braid groups. I suspect this is an artefact of the algebraic formalism, but the connection is hard to ignore.