Hi Kristy
I can't see anything wrong from pictures / other than the wood dowel diameter is to large for the cord width you are using
to determine the correct width required
3.142 (Pi) brought to closest decimal is 4 so multiply diameter of dowel 10mm / divided by number of strands you are using
eg if dowel is 10mm diameter and you are using
12 strand braid
= 10 mm ( diameter of dowel) multiply by (3.142) closest is 4
so you get 4.0 multiply by 10 = 40 divided by number of strands (12)
So you need 12 strands approx 3.3mm
based on this formula you should be okay
Cheers
from Australia