Small rounded glass beads are familiar to everyone. We see them on handbags and accessories, on paintings, shoes and jewellery – and there is no reason they cannot be used in crochet.
Beads can go on cushion covers, wall hangings and hats, and they give an ordinary piece a new lease of life. Beaded crochet rope is the most striking use of them.
What beaded crochet rope is
A narrow crocheted tube worked with a bead in every stitch, so that the outside is entirely beads and the crochet itself barely shows.
Because the tube spirals as it is worked, beads of different colours form diagonal patterns around it – stripes, chevrons, spirals – determined entirely by the order the beads were threaded.
The result is a flexible rope that looks like elaborate beadwork, used for necklaces and bracelets.
The critical step
Every bead must be threaded onto the yarn before you start. All of them, in the exact order they will appear.
This cannot be changed later. Adding a bead partway through means cutting the thread, and getting the order wrong means the pattern comes out wrong.
Work out the sequence on paper first. The pattern repeats around the circumference, so a rope of six beads per round repeats every six – and the sequence you thread is the sequence you get.
Thread more than you calculate. Running out three inches from the end is the classic disaster.
Threading them
A big-eye needle, or a loop of fine wire used as a threader. Bead-specific threaders exist and are worth the small cost.
Once threaded, slide the beads well down the thread and work with them out of the way, bringing one up at a time as you need it.
How the stitch works
The rope is built on slip stitches or single crochet worked in a spiral, with a bead pushed up against the hook before each stitch is completed. The bead sits on the outside of the tube and the stitch locks it in place.
Keep the tension even and firm. A loose beaded rope is floppy and the beads shift out of alignment; too tight and it will not curve.
Materials
Strong thread – beading thread or a fine strong cotton. It carries the weight of a great many glass beads and must not break.
A small hook to match the thread, usually a steel one.
Seed beads of a consistent size. Uniformity matters more than quality here; irregular beads make the rope lumpy.
Beads in ordinary crochet
The same principle applies for beads used as decoration in any crochet piece. Thread them first, slide one up when the pattern calls for it, and secure it within a stitch.
Match the bead hole to the yarn – a hole that only just fits will fray the yarn as beads slide along it.
