One Response to “what is the best way to work with beads in crochet?”

1. yardchicken2 Says:
   September 5th, 2009 at 6:07 am

   The most important thing is to make sure your beads have an hole big enough for the yarn to pass through. If the hole is too small the yarn will continue to fuzz up and tear.

   One type of bead with a hole big enough for the yarn to pass through is the typical plastic pony bead. They work really well with worsted and come in lots of colors.

   To thread the yarn through the bead, put a piece of clear tape around the end of the yarn; that will act like a "needle" for threading. Every so often you will need to snip the end and freshen up your clear tape.

   When you have enough beads on your yarn, get your crochet hook (I use a size "J". you will also need a large hair elastic (the heavier ones, instead of the really light weight ones). you will need scissors for snipping.

   Make your slip knot and use your hook to join it onto the hair elastic loosely. Making sure you catch the yarn around the elastic each time, single crochet enough stitches to loosely fit around the hair elactic.

   This forms your base to work in. Then you will make a triple crochet. push down a bead, next to the top of the stitch. Make another triple crochet. Push another bead. Keep this up till you get around the elastic, and tie off.

   When you are using smaller yarn, use a small tapestry needle or bees wax to help you load the beads onto the yarn.

   For seed beads, I use size 20 or forty tatting cotton and a bead spinner. I use a size 10 steel hook.

Leave a Reply