This lariat is 70" long. That's almost 6' of finished rope. It took about 70 yards of thread to crochet it or about 10 yards of strung beads. That's a very long string of beads to manage as you crochet. For me, it's just too long to handle at one time. Besides, counting out a pattern while stringing that many beads is sure to lead to one or more errors in the stringing. My mind just can't handle all of that as I much prefer crocheting to stringing. I only string about a yard of beads at any one time, crochet it and then string another yard of beads . . . it's all about being able to add in new threads of strung beads.
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I keep hearing people complain about stringing errors in their bead crochet and having to undo and re-string the whole thing to correct a sequence. One or two extra beads are easy to just break out to correct an error. A whole missing sequence or major stringing screw up is a whole different animal - and ever so frustrating.
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Just keep in mind:
The last bead strung is the first bead crocheted.
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For those of you who don't know how to add in new thread, I've put up a PDF tutorial on my website that walks you through how I do it.
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You can reach it through the "links/tutorials" link on my web page. (scroll down under "new work" block)
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Please remember that, "the last bead strung is the first bead crocheted". This is important as when you string a section of rope to add in to your already crocheted rope, you need to reverse the pattern in the newly strung section to get everything to line up properly.
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I sometimes cheat and design in 2 rows of plain background colored beads on both the old and new sections so I don't have to worry about joining a pattern exactly.
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If you've missed a row of beads, determine where they should go, cut your thread, string the missing beads on the thread, add the thread back into your work and keep crocheting. A minute or two compared to hours of re-stringing beads.
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Now, doesn't that make things so much easier??
Thank you so much for sharing your talent with everyone.
ReplyDeleteI was desperate to find out how to attach more thread so I could finish my bead rope bracelet and couldn't find any help until I located your blog! Thank you so much!
My cat loves thread and when I turned my back, he jumped up on the chair and before I could stop him, he had chewed my thread in two. Luckily, I lost no beads but I was left with not enough thread to finish unless I attached it back to the ball some how.
You really saved me!! Big time. You know how many hours a person can spend stringing beads and I had done the sequence 5 times!!
Kathy
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
ReplyDeleteThank you, thank you, thank you!
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