Chenille Stitch Progress

The new year is starting out fairly well for me in spite of the storms keeping me practically house bound. I've made some progress with the Chenille stitch tutorial.

In order for the stitch to make sense to me, there has to be a design in it.  That's just me. The stitch is beautiful just worked with two sizes of beads of the same color. 
I've made a few swatches in order to test bead sizes etc. Here are two.  for the one on the right, I used size 11 throughout. I thought to create a little texture, but I wasn't happy with it.  The one on the left I used size 11 and 15. I like it much better.

I was still having trouble remembering which turn to use on the left (there are 2) and seeing the logical placement of beads that is now very clear to me.

I'm still working on the tutorial. I have all the illustrations done and enlarged to meet Hub Pages standards (I think). Now I'm just trying to string words together in sentences that are comprehendible. 

I hope to find a filter to take pictures of this gleaming, glittery bracelet when I'm finished.

I'll let you know when I get the tutorial posted to Hub Pages.

Flat Chenille Stitch

I had mentioned in a previous post the similarities between Pondo (African Circle stitch) and Chenille stitch.  Jean Powers posted a basic tutorial by Diana Balogh in Beading Daily.  It looked fairly simple except some of the turns were a bit complex. I spent several hours trying to bead the sample on the left from that tutorial and kept getting lost on the turns.  My solution, of course, was to make my own illustrations, breaking down the parts that confused me into different steps. 

While I was at it, my muse plunked some designs into my head so I made some graphs of those.  The heart on the right is the result of one of those.  I can't tell if the slight irregularity is a result of uneven tension (I know I got the start row too tight) or if the beads aren't as uniform as the yellow ones on the left.  I suspect it's a little of both.

Now that I've got the illustrations drawn and have sort of mastered the stitch, I hope to have an illustrated tutorial posted to my Hub Pages within the week.  Writing the accompanying article will be the hard part.

Wow! The year's nearly over.  Christmas this weekend.  I hope all of you stay safe on the highway if you're traveling, and that you have a very Merry Christmas. . .or whatever holiday you celebrate this time of year.

Exploring Other Needlework Crafts

This weekend I just couldn't stay focused on beading and getting Christmas ornaments finished.  
First I found a free kindle book on Tunisian Crochet.  This is a stitch I learned as a girl known only to me as afghan stitch and I only learned the single and double crochet version.  I never thought of it as  crochet that could have various stitches just like regular crochet until I started looking through that book.
I did some research on the internet and came up with this site, Tunisian Crochet by Stitch Diva. I then remembered that I'd seen beaded Tunisian crochet and started looking for pictures.  I found several, but they weren't free to copy. I finally found a pattern for the necklace above.
Not a complicated pattern but I thought about trying it. Then I remembered you have to string the beads onto the crochet thread first. . .not my forte so I gave that up. 
Next I found an adult coloring book for free and downloaded it.  

I've spent Sunday and Monday telling myself to put the colored pencils down and get back to beading.  When I've finished the 17 ornaments for this year, maybe I'll get back to learning the intricacies of Tunisian crochet. 

Reminiscence

I've been reminiscing this past week over the different bead stitches I've learned and how I've managed to modify the stitches to suit my own designs.

Brick Stitch

After taking 2 years trying to make sense of peyote stitch, I finally got that down and learned to work it in flat and tubular, but I could never work a project with increases on the outer edges.  I finally decided to learn brick stitch, which looks like peyote but is worked in a different direction.  I found that with this stitch it was very easy to make neat increases on an outer edge.  This "Geometrics Bracelet" is one of my first designs I created after I learned the technique.

Two needle RAW (right angle weave) was one of the first stitches I learned and my ability to make my own designs with this stitch encouraged me to make and sell my own patterns. This "Figure Eight" bracelet is quite versatile and may look quite different depending on whether you use pearls, faceted rounds or bicones for the large beads.

While these are two of the major stitches being used at that time I was still hungry to learn new things.  I found a pattern for "Carmen" worked in Russian Lace stitch. This is a netting stitch that is unique in that the lower edge of the project is split allowing it to look equally flattering as a choker or neckace.  When I had made that necklace I sat down with graph paper and made a pattern for this "Celtic Cross Necklace"

I've learn many more stitches over the years and modified most of them to suit my own needs.  I'm still learning.

You can find more of my patterns on:
BeadPatternsBoutique 
The Bead Coop
Craftsy

Hana Ami Bracelet Tutorial

Around the Beading Table has some wonderful, easy to follow free tutorials using a variety of stitches.  The one I've chosen to share today is Hana Ami (Japanese for Flower Stitch) which uses triangle weave technique.

Depending on the beads used, this bracelet can be an elegand, sparkling accessory for dress or formal wear, or using bright contrasting colors it can just as easily go casual, fun or even downright funky!

My first introduction to triangle stitch was very confusing and I just never did get the hang of it.  Later I found a tutorial by another person and have been able to use it to make a few designs.

I first learned Hana Ami from Christine Lim.  She uses RAW to make hers and I found it less confusing than triangle weave, however I find that Deborah Roberti has made the triangle stitch tutorial very easy to understand, and I can see many possibilities of variations and additions to this particular bracelet.

More Uses for Beaded Ropes

In post in January 2013 I asked "What Else Can Your Do With a Beaded Rope" and I showed you some samples of chenille stitch and CRAW a pretty meager showing I must admit.  It's taken me two years to come up with other uses for beaded ropes.

I've told you about the tri-RAW rope I was making to encase an opal cab.  Well here it is. I've finally finished it.  I'm still working on the tutorial.  I thought it turned out rather well but was a little disappointed.  the picture on the right is blurred, but this is what it looked like before I closed it around the cab.  I liked that puffy little roll, but alas, when I was finished, it was no longer puffy.

I found this tree agate (or is it moss agate?) bead that I've had forever and decided I'd see if I could put a rope bezel around it.  As you can see both sides of the bead are very pretty, so I need it to be reversable.  In the picture to the right you can see that it isn't smooth, but has some dips and bumps in it..  The rope to the side of the bead is a chenille rope and I think I've come up with a way to close it around the bead without flattening the rope.  We'll see.  The fact that it is a bead means the bezel doesn't have to fit perfectly.  The rope can be attached through the hole in the bead, then bezeled (I think).  I'll keep you posted..

Share Saturday

It's share saturday again and I've found some helpful posts for all beaders.

The first one is Bouncing Wolf's recommendation for her beading tray, which you may find very useful if you do craft shows, or just need to protect your project while you're not beading.

Jean Campbell, editor for  Beading Daily has some great tips for new beadweavers.  Follow the blog for many informative, helpful hints and tips for beadweaving.

And last for today is my own tutorial for waffle weave stitch. You can find links to more stitch tutorials in "My Bead Stitch Tutorials" page (tab at the top of the blog).

St. Petersburg Chain

SQUEEEEEE. I finally had that A Ha moment! Yes I know it's very undignified to squeal like a school girl, but I just can't help it. In my last post I said I was having trouble with the St. Petersburg Chain stitch. I've been trying to wrap this poor old brain around it for months! I have free beadwork tutorials by Howling Rabbit, Maria Oldring, and Alexis (sorry, all the URLs I have for these no longer work) and I've gone back and forth from one to the other trying to make it work. It works for a while and I would get a little bit done, lay it down and when I came back I'd be just as lost as I was in the beginning. I'm so backward I just couldn't get the concept to stick.

Today I put it aside after one more frustrating attempt to grasp it and went on about other things. Out of nowhere a perfect picture video style flowed through my mind. I ran back to my bead mat, picked up the instructions, and sure enough, there it was on the instructions, in plain sight, but I just hadn't been able to get the sequence right.

Ok, not much to report. Just a word of encouragement to anyone out there who's been grappling with a stitch forever, don't give up. In will finally soak in. :)