Crocheting with seed beads takes a little practice to master, but once you understand the basics, you'll find this a versatile and exciting technique. You string your seed beads onto the thread to be crocheted before you start working the crochet pattern. Seed bead crochet can be used to make attractive twisted ropelike strands that look great as bangles, necklaces and decorative straps for tote bags and purses. By stringing different colors of seed beads you can create patterned ropes, and by stringing different sized seed beads in a pattern you can make striking textured jewelry.
Things You'll Need:
- Light-Colored Fine Crochet Yarn Or Thick Beading Thread
- Crochet Hook
- Opaque Seed Beads
String your beads before you start, using a needle if necessary. There will be about 50 seed beads for every inch of completed crochet. (If you're just starting out, you may wish to thread less than 2 feet of seed beads, treating the first piece as practice.) Do not cut the thread. You will need around a yard of thread to make each inch of beaded crochet. The last bead you string will be the first bead you work.
Make a slip knot in the end of the yarn or thread, leaving a tail of about three inches. Slip the loop of the slipknot over your crochet hook. Wrap the yarn once around the hook and pull this loop through the first loop along with a bead. This is chain stitch.
Chain stitch your yarn, pulling a bead through each stitch, until you have six stitches. Pass the head of the crochet hook through the loop holding the first bead. Push this first bead over the hook, down and to the right. Bring the yarn over the bead. Slide the next bead down close to the hook. Wind a single turn of yarn around the hook and pull this loop through both the loops on your hook, along with the new bead. You have now joined the chain stitches in a ring with a beaded slip stitch.
Continue crocheting around the ring, sliding a bead down next to the hook with each stitch so that every stitch ends up with a bead on it. Check your work periodically to make sure there are six beads around and everything looks even and correct. Should you spot an error, carefully unpick your work back to the last good section and begin again from there.
When all the beads are crocheted, cut off the yarn leaving a tail of a few inches and pull the end through the last stitch, making a knot.
Clare Edwards has been providing Internet content since 1998. She has written and translated for a variety of markets: everything from technical articles to short fiction and essays on alternative spirituality. She holds a certificate of higher education in electronics and audio arts from Middlesex University.