Good morning all!

Our next meeting is Thursday, March 16th and we'll be dipping our toes in the bead crochet pool. Fear not, the basic technique is easy. Read through the instructions carefully, acquire the supplies and you'll be in good shape for the next meeting. See you there!

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BSCC Program

March 2017 Project: Starter Bead Crochet

Bead Crochet is a fairly easy technique to learn. In bead crochet, you string beads on to your stringing thread before beginning the project. As you crochet, you slide the beads close to your hook when you want to use them. Beads are secured in place with a stitch, usually a slip stitch or a single crochet stitch.

There are types of bead crochet that show very little crochet work and emphasize only the beads, such as the tubular bead crochet that Ann Benson, our guest artist scheduled for June, is famous for. We will venture into that realm later.

Supplies:

Seed beads and thread that you personally can handle size wise and a crochet hook that can easily hook onto your thread.

For this class I would recommend:

*Knit Cro Sheen ( an inexpensive thread used for doilies, etc) or a medium weight C-lon or similar thread

*6o seed beads

*Metal crochet needle in size 8 or 9 (Crochet needles are sized with smaller numbers being the largest, as are our beading needles)

*Big eye or twisted flexible needle (to string your beads onto the thread)

Note: We will have some threads and a few extra crochet hooks at the meeting. The Ben Franklin store in Chatham carries a large selection of metal crochet hooks and you can usually find them in thrift stores

You may want to bring other assorted beads (triangles, rounds, hex, etc in sizes up to 6mm) to vary your pattern but they must have holes large enough to fit the thread through.

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Some additional information from the Red Heart online site:

The biggest difference between standard crochet and bead crochet is that you must begin the project by threading your beads on to your yarn, wire or thread. Here are some things to know:

If you are working with beads that have small holes then you will probably need a needle to help you thread the beads on to the yarn. Choose a needle that is small enough to slide through the hole. There are collapsible needles available that work terrifically for small beads.

Your crochet pattern will usually tell you how many beads to string on to your yarn. It is wise to add a few extras because sometimes beads break off as you work; it's better to have too many than not enough!

As a beginner, use the same beads (including the same color) for your early projects. As you get more advanced, you may choose to work with beads of different colors and sizes in the same project; when you do, remember that the beads will appear in the project in the reverse order in which you have strung them. (So, if you thread your yarn with a red bead, then a blue one, then a green one, the green will be closest to the hook and will be the first one on to the crochet project, followed by the blue then the red.)

Here is a tip if you want to work with smaller beads but thicker yarn: String your beads on to thread that matches your chosen yarn in color. Then hold both the yarn and the threaded beads together, working them as a double-strand crochet project.