Crochet Beaded Ropes….or “Yes, I do still bead on occasion.”

I know I usually blog about my experiences with knitting, but I do still do some beading as well. It has become difficult in recent years do to aging eyes, but I do still enjoy it almost as much as knitting.  So today I am going to talk a bit about the first off-loom bead-weaving technique I learned; Crochet Beaded Rope.

This fun technique is enjoying a bit of a resurgence and I couldn’t be more pleased.  It is still my favorite technique because it is so portable.  All your beads are pre-strung before you get started so once strung you can take your project anywhere.  When I was first doing these necklaces it wasn’t unusual to see me working on one in doctor’s office waiting rooms and even in restaurants.  Here are a few of the necklaces I have made.

 

As you can see I definitely prefer to go simple with my designs.  Most of my ropes are simple spiral designs but I do have the stray striped design.  Other bead artists have taken the art form to some extreme heights with very elaborate patterns.  Some even have patterns that do not repeat.  Because you have to string your beads in advance according to pattern, planning the pattern out in advance is necessary.  These elaborate designs awoke a question in my mind this morning about planning.  I have seen some books with these patterns graphed out in them.  Beading graphs are used for lots of techniques, especially peyote stitch.  There are even sites on the internet where you can download free files of these graph papers.  But I have never seen graph paper for crochet beaded ropes.

So what do you do if you have an elaborate pattern in mind that needs to be graphed out?  It occurred to me that with a little modification you can adapt other graph paper to be used for planning out a crochet beaded rope pattern.  My first thought was to try and use peyote graph paper.  Note:  The picture below was taken from a graph paper obtained from Fire Mountain Gems website.

 

When I looked at the paper above I realized that the orientation of the “beads” in it are turned 45 degrees from the orientation of the actual beads in the rope.  I first thought I could turn the graph and then put diagonal lines in to mark off my “territory” when the light bulb came on and I realized that brick stitch is the correct orientation.  So I then downloaded a brick stitch graph, pictured below, and again taken from a Fire Mountain Gems website graph.

 

Now what do I do?

To start planning your rope you need to block off the pattern in the needed width.  If you want a rope that is 6 beads around, you will need to draw parallel diagonal lines on the paper that are 6 beads apart.  Whatever the bead circumference for your rope will be, that is how many beads wide you need to block off on your pattern.  Once the tedious part of the job is done, the fun begins!  Start coloring in your pattern with coloring pencils.  I recommend using pencils that are erasable because you will likely want to make changes as you go.

After you are done with your design then you are ready to start stringing your beads.  I usually recommend reading the graph from the bottom up but you can do it either way.  But do you read from left to right or right to left?  Assuming you want the finished rope to look exactly like the graph it is very important you string correctly.  The correct way depends on if you crochet left handed or right handed.  

If you crochet right handed: read your graph left to right and bottom to top or right to left and top to bottom.  

If you crochet left handed: read your graph right to left and bottom to top or left to right top to bottom.

If you do not know how to do this fabulous technique, we will be offering regular classes starting in April.  Or you can schedule a one-on-one.

Repetitive Motion Injury and Knitting

One of my resolutions for 2013 was to finish knitting a sweater for my husband that I started before we bought the shop.  It wasn’t too long into the year that it became very evident that I was not going to meet that goal so I went to back-up resolution number 1: get it completed by the end of March.  Oh yeah…his birthday is this Saturday.  Well, this resolution may prove to be unattainable as well.  Yesterday was the first day I was able to do any knitting in almost a week. 

Since I knew I wasn’t going to have the sweater finished in time, I was working on a revised goal that included getting the sleeves done last week.  I knew I had probably in the range of 20 hours of work left on them so I worked furiously last Monday morning on them.  I think I worked for a total of 4 hours.  I worked another 2 hours at the shop on a Scarf of the Month sample for May.  With six hours of knitting under my belt for the day Monday there was no knitting going on when I got home that evening.  When I got up the next morning I was experiencing some pretty severe shoulder pain, mostly in my left shoulder, yet in both shoulders.  In other words….knitting was out for the rest of the week.  A very important lesson was learned that day.

I know now that I need to follow some very basic rules for avoiding repetitive motion injuries.  Let’s talk a little about my history.  I used to be exclusively a crocheter.  In my 20’s it was nothing for me to crank out an afghan in 3 weeks.  In those days I was also an organic chemist and an avid cyclist.  All three of these activities were very hard on my wrists and I ended up with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome.  I had the surgery eventually as all the palliative and preventive measures tried gave me little relief.  With this history under my belt you would expect I would be sensitive to the issue of repetitive motion injuries.  But sometimes we simply do not learn.

I am now over 50 and I truly know that I have to treat my body with much more respect.  I am working out some management routines that will allow me to stay on track with regards to getting tasks done and yet take care to prevent further injuries.  As a business owner I always am fighting the time-battle.  There are always more projects to get done than time to do them.  There is always paperwork to be done.  There is also the never-ending housework battle to be fought.  My least favorite task in  the world is ironing.  As a result of my hatred of ironing I only wear my clothes that do not require ironing.  I  have lately been finding it necessary to discard several of those shirts resulting in a shortage.  Yet my shirts that require ironing are plentiful and still in good shape.  So here is this weeks plan of attack:  Knit for no more than an hour and then iron a couple shirts.  Repeat as necessary to complete the ironing or until it is time to go to work. 

There are certainly other ways to address the challenge of staying healthy.  Here are some ideas:

knit for an hour and then walk the dog

knit for an hour and then clean the kitchen

knit for an hour and then read for an hour

knit for an hour and then search Ravelry for an hour  (certainly fun but maybe not the best plan)

As you can see there are certainly plenty of ways we can continue to enjoy our crafts, get projects done, get other tasks done, and stay healthy.

In the coming months we will have a local chiropractor come give some presentations on preventing injury while still enjoying our hobbies.  Keep an eye out for announcements on these sessions in our newsletter and on our Facebook page.