Tuesday, June 17, 2008

MINI DELICIOUSLY DIAGONAL BEADED BEAD


I've done it with the 15s and it's so "cute". Jessica the designer has given me the green light to publish her re-written instruction for the beaded bead in my blog. Here her email to me :-
More detailed description:
Rounds 6 through 8 are very important. In rounds 4 and 5, you did a fairly traditional decrease at the end of the round (figures 2 and 3). In round six, when they say "stop one bead earlier" they mean add the B bead before the decrease, and then, instead of doing another traditional decrease (which would pull the B bead together with the Ds from this and the previous row), ADD a D bead to fill that gap created by the decrease in the previous row (this is shown in figure 4). This extra bead slows down the rate of decrease for the entire piece (otherwise you end up with a flat triangle instead of a gradually spiraling and decreasing tube). And that extra bead becomes part of the round, so you DO NOT SKIP OVER IT in the next round. When they say skip over, they skip the gap, not the "loose" spanning bead from the previous round. If you leave that added spanning bead hanging as a skipped bead, it serves no function and you get the flat triangle again.
So:
So, for instance, in round 6, you add a B bead at the end of the round, then pass the thread through the adjacent D bead (theoretically the end of the round), but then you add another D bead (the color you just exited) to span that gap made in the previous round by the decrease. The extra D bead becomes part of the round, so in the next round (Round 7) the "last" bead you add in a B bead before the spanning D bead, and then you put the thread through the spanning D bead and THEN through the D beads from the previous row and beginning of this row. In round 8 you add a B bead before the increase, and then add another B bead to fill the gap (same color as the bead you just exited). At the end of round 9, you add a B bead before the spanning B bead, pass the thread through that spanning B bead, and THEN "decrease" by passing the thread through the D beads from the previous row and this row.
So generally:
Odd numbered rounds have traditional decreases (skip over the gap and put the thread through the D beads from this round and the previous round to step up to the next round). Note that in figures 3 and 5, the red line that indicates the path of the decrease has no new bead on it.
Even rounds have an extra bead added (the same color as the bead you just exited)to fill that gap before you go through the D beads from this round and the previous round. That green bead on the red thread line in figure #4 is the "extra" bead that makes all the difference.
An extra tips from Shirley :
Do not follow figure 4 & 5, they are incorrect.

3 comments:

retrothreads said...

I have feeling dizzy trying to imagine how this pattern works. I congratulate you for following it. That bead is so unusual !

Shirley Lim said...

You can try it out, it's not so difficult =D After beading a few more rows you get the hank of it !

Smadar's Treasure said...

What an interesting beaded bead. Beautiful!

Smadar