tat a beaded rope

I wasn't to be distracted - everybody knew. But with friends like this, who needs enemies ;-P
This evil genius sweetly invited a few of us on facebook to put Sue’s suggestion to thread. She’s evil for distracting me, but genius for doing me a favour … I Finally got around to trying my layered/stacked SR bracelet/Kadaa - a first trial I shared in 2015, and it's Christmas tree trunk pattern here.

It took me one entire day of fiddling around (and experimenting), trying to refresh my memory and convert the pattern into a beaded cord. Problem wasn’t in the pattern but the mismatch between beads, crochet hooks/threaders, beading needles, threads, etc. etc. I had started off with finer thread and smaller beads; finally only these larger bicone crystals worked with the size 20 crochet cotton, and a #12 crochet hook. Now it is going smoothly & I’ve found my rhythm. However, Ninetta will be testing it first.

UPDATE : Pattern is shared here. But look out for more on Ninetta's blog.

It did give me a whole new admiration for all the bead-heavy work crafters do. Reminded me of Jane McLellan's numerous crochet beaded ropes that she seems to belt out at such rapid pace.  

A few Experiments and NOTES - 

• I tried putting beads on the core thread, but they face inside the hollow with thread showing on the outside.
• I also tried pre-stringing beads. This worked if alternated with picots where rings needed to be attached.  If I had beads on a picot, it was difficult to join since the picot/thread ran horizontal through the bead hole - so a join would become skewed.
• In the pictured version, I loaded 2 shuttles with only brown crystals (half on each shuttle); the rest were loaded over long picots at the time of joining. This is more practical – no pre-stringing loads of beads, no large shuttle required. However, working a SR can become a bit impractical till one gets a hang of it.

Last night I made a short video of the start.

I haven't tried Ninetta's single shuttle method yet, or the other numerous ways including chains. For another day. But following are a few of my thoughts ....

  

Comparing stacked rings and the layered/stacked split rings –

• Single thread/shuttle versus 2 shuttles
• Difficulty level - simple rings versus split rings.
• Pre-stringing beads versus few pre-strung beads (most are loaded on long picot at time of joining).
• For long project, large shuttle required versus regular shuttles.
• The cord twists on itself, like a double helix versus beads spiralling around while cord remains ‘straight’.
• The subsequent rings are ‘rotated’ slightly before being joined below versus emerging out of a split ring with a phase shift.

It will be interesting to try out other methods. In fact there is a lot of evolution these methods might incur. Time, experimenting, and testing will reveal ….