Audio Transcript
Note: This audio transcript is auto-generated and may not be completely accurate.
Hi, this is Julie with beadaholique.com and today I want to show you how to make increases with square stitch and I did a little sample of what we're gonna be making you can see we just keep adding columns. They get wider and wider So that is the subject of this particular video another video I showed you how to make decreases and that's when we get this stepped effect the object of that was to make sure we didn't have any thread bridges showing from the top down and that's gonna be the same with this as well We want to make sure we hide our threads. Now one could say well can't you just flip it upside down and then you're making increases and that is true but a lot of times when you're thinking about a project you think about going forward in creating from the front to the end, start to the finish, you're not trying to think backwards so it is good to know how to do both decreases and increases and it is a different technique What you're going to need is some threading and a needle I placed a little stopper bead here on the end of my thread and I'm just going to quickly square stitch three beads just so you can see how we begin this. We do have another video on beadaholique.com dedicated solely to the square stitch but I've got three beads here. I wanna make another row of three so I'm going to pick up a bead and go through in the opposite direction the last bead that is strung on here before I strung on the first one from my second row See that creates a nice little loop and when you pull it tight it sits right on top of the other bead. Go back through it grab another bead do the same thing gonna go through just that other bead, go through the beads next to it it creates a nice little loop here. We're going to go through that same bead that we just strung then one more and I'll show you how to make an increase here. One more go through the bead that's going to be below the one on the row that you're creating just up through it again so there we go. We technically got two rows three columns each. So now I wanna go ahead and add a couple more columns. Now what you're gonna need to determine is how many more do you want add because you add enough beads for all the increase at once on this next row so let's say you wanna do two. So you'll add the two beads for the next two columns and then you're gonna add a third bead which is gonna be the bead on the next row so pull these down and then you're going to separate out that third one because you only want to add two go back down through what would be the end column, pull go through it again. So you just did a step up and did an increase two columns and then we've already done the first bead on the next row now you can play with it if it's easier for you to flip your bead work around, go from the opposite direction, whatever you like. Here I've added another bead, just gonna be on that top row go through the bead I just strung. Now I've got two beads It can be a little wobbly here to begin with and you might want to go back and do enforcement stitching by going through the rows when you're all done. So at this point for me I feel like I'm working backwards and it's a little bit easier for me to just flip my beadwork around. Now I'm just gonna square stitch as normal until I get to the other side one tip when you're bead weaving sometimes you'll get packs of beads have a little bit of variation in the size and the shape of the bead You wanna try pick pretty uniformed beads when you're doing square stitch just because you want them to line up neatly and tidy. One more bead and then I'm going to need to perform an increase on this side right so we've increased over here now we need to make it match if that's your pattern, sometimes your pattern doesn't call for that. So if you do you have a situation like this I'm gonna flip my beadwork over again it's a little bit easier for me to work in various directions here whatever's comfortable for you. I want to do a column increase over here, so just like before I need to add two beads for my two columns and then I need add that third bead because what we're doing is we're having to go around like this, we need to fill it in going almost under we don't wan to step up, we wanna go around so it's even I've got three beads. Slide them down again I'm going to separate out that third one go back up through what was the 2nd bead I strung. You can get a nice little loop try to hold it close to my other beadwork. There we go we've got that bead there, go back through it and now can tell we have a gap, we need to fill in that gap do that with just another bead try to keep these tight so they don't go down towards the other beadwork. Go through it and now we need to somehow attach it to the side here so we're gonna go through the bead next to it as well and pull through. I want to make sure that my thread stays on the right side you might need to coax it a little if it tries to bend on you you need your thread to come out the side again so we're just gonna go up through these beads here and that's going to help keep them in place too, is your reinforcing. We've performed an increase. I'll show you this one more time just because I know it can be a little confusing because you do a different technique on each side. So I wanna increase again by two so I've got my two beads on the needle and then I need my third bead which is going to be the first bead of the next row. Those lineup like so take my needle go through the second bead I strung in my increase section pull. That just made that go up there there's your next row that started pick up another bead and go through the bead directly below it, pull now I'm just going to square stitch all the way to the end until I need to perform that increase on the other side using that slightly different method we're back to the other side. We need to increase to make it even add two more columns add the two beads, add the third bead. For me it works easiest if I flip it over so these two are gonna be a pair go through that second bead I'm trying to hold my beadwork close, if it gets a little bit wobbly in a gap you can just scoot it down with your nail, go back through the bead I just stitched in place and add the bead to fill in the gap go through the bead that's gonna be on top of it back around and through and now we're gonna go through not just that bead but the bead next to it on the main area, the anchor area almost think of it as making loops. It almost what it feels like with the thread alright so if I was going to keep going keep stitching I would then go back up through here and all of these. Pull it. I would recommend especially with this stitch is doing a little bit of reenforcing. So when you're all done what I would do is I just would keep going through all these beads or you could even do this midway actually, you don't have to be finished with your work to do reinforcement stitching. It's always a good idea> To just reinforce this go through all of them and pull. It just adds just a little bit more steadiness to it, it makes it a lot more sturdy and technically I'm right where I wanted to be to keep performing more increases so you could do that midway there's a little sample of how you perform increases when you're doing square stitch. You'll see we don't see any threads from the top down which is what we wanted. It's quite easy to do once you get the hang of it, It's just a matter of holding your beads in place making sure they don't wobble too much and keeping your tension uniform you can find this video and others on beadaholique.com in the free tutorial section. Go to www.beadaholique.com to purchase beading supplies and to get design ideas!
