BEADED ROPE CROCHET

 I DID IT! Today I mastered the crocheted beaded rope technique and all by myself, no books but some really excellent videos on YOUTUBE and of course Ulla's demos and helpful advice yesterday....
I have never managed it before, I have tried a few times but it has always failed due to the wrong size beads/thread and hook combination or just nor understanding the methods needed.

Just to repeat: THESE are the videos you will need the first is in USA language but is very explicit, Ann Benson is just utterly EXCELLENT and the UK one uses larger beads: pony beads, size 5 thread and a 1.75mm hook I think.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXpXqde-PKY

Bead Crochet Mastering the Beaded Rope with Ann Benson

1.15mm hook( = #10 usa), thread # 10 and #8 seed beads

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blMvjVapgV0

Now what did I have handy in my stash? a size 10 cotton crochet thread from Loop many moons ago, a size 1.25 mm hook ( the 1.5mm was bent and the thinner ones I couldn't find in a hurry)

and as for beads: these are Gutermann size 9 rocailles that you can buy in a tube at John Lewis.

Ulla had said use 2 colours which was great as I did not have 3 colours in the same type bead so I threaded up ABABABABABABABABAB etc Silver and Turquoise.

 Now Ulla had said crochet a bit of a tube without beads first but when I tried that I didn;t know how ton start with the beads in the round in the tube of 6 sts so I had to abandon that first attempt.
She also said to work a dc after each bead to lock it as a slop stitch would be too rigid, but when I did that for a few rows, too much of the yarn was showing and you did not get the smooth beaded side of a rope.

Now she did demonstrate those dc s so I'm wondering how she did them or whether with a much finer thread it will work for me.

 Here you see my threaded beads, the start at the left with the yarn showing and then the start of a smooth beaded rope.

 Beads and beading needle.

 This is the bit where I cradle the new bead into position between the two loops of yarn,, but behind them, before working a slip stitch.

 This is the yo for the ss

 This is the ss completed.

 This is the start of the next one: put hook under next bead: a silver one this time.

 Push the bead over the hook and down into ''doughnut '' position, it's the pale one above the shaft of the hook in the photo at the far left.

 Oh and this is inspiration from the FAB USA video tutorial!

 Here's the brilliant Ann Benson with her great graphics: she uses 3 colours: A,B,C.

 These USA size 10 or 9 are both a 1.25mm according to Pauline Turner in her crochet book.
Ulla was using a 0.6mm yesterday. That's  a USA size 14

 Using 2 or 3 colours helps you to get the right bead! You always use a silver with a silver and so on, so for the 5 steps: slightly adjusted from the video

1. IN: stick your hook into the work under the next bead that is lying like a tyre. say bead colour A
2. DOWN: move that bead over the hook and down into the doughnut position.
3. MOVE: the next bead down from your thread, it has to be a colour A. Move it to the RIGHT of the doughnut bead. I have it behind the hook between the two loops on the hook.
4. YO- yarn over
5. Through: make that slipstitch in one or two moves but make it a ss not a dc.

 These next photos were bits of the video that were HUGELY HELPFUL:

 Beads on the outside, crochet tube on the inside is what u r aiming 4.

 This is the TYRE shot: beads waiting to be worked lie like TYRES of a car.

 This again is totally KEY.

 Et VOILA!!! I learned how to do it!!! I found that 30 cm of threaded beads make a 6.5 cm rope.

 Here it is: my 6.5 cm of rope which took me a few hours this afternoon and evening only.
There is a silver/turq striped spiral going on which is difficult to see.

 I used a fine beading needle threaded with sewing polycotton and tied into a closed loop through which I lay the crochet thread and then the beads slid onto the thread just fine.

Thanks to Ulla and Ann for the inspiration, demonstration and excellent video tutorial and thanks to an outspoken lady in the jewellery tent yesterday who wanted to buy a 0.6mm hook and start IMMEDIATELY and was very frustrated that she could not do so. I hope she succeeded in the end as have I.
I think some of her urgency rubbed off on me and ''MADE'' me just DO IT today when I had a long list of chores and other matters to attend to.

Am now VERY HAPPY with my new skill and thanks to Ann Benson who said it will be a muscle memory now , like riding a bike I will never forget?!
The challenge will be to find a finer thread and getting the thread/bead size and hook size combo ''just right''.