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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!