Beads

New design: Loom weaving

paint a band, bead by bead ✿

Difficulty

Add your own photo

Shown on this design's card and pattern page, for example a photo of the finished piece. Without one, the chart is used.

Bead colours

On a keyboard, press 1 to 9 to switch colour.

Colour 10 beads

Bead type

Cylinder 11/0: about 1.6 mm across (manufacturer's figure) and 1.3 mm along the hole. The chart draws every bead the same size, so make a small sample to check the real size.

Loom weaving

How it's made: A thread carrying the beads crosses the loom's warp threads; each bead sits between two warps and is locked in when the thread comes back through.

The chart: Straight rows and columns.

This band is 11 beads across, so the loom needs 12 threads.

Check-up

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Status & sharing

I've made this with real beads and it worked Until you tick this, the design is labelled “Unverified” everywhere.

Drafts are saved on this device. to keep them everywhere and share them with the community.

Mirror

Row 1 is at the top and every row reads left to right. Each row is one pass of the thread across the loom. Tap a row number to pick that row.

Beads across

Rows

Add or remove at the top or left edge instead

Top row

Left column

Estimated size: about 1.4 cm wide and 2.6 cm long. Worked out from the bead size, so treat it as a guide and measure a small sample.

finished look, turned on its side with row 1 at the left · a sketch, not to scale

Loom details for when you're ready to weave

A band 11 beads across needs 12 threads: one more than the beads, for the usual set-up.

Using a different set-up? Warp threads:How you'll finish the ends

This chart shows where each colour goes. It works as a colour guide for square stitch too, but square stitch is made differently, so start a square stitch design for that.

Loom beading, step by step

On a loom, upright warp threads are stretched first. A row of beads is laid under them and then locked in place by passing the needle back over them.

bead added in this stepalready in placedashed thread runs under the warps

1Warp the loom. String one more warp thread than the number of beads across. Five beads across needs six warps.
2Tie on and string a row. Knot your working thread to an outside warp, leaving a tail to weave in later. Thread a needle and pick up every bead of the first row, in chart order.
3Bring the beads under the warps. Carry the beads underneath the warps and push them up with a fingertip so one bead pops up in each gap.
4Go back through, over the warps. Keep the beads pressed up and pass the needle back through all of them, this time above the warps. The warps are now trapped between the two passes of thread.
5Pull snug and repeat. Slide the row up against the one before, then string the next row and do the same: under the warps, up through the gaps, back over.
6Finish. When the last row is done, weave the working thread back through a few rows and trim it. Do the same with the starting tail. The warp ends are dealt with last.

Good to know

Loom work and square stitch look alike when finished, but they are made differently: loom work needs a loom and warps, square stitch needs only a needle and thread.
Keep the warps evenly spaced, about one bead apart, so the beads sit straight.
Use a thread fine enough to pass through each bead at least twice.

This shows how the stitch works in general. It is not a thread path for any particular design.