I was inspired by Nancy Ricci’s Facebook post of a beautiful beaded necklace that she had crocheted. She made it with C-lon thread, a size 1.75 mm crochet hook, and lots of beads. I had to give it a try.
You begin by pre-stringing all your beads on to the thread. The last bead you thread will be the first that gets crocheted in. I found that a dental floss threader was a big help for stringing beads, but it’s hard to get the relatively thick thread through some of those tiny bead holes, and using the threader means that it’s a double thickness going through.
Nancy crocheted one stitch between each beaded stitch. I decided I liked the look of two chain stitches between each bead.
You can see my progress from threaded beads to crocheted beads here.
I originally thought I was going to make three graduated strands, but I didn’t like the way they looked as singles. They kind of curl back on themselves, and I wanted stick-straight strands. I decided to make them all the same length, and braid them slightly to give them some heft. As I was finishing the last 4 inches of beads, my strands got straighter, so there may have been some operator error involved.
I finished the ends of each strand with knot covers (there may be another name for these clamshells that cover your knots) and connected them to a jump ring, which I then connected to a toggle set. (Like the gecko?) The knot covers aren’t quite the same color as the toggle set, but they’re close enough. They look like beads.
When I was done, I wasn’t sure I liked the necklace, because it wasn’t what I had envisioned. But I’ve been wearing it today to see how it hangs, and I like it more and more.
(Ah, yes, the bathroom mirror picture.) Too bad it’s not for me! If I were to do it again, I think I’d see about bigger beads (to give it more visual weight and maybe hang straighter? and then I could have my three graduated strands) or thinner C-lon (it comes in weights, but there was only one weight at the bead store) for these smaller beads. I wanted to put some freshwater pearls in, but the thread was too thick for the holes in the pearls. More fun things to play with!
PDXKnitterati 
One way to help it hang better is to lightly steam it and hang with some weight at the bottom. That helps set your crochet stitches.
As with knitting…blocking is everything!
I think it turned out well, but I know what you mean about finishing a project and then just not being sure it’s quite right.
That is awesome. I think I see a trip to the bead store in my future.
Chain stitches will also hang straighter if they’re not super tight. Tight chains stitches will curl in on themselves like nobody’s business. It looks lovely, but if it’s not what you wanted, then I guess you’ll have to try again!
I think that’s really neat…I’m going to have to try that!
It’s very organically beautiful. I can see how addictive this can be. You can’t stop at just one. As for the bathroom mirror shoot, this is one reason why you would want an iPad 3!!! You won’t be needing a mirror and can practically take it at any setting you like 😀
Oh the temptation, on both the beading and the iPad fronts!
That’s really cool!
ooh that’s really interesting. I’m not sure it’s something I’d try (never say never) but it’s good to learn there are other ways to use beading and crochet!
Thanks for alerting me to your latest creative leap: beautiful. Think you’re too hard on yourself but my preference is for not-straight (as in less proper) look.