Bead Row Pre-Counting Tip

A bit of quick bead counting can help avoid errors

As previously outlined in the Basics of the Beaded Knitting Technique, the beads that are strung on your yarn are pushed down along your yarn until needed. Then when needed, you slide a bead into the place it is to occupy between the last stitch made and the next stitch to be made.

For efficiency, I like to keep some beads closer to my knitting (so that they have less distance to slide when needed) and push the remaining beads along the yarn at least an arm’s length out of the way. A bit of quick bead counting has saved me countless times from discovering errors much later in my knitting and not so easily corrected. Here’s how to avoid the most common beading errors –

Counting beads before the row begins

Before beginning a row, I pre-count exactly the number of beads needed for that row and slide that portion close to my needles ready to be used. Then slide the remaining beads much further down the yarn and out of the way.

What if there are extra beads when the row ends?

When working the row, if I reach the end and have any beads left over, I know I overlooked placing bead(s) somewhere in that row and have only a (relatively) small number of stitches to unknit and correct.

What if beads run out before the row ends?

Likewise if I run out of beads before completing the row, I know that I have placed extra bead(s) along the row somewhere. I can figure out where the error occurred within the row and correct it before proceeding too far.

What about projects with lots more beads in a row?

The number of beads used in each row of this month’s Beading Hearts Friendship Bracelet project are relatively few, so it’s not going to take you very long to pre-count the beads. But if you were doing a project with longer rows and many more beads in each row, you can use the same concept to pre-count beads for just a portion of the row, such as a repeat between markers.

Of course, this bead counting tip is not going to totally assure you that the beads were placed in their correct positions for the beaded design. So it’s still good practice to visually check your work now and then to make sure it is looking reasonable.

p.s. To help you get used to the idea of pre-counting beads for a row, you might have noticed in the written instructions for the Friendship Bracelet pattern that I actually have given you the number of beads needed in each row.