I recently took a class in bead crochet, and have been having a great time learning to crochet with wire as well as with cotton cord. Add in the amazing color choices available with beads and there’s a recipe for hours and hours of fun. There are lots of patterns available in books and on line, and its easy to get rather absorbed in projects that are portable and contained like these-the beads are all strung on the cord or wire before the crochet starts.

As much fun as it is to actually DO, its also fun to plot and plan. There is a free-to-download program called jbead (it used to be db-bead but has been upgraded) available for budding bead crochet rope designers like me. Click here to visit the site and download the program . It still needs a few developmental tweaks (although available for Macs, it doesnt allow you to save and reopen files on the computers we’ve tried) but it sure is a lot of fun!

Here are some designs I’ve built using it. Now I need to buy some more beads and give these designs a try!