Chained Quartet Necklace

Most of the designs I create end up being published and for that reason I usually draw out the pattern either while I'm working it, or just after it's finished so that I can remember what I've done. Not only that, but most of what I make grows legs and walks out the door soon after it's done, so I don't have the original to work from.

Every now and then I create something intending to put it in a book, but it just doesn't fit in with whatever I'm currently doing so it gets stuffed in a drawer for later. This is one of the designs that never made it into a book. I was looking for ways to incorporate beads that didn't have to be strung on to start with.

The design is amazingly simple. It has a foundation row of a pair of rings alternated with chains where the ring on the right is joined to the ring on the left of the next pair. The end has a single ring and then the whole thing is repeated joining pair to pair forming an X of 4 rings in the middle.

The next row is just chains shuttle joined to the foundation row with a single bead in the middle along the top of the necklace. Those beads need to be strung on the chain thread before you start the row.

The bottom row just has really, really long picots with 20 beads strung on them. (And you thought it was complicated.) String on the beads as you make the picot holding them in place with a safety pin. The next chain is bare of picots. While making the following chain, remove the pin and join to the picot. Tat one stitch and repeat the process. Easy peasy.

You can change it dramatically just by stacking the beads in varying sizes or colours for interesting effects. Add more beads for a deeper loop place a large bead in the middle of the 20 bead group, or stagger them small, large, small, or whatever you want. Since they're all stacked on the picot, you can line them up and see what they'll look like before you commit to using them.