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To knot or not to knot? Everything about thread, needle, and knotting in your beadwork

Tutorials & Techniques5 Comments

Today, let’s talk about thread, needle, and the first thing that most beaders ask when they sit down to their bead mat for the first time in their life: do I need to tie a knot?
Since there is no simple answer to this question, we return to it every time when we try a new thread, a new stitch, or new types of beads. They all behave differently, and our personal preferences might also vary and change over time. Today, I’d like to share with you what works best for me, and I can’t wait to hear about your opinion, too!
Please note, that it’s not possible to talk about knotting without starting with a few sentences about the thread that I like to use, as for different types of threads different ways are working. More rigid thread requires less knotting, while I can’t hold good tension when using very soft, thin thread. I will briefly mention the needles I like to use, and afterwards specific situations that require different approach regarding knots.

 

What type of thread should I use?

When I started to bead, there was a very limited choice of beading thread available. In fact, the one that I started with originally, wasn’t even made for beaders: we called it ‘leather-sewing’ thread, and shoe-makers were just as familiar with it as us crafters. It frayed, didn’t give enough support to a bigger motif, but I was super happy with it, as it fit through my first tiny beading needle and even through the tiniest 15/0 seed beads.

During the following 15 years I experimented with many different types of thread, and for a long time now my first choice is always Fireline, specifically the 0.12 mm / 4 LB – 0.005 inch wide Fireline in Black Satin. I like it because I can easily hold good thread tension, it’s not too soft and not too rigid, and using an average beading needle I can bead with it about 10 times through a 15/0 Miyuki round seed bead and 15 times through a 11/0 Miyuki Delica that has a slightly bigger hole.

Exceptions:

It’s nice, but not absolutely necessary to have thinner and thicker Fireline on hand. The thicker is of good use for example when stringing a necklace of heavier glass beads, and the thinner might come handy for delicate, lace-like embellishments.

When would I use other than Black Satin Fireline? When using transparent or crystal clear beads.

I avoid using Fireline when I’m creating a fringe – since it requires a softer type of thread, and Fireline would make it too rigid.

I keep three different beading needles stuck to the corner of my bead mat:

  • 11 is what I use for 99 % of my beading time.
  • 12 is great if I need to pass through tight holes. It’s super thin but also a bit too flexible for my taste, so after the tricky spot I switch back to size 11.
  • Size 10 I use for finishing the edges of my bead embroidery when passing through two layers of Ultra Suede or Ultra Suede and leather. It’s also useful when I need the needle to help me unpick – ‘frog’ ‘ some wrong stitches, and I’m pulling out the thread with the tip of it.

It’s very personal that what brand or thickness of needles do you like to use, and what works for me might not work perfectly for you. Please don’t give up, try different ones until you find the one that feels good.

A very useful tip was shared by fellow beader, Lita Kaufman, about needles:

I’d like to share about needles and bending, and why some people’s needles never bend and other bend right away. It all depends on how you hold your needle. If you hold with four fingers, the stress from the ring finger at the eye end is greater than the stress on the point end, which is why most needles end up bent in the middle. If you’re one of the very few people who hold with three fingers, your needles won’t bend, or won’t bend nearly as much.

Why do we knot?

We knot to create grip. To make sure that the thread doesn’t slide out of the holes of beads, creating gaps between beads or components, resulting in a floppy motif, or even making our jewel fall apart. However, knotting is not always the best choice when starting to bead: sometimes it’s good to have strong grip, sometimes we needle a little room for adjustments so the beads can wiggle and settle correctly.

I knot as little as possible, but when I feel it’s necessary, I’m not afraid of knotting. Some beaders say that a know damages the structure of the thread, and it will break easier at that point, but I can’t recall an instance when it has never happened to me.
My thread broke when I added too much weight, when I accidentally pushed my needle through it, or if it was already or got damaged during frogging, untangling, or got caught in a prong, clasp, or other metal component. These are situations that you need to avoid while beading to keep your thread healthy 🙂
And an important advice: don’t work with too long thread (longer than a wingspan). It is indeed tempting to avoid securing and attaching a new thread, but in the long run it doesn’t pay off. The more times you pul your thread through beads, the bigger the chance that it get’s damaged and will indeed break.

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Don’t go cheap. Avoid using ordinary fishing line or stretchy cord. I also don’t recommend gluing when securing your thread. Instead, make sure to leave a long enough tail thread and working end before you finish, in order to be able to secure them professionally, making your jewel looking nice and prolonging it’s life-span, too. I like to leave about 5-6 inches / 10-12 cm of thread that I can weave in, repeating previous thread passes without adding any more new beads. For trimming the end, I like to use small, sharp scissors or a thread burner. Dull scissors make it impossible to cut the thread exactly where you need to cut it, and you can easily be left with a few millimetres of thread that you can’t remove. In the past, before the ear of thread burners some would advice to use a lighter to remove them, but I’d be too afraid to get close to my precious beadwork with an open fire. Thread burners made our jobs easy, we just need to be careful not to burn more then intended, and avoiding to touch the surface of beads, especially specially coated ones.

If it’s tricky for you to hold proper tension without knotting, you can try a “stopper bead.” Add an extra C11 at the very beginning by beading through it several times. It’s nice if it’s in an accent colour, so it’s harder to mix up. You can remove it when you don’t need it anymore.

I never knot when I start a Peyote bezel. The beads need a bit of room to “wiggle” and set where they want, a knot would prevent that. On a side note: I used to have trouble when starting Peyote bezels for bigger cabochons, for example a 27 mm round stone, as usually my tension was too strong, and often it happened to me that the thread broke after a few steps. I learnt to avoid this unpleasant situation by starting my big bezels in a different way – check out this video to learn more.

A square stitch bezel, on the other hand, requires a different approach. It looks the best if the circles of beads are completely straight and the beads are aligned perfectly. In this case, I create grip by repeating the circles 1-2 more times, but still, I don’t knot.

On the contrary, I always tie a knot when I start a jewel with bigger beads. The holes are bigger, and the thread would slide out otherwise. A recent example is the Peri Pillow and the FP6 in the starting circle 🙂 I like to repeat the first circle fully after picking up the beads, and only then I knot. After knotting, I gently pull the thread so the knot slides into the hole of the big bead. That also tells you about my preference when finding a good spot to knot: I like to do it before beading through a big bead, to get a chance for hiding it. It wouldn’t be possible between two 15/0 seed beads for example.

To create “grip” and prevent the thread from sliding when using smaller beads, it’s enough to bead 1-2 more times through the starting circle. This is what I do when I start, for example, with a circle of (6) HT or QT beads.

I knot a lot during bead embroidery, and I cover the knots from the back with cardboard, before gluing on the backing.

What’s your favourite type of thread and needle? Do you like to knot or do you avoid knotting?

Tell us in a comment 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. segbroughton says

    Thank you for this detailed post. It’s very helpful for me as a fairly new beader. Love all the tips and tricks. 😊

    Reply

  2. Ludmila Turzova says

    Thanks for the detailed explanation, This is a great reminder 🙂 But I wanz to ask Erika: what thread do you recommend to use when creating
    fringe?
    thank you, Ludmila.

    Reply

    • Natasha says

      Great blog posts!! Love the bit about knotting. I used to think I had to knot in order for it to be secure!

      Reply

      • Beadingschool says

        Thank you for your comments! Ludka, I’d avoid using Fireline, as the fringe needs to “blend” so the movements is nice and soft. I suggest one of the other – fabric-based threads on the market, however, I don’t have experience with specific brand.

        Reply

    • Corinne says

      I always use One G,Hanna or Miyuki.
      Sometimes you can get away with 4lb. Fireline just don’t be pulling it to tight.
      Remember this is my preference the best thing I can tell you is to try all of them on say a piece of beadwork that didn’t quite work out and see what you like.
      Hope this helps!
      Plus I really enjoyed this post! Thanks 😊

      Reply

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