Fiddling with weaving pearls

[battah]

Thank you, ladies!

Cathy yesss the threading process can be so tedious. It almost turned me off of kumihimo til I got myself a bead spinner. I've only used it with seed beads though, I'm not sure it would work with larger gemstone beads. The threading process is so tedious. I'd love to see pictures of the pearl sweater!!

 

[BWeaves]

I've seen, but not done, a process where you loop your kumihimo thread somehow onto the thread that is through the pearls, and just slide the pearls from the pearl thread onto the kumihimo thread. I think it involved both threads being doubled and linked around each other.

 

[battah]

I've been doing something similar with pearls, BWeaves - since they usually come on doubled thread, I pull one out, then try to slide my beading needle through the hole a few pearls at a time, then slide them off the original thread onto my needle and thread (that's a confusing explanation...). It definitely saves a lot of time! I've been using a big-eye needle for that, which can sometimes be sort of tight (but it's easy to use because it's more rigid), so I may switch to the skinny threading needles.