If you’d like to know how to make the Bead stitch for any size project, you can find out how here in this free stitch guide inside The Stitch Vault

You can find the links for all the squares in the crochet along here. The free pattern is below, but if you’d like the ad free printable version you can purchase it for just £5 from Ravelry

This pattern is written in US terms, but the UK translation is below

UK Stitch Translation

• Double Crochet (dc) = treble crochet
• Half Double Crochet (hdc) = half treble crochet

For this square I used Rico Cotton Creative Aran which is a 100% cotton non mercerised yarn. I chose this yarn as I love the feel of cotton, and it has a good selection of colours to choose from. This yarn does tend to split a little bit especially if you frog it a couple of times, so if this type of yarn is something you struggle to crochet with, I would choose a different brand.

I used the shades Rose (00) and Turquoise (36), Cardinal (11) of Rico Cotton Aran yarn, which are 3 of the 4 different colours I used to create my own 50 stitches blanket. I also used a 3.5mm hook – I recommend using Clover Amour hooks. A cost effective hook that is comfortable in your hands thanks to their ergonomic design, so doesn’t make your hands tired when crocheting for long periods of time.

The Pattern

Click here for the left hand video

You will need a 3.5mm hook for this square

Start your Bead square by making a foundation chain of 32

Row 1. In the 4th chain from your hook make a hdc (Your turning chain counts as the first stitch of the row). Make a hdc in every chain across the row – 30 stitches

Row 2. Turn and chain 1 and make a dc turning chain in the first stitch. In the next stitch make a dc. Around the post of the dc you just made, make a puff stitch (yarn over, insert your hook around the post, yarn over and pull up a loop. Repeat this twice more until you have 7 loops on your hook. Then yarn over and pull through all 7 loops.) The double crochet and the puff stitch together make your first bead stitch.

*Skip the next stitch and make a bead stitch (use the instructions above)* repeat until you have 2 stitches left in the row. Skip the next stitch and then make a dc in the last stitch of the row. – 14 bead stitches 

After every bead stitch you need to skip a stitch in order to maintain your stitch count, as every bead stitch creates 2 top loops to work into.

Row 3. Turn and chain 1. Make a dc turning chain in the first stitch. Make a hdc in every stitch across the row – 30 stitches

Rows 4 – 14. Repeat rows 2 and 3 with row 14 being a repeat of row 2 – a row of the bead stitches.

The Border

Now you need to add the single crochet border to your week 11 Bead square before we join this one to last weeks square with the Interlocking border. We’re going to be making a round of single crochet around our square. I’ve chosen to do this in a contrasting colour for each of my squares, but you can use a complimenting or same colour as your square if you want. I chose to use Gentain (87) in Rico Cotton Creative Aran yarn for my border colour, the same colour that I also used for the Interlocking border.

For the Bead stitch square you need to make a sc in every stitch across the top and bottom edges. Then in the side of rows 2 and 14 make 3sc, then make 2sc in the side of all other rows.

You should have 30 sc down each side of your square, plus an extra stitch in each corner for the turn. This will make your stitch count as 32 stitches across each side and 124 stitches total (remember the extra corner stitch is counted within the stitch count for both sides of your square)

You have now finished your Week 11 square of the 50 Stitches Crochet Along and can now cut off and weave in your ends before joining this piece to your previous pieces.

You can now add the interlocking border to join this weeks square to last weeks. You can see how to do this here both as a written guide and with a video to help you too.

If you have any questions about the pattern or the CAL, then come on over to the Facebook group – Froggity Frog’s Ribbit And Stitch where you can show us your completed squares too and join the chat and meet your fellow hookers.