Let's get started with my favorite stitch: peyote. This post is the first in a long series to come about peyote stitch.
1. Start with a comfortable length of thread. Wax or condition your thread as needed. Thread your needle.
2. To keep the beads from falling off the end of the thread as you begin peyote, add a stopper bead.
3. To begin even-count flat peyote, string an even number of beads (say 10, as in the photo) onto the threaded needle, and push the beads down to the stopper bead. Be careful not to lose your tail; the stopper bead will move if you push it!
4. Pick up another bead and stitch back through the bead second from the end (that's bead number nine in the original 10 strung on in the photo below).
5. The bead you just added should sit on top of the bead below it (see the two beads at the right end in the photo below). Pick up another bead, skip the next bead, and go into the next bead.
6. Repeat across the row, picking up a bead, skipping one bead, and going into the next bead. When you reach the end of the row, work back the opposite direction (see photo below). Work to desired length.
7. To count rows in peyote, choose any two columns of beads and count the number of beads in these two columns. That number equals the number of rows you have stitched. After stringing on the original number of beads (in this case 10) and stitching one row of peyote, you have three rows of peyote.
8. In the photo below, two columns of beads are selected in the red box. There are 11 beads in these two columns, so that means I have stitched 11 rows of peyote.
9. As with all stitching (except maybe freeform techniques), you want to cull your beads as your using them. Those two beads on the needle in the photo below are Bad Beads!
Here are some examples of things you can do with peyote stitch:
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