A Dainty Ring - by Marcia DeCoster

I've been a big fan of Hubble stitch since Melanie's first book came out.  I immediately was drawn to how supple the stitch was, but also that I could make it structural.  It lends itself to embellishment between the points of the Hubble and depending on bead choices it can be made quite self supporting when worked tubular.

The first project I created with Hubble was Cryptex which was a tubular vessel.  I also explored layering by working a second row of hubble stitch off the same point, and increasing dimension by changing the size of the beads in the layers around the bottom.  The photo shows the vessel of hubble with the insert of the peyote tube.

What does all this have to do with a Dainty Ring.....Well as I was trying out colors for the various Cryptex, I noticed that the 16 unit around band of tubular Hubble made a perfect ring, A Dainty Ring.  It's a great starting place to play with Hubble or if you already know Hubble it's a great little project for trying out color combinations, and you end up with a wardrobe of colorful sweet rings.

It turns out that Hubble is a directional stitch and that by reversing the direction of four rows of Hubble it created a wider center space perfect for embellishing with a larger bead, like a 3 mm crystal or pearl.

With just a little bit of effort you too can have a dainty ring!  

Supplies:

A 2 g         Size 11 main color

B  1 g         Size 11 contrast color

C  .5 g or 40 Size 11 contrast color or 2mm crystal or 2mm fire polish

D 20      3mm pearl or crystal

Thread choice?  I find double waxed fireline really helps to keep the units snugged up agains one another.

A word about sizing - personal tension, type of bead and choice of embellishment will all affect the fit of your ring.  I like to start with between 14 and 16 units.  I wrap this around the intended finger and work until I have one unit of overlap.

I find the 3mm pearl embellishment has a tendency to tighten things up more than a 3mm crystal on the center row.  If you plan to use pearls then you might continue with units until you have a 2 unit overlap before joining.

If all else fails and your rings is a slightly different size, well you do have 8 fingers and 2 thumbs to choose from!

Row 1 - Pick up 3 size 11 A  beads and pass through the first one again.  Pick up 1 contrasting size 11 B bead and pass through the next size 11. I call this the point bead.

Pick up three A beads and pass back through the first one.  Pull the thread so that the size 11 you pass through snugs up against the size 11 from the prior unit.  There will a little thread that shows beneath the two adjacent size 11’s.

Pick up 1 size 11 B bead and pass through the next size 11.

When you have the desired number of units, join as described below.

Join - First align your units so that all have the contrast beads on the top.  They will tend to flip over so laying it flat will help.  Exiting the last 11 passed through in the last unit, pass through the size 11 A bead in the first unit and the size 11 B bead above it.  You may want to pass through all beads in the first unit again and exit out the top bead to keep things snug.

Note:  when working tubular hubble stitch, every other row will be woven in the opposite direction.

Row 2 - Pick up 2 size 11 beads in Color A and pass through the size 11 B bead and the first size 11 A bead again.

Pick up 1 size 11 B bead and pass through the next A bead.

Pick up 2 size 11 A beads and pass through the size 11 A bead from the far side.  Pass through the first  A bead

Pick up 1 size 11 B bead and pass through the next size 11 A bead.  Repeat for all units.

On the last unit, pass through the A bead and B point bead from unit 1 to join.

You will now reverse sides and weave two rows of hubble stitch in the other direction.  Note that Hubble is a one directional stitch.  By weaving two rows from the other side you will leave a center space for  your larger embellishment beads and the side beads will be the opposite orientation.

Weave to exit a bottom bead on the first row.

Pick up 2 A beads and pass back through the A bead you are exiting and the first A bead just added.

Pick up 1 B bead and pass through the next A bead.  Repeat these two steps until you’ve completed all units and join as before.

Complete one more row.

Your band should have a center line of A beads and two rows on each side of the A Bead.

Weave to exit a B point bead on the top of the third row you completed.  Pick up 1 C bead and pass through the next B bead.  Repeat around and weave to exit the center A bead.

Pick up 1 D bead and pass through the next A bead.  Do not pull too tightly as this may cause your ring to become too small. Repeat around. 

Weave to exit the point bead on row 1. Pick up 1 C bead and pass through the next B bead.  Repeat around and weave off.

Note:  C  beads might be a size 11 seed bead ,  a 2mm crystal  or 2mm fire polish.

             D beads might be a 3mm pearl or a 3mm crystal

For a printable version of these instructions, click here.

Have fun playing with different variations, and if you're intrigued as I was to continue the Hubble journey Melanie De Miguel now has two books.  She's extended her exploration of the original Hubble stitch in Let's Hubble, with a new book called Hubble  Stitch 2 Further Adventures into Planet Hubble.

This weeks content by Marcia DeCoster