Your First Peyote Panel
- Peyote stitch
- Weekend maker
- 1 hr
Flat peyote with pony beads: how the offset rows work, the extra turn odd-count rows need at the edge, and how to keep a panel from drifting off square.
Peyote is the stitch that makes kandi look woven instead of strung. Rows sit offset by half a bead, which is what lets you draw with beads: letters, drips, waveforms and anything with a diagonal read far better in peyote than they do on a ladder cuff.
It is also the only kandi stitch where the count matters before you start. An even number of columns turns cleanly at each edge. An odd number does not, and you need one extra manoeuvre at the end of every other row to lock the last bead in. That manoeuvre is the entire reason people say odd-count peyote is harder — the body of the row is identical.
The same panel technique makes mask fronts, so this is the page to read before a mask you can see and breathe in.
Charts live under peyote, and every one lists whether it is odd or even count so you know which edge turn you are in for.
What you need
- Pony beads in at least 2 colors, following a chart
- Stretch cord, 0.8mm — 3 to 5 ft
- Plastic beading needle
- Scissors
Steps
- 1Read a peyote chart as offset rows
On a peyote chart every other row sits half a bead lower than its neighbour, because each new bead drops into the gap between two beads of the row before. A chart that looks like brickwork is telling you the truth about how it will sit. Count your columns before you start: whether that number is odd or even changes how you turn at the edge.
Photo coming soon - 2String rows one and two together
String the first two rows as one continuous line off the chart — read row 1 column 1, row 2 column 1, row 1 column 2, row 2 column 2, and so on. It looks like a single strand until you work row 3, at which point the beads separate into two offset rows on their own.
Photo coming soon - 3Work row three into the gaps
Add one bead, skip one bead of the strand and pass through the next. Pull snug. Each bead you add pushes the one you skipped down into the lower row. Repeat to the end. This is the entire stitch — everything after this is the same move.
Photo coming soon - 4Turn at the edge on an even-count panel
With an even number of columns, the last bead of every row sits where you need it. Add the final bead, turn, and start the next row back the other way through the bead you just came out of.
Photo coming soon - 5Turn at the edge on an odd-count panel
With an odd number of columns you cannot secure the last bead the normal way. Add the bead as usual, thread down through the bead beneath it, across through the adjacent bead, back up through its neighbour, then back through the new bead and carry on. You only need this on every other row, and it is the one part of odd-count peyote worth practising on scrap before you start a real panel.
Photo coming soon - 6Keep tension even and check for drift
Peyote pulls in as it grows. Every few rows, lay the panel flat and look down the edge — if one side is creeping in, you are pulling harder on the return pass. Even tension matters more here than in any other kandi stitch because the pattern is the point.
Photo coming soon - 7Finish the panel or close it into a cuff
For a flat panel — a mask front, a bag flap — weave the tail back through several rows and trim. To close it into a cuff, bring the last row and the first row together so their offsets interlock like a zip, then stitch through both alternately all the way along before knotting off.
Photo coming soon
Try it on a pattern
Next
Star Cuff Basics — Points on an x-base: a 30-bead base, nine beads per point, support columns down the middle. The cuff people recognise from across a dark field.