Started playing around with offloom weaving this weekend based on instructions from the bead books I found at the library. I started with a little sample of flat peyote stitch. It came out a little uneven on the sides, partly because I used cheap beads that aren't a uniform size, but it turned out pretty well for my first attempt. It makes really drape-y bead fabric with a little stretch to it. I also tried odd-count peyote around a tube. That got frustrating REALLY fast because it kept slipping out of place. So then I tried it around an empty spool thinking the wider surface plus the rim at the top and bottom would make it easier to handle. That was better, but it still took several tries to get it started. I couldn't get the first row to stagger when I added the second row of beads. I finally ran another thread through every other bead in the first row and tied it around the spool, then pushed the alternating beads above the thread to hold them in the staggered pattern. That seemed to work pretty well. The instructions for the flat peyote mentioned you can do the same thing with a pin or fine wire, but I didn't have as much trouble with the flat stitch and didn't need to do it. I took a couple hours today to bead around the entire spool but it came out pretty nice. I'd need to do a lot more practicing to get the hang of patterns with different colors, but I at least have a feel for it now.
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