Famous Jewelry Collections: THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Friday, March 30, 2012

THE BEADING GEM'S JOURNAL

Abacus Bracelets Help Count Knitting or Crochet Stitches

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 04:00 AM PDT

Wearing an abacus bracelet is an exceedingly clever idea because a knitter or crochet enthusiast can easily keep count of stitches. Sure you can buy those little plastic row counters but they are small and will only fit knitting needles not crochet hooks. Functional pieces of jewelry like counting bracelets are much prettier alternatives.

One of the most amazing designs is by Sharon Coleman whose Etsy Store is called Ablet : Home of the Knitting Abacus. Shown above is her bracelet using rainbow colors. Her design is reminiscent of how traditional wooden or bamboo Chinese abacus work. Her corded beads are movable with one row representing individual knitted or crochet row. The other row represents 10's of worked rows. The best way to understand how it works is to watch her video.

Other jewelry designers also have different ways to make a bracelet countable. Jeanette of Jed's Joy makes pretty double strand bracelets with one crucial difference. There is a small beaded ring which is moved to position so it marks how many rows have been done.

Jessica of the Crafty Chaos made this lovely black and pink design featuring two small beaded rings one for each row.

The abacus, a really ancient invention, is still widely used in other parts of the world, notably Asia, often at lightning speed. The most familiar design is the wooden frame one with beads like this :

A Chinese abacus (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But did you know abaci were once simply beans and stones moved on grooves of sand or carved out wooden tablets? Shown below is a calculating table dating back to the medieval era.