Free Right Angle Weave Designer — Draw Your Own RAW Pattern

A right angle weave unit is four beads in a ring, and every bead of a panel belongs to one or two units: a bead on the outer edge to one, every other bead to two. That is where the bead count comes from. A panel U units wide and V units tall has U × (V + 1) beads lying flat — the tops and bottoms — and V × (U + 1) standing — the sides. A 10 × 30 band is 330 + 310 = 640 beads, not the 1,200 that four beads a unit would suggest; the readout beside the size sliders does the sum, and the materials list counts what you have actually drawn.

Sharing is also why RAW is so flexible. Each bead is held by the thread running through it and turning at its ends, so a panel drapes and bends in both directions — which is what makes it good for bracelets, chokers and the base of beaded bezels — and why a firm tension matters more than in a stiffer stitch.

The picture in RAW is carried by the edges, two beads of colour across every unit: its left and right side, and the top and bottom it shares with the rows around it. A horizontal line is a row of tops; a vertical line a column of sides; a diagonal steps through the units, one top and one side at a time. A unit whose four beads are all one colour reads as a solid square, and a checkerboard of such units is the classic RAW pattern.

Because a unit is only two beads of picture across, detail costs width. Lettering wants at least five units per letter, a simple motif fifteen to twenty units, and a portrait thirty or more. Draw bold shapes with clean edges first, and judge the result at full view, where the beads sit close together as they will in the weave.

The word chart follows the standard single-needle method. Row 1 starts at the top left: pick up four beads for the first unit, tie them into a ring and pass through the first three again, then add three beads for each unit to the right, the thread circling each new unit the other way from the last. At the end of a row, weave through to come out of the bottom bead of the last unit, and work the next row back the other way: three beads for its first unit, then two for each unit after it, because each new unit already has its top bead and one side.

Each line lists the units by their column on the chart and the beads each one adds, in pick-up order: [7] L DB0010, B DB0200 means the unit in column 7 adds its left side in DB0010, then its bottom in DB0200. When a run of units all add the same beads, the line says so once: [19–12] 2 DB0010. Point at a bead on the canvas and its row lights up beside it; click a row to outline it on the chart while you check it against the picture.

RAW is woven with almost any round or near-round bead. Delica cylinders give a crisp, square unit and an even picture; round seed beads in 11/0 or 8/0 a softer, rounder one; 3 to 4 mm crystals and pearls the glittering bands the stitch is best known for. Mixing sizes in one panel distorts the units, so keep a pattern to one bead size and add other beads afterwards on top of the units, as an embellishment.

A thermally bonded thread such as FireLine 6 lb, on a size 10 or 12 beading needle, holds the units square and survives the many passes through each bead. Pull each unit snug as you close its ring — a loose first row makes a wavy panel that later rows cannot straighten. How big a unit comes out depends on the bead and your tension more than anything else, so weave five units and measure before planning a bracelet’s length.

Drawing the picture in squares and expecting it to survive as edges; making the panel too narrow for the detail it carries; losing track of which way the thread circles and adding a unit’s beads in the wrong order; forgetting that the first unit of every row after the first takes three beads, not two; and pulling the thread so tight the panel curls. Plan in units, keep the word chart open while you weave, and tick each row on the printout as you finish it.