Bean Stitch Tutorial

In this video, Brenda K. B. Anderson demonstrates how to work the bean stitch pattern. Download the bean stitch chart here for a visual reference.

Brenda points out that bean stitches can be wider than the usual stitch, so you may want to use a larger hook for the foundation chain and then switch back to a smaller hook for the remaining part of the pattern.

Bean Stitch Tutorial Diagram

To begin, chain any odd number of stitches. Skip the turning chain, skip the next chain, and work a bean stitch into the following stitch. To work a bean stitch: insert hook into indicated space, yarn over and pull up loop. *Yarn over, insert hook into same stitch, yarn over and pull up loop. Repeat from *two more times. There are now 8 loops on hook. Yarn over and pull through all 8 loops on hook. One bean stitch has been completed. Brenda recommends pulling up on each loop a bit more than normal as they are being made. These slightly elongated loops are much easier to draw your hook through when completing the bean stitch.

After completing a bean stitch, chain one and skip one stitch. Repeat this process across the row, making a bean stitch, then one chain, then skipping a stitch, ending with a bean stitch in the last stitch, and adding one chain at the end of the row. A second chain is added at the end of the row for a turning chain, then work is turned. Brenda notes that on each successive row, each bean stitch is made into a bean stitch from the previous row. She stresses that the top of a bean stitch is actually offset (to the side) of the bean shape and that the chain-1 that sits directly above the bean never gets worked into. Each following row is worked as follows:

*Bean stitch in next bean stitch, ch 1, skip 1, repeat from * across row, ending with a bean stitch in last bean stitch of previous row, then 2 chains, and turn to work the following row.

At the end of the tutorial, Brenda explains how you many modify the puffiness of each bean, by repeating the “yarn over, insert, yarn over, pull up” segment more times for a plumper bean, or fewer times for a less plump bean.

This highly textured stitch pattern is super fun to make—you’ve got to give it a try!