Cubic Raw Huib Petersen Style

Huib has been busy teaching all over Europe but in the midst of that he took the time to write for me his way of doing cubic raw. Although it's verbal it's clear what it is that needs doing from his instructions here. This is the way I have discovered that most people describe or stitch cubic raw. I've seen it described in bead and button, by David Chatt, by Heather Collin, by Elke Leonhardt-Rath, Sian Nolan and now confirmed by Huib. I guess that is consensus! But still I have done it two other ways, one by stitching the base first, then stitching a row of raw at right angle to the base and then connecting those tops. This really only makes sense if you are making a multiple row piece, and not a single cubic raw rope. I have also stitched it by using the clock wise and counter clockwise stitch that shares a side bead, which I think gives a sturdier result with less thread showing.

So the conclusion is as with most stitches there are multiple ways to accomplish it. Thanks to Huib for sharing his technique below.

I love this sitch and have been teaching it this way and stitching it this way ever since my keyboard bracelet saw the light. What I like about stitching it this way is that you stitch constantly clock or counterclockwise and that the stitch becomes a bit sturdier.

So how I have been teaching is in the following way,
What you are doing is pretty much like building a block or a room, starting with laying the foundation and then adding walls and ceilings,

To make things easy when you are learning a stitch use two clearly diffent matte color beads, blue for the floor and ceiling and yellow for the walls,

Pick up 4 (blue) floor beads in RAW.

Pick up 1 (yellow) wall, 1 blue (ceiling) and 1 (yellow) wall bead, and stitch back through the floor bead you started from.

Before you do anything else, stitch through the next floor bead,

Pick up 1(yellow) wall plus 1(blue) ceiling, stitch down through the 1st wall you picked up in the previous stitch, and back through he floor you came out of,

Before you do anything else stitch through the next floor bead,

Pick up 1 (yellow) wall plus 1 (blue) ceiling, stitch down through the wall of the previous stitch and the floor you came out of,

Now you will see that you have already 4 walls but only 3 ceilings, so one ceiling needs to be added,

Stick your needle in the next floor and you will see the needle ia already pointing towards the wall bead you want stitch up through, do so,

Pick up 1 (blue) ceiling bead, stitch down through the wall, the floor you came out of and also again through the wall your needle was pointing to earlier,

Pull your work tight and you will see that it shapes a block, the only thing is that the four ceiling beads are not connected yet, make this happen with a RAW

The four ceiling beads will now be your floor beads around which ou can built the next block.

I call this stitch cubular right angle weave, because what you are stitching is a four sided tube.

I like the visibility of the thread in this stitch and sometimes accentuade it by using a contrasting color thread, this then because a part of the design.

One more thing I would like to add, just to think about and even try out, you can make this tube shape and keep it's shape on it's own by putting on the left and right side of the cube a triangular stich and on the front and back a right angle stitch ( these will share the top bead) so the rhythm of that stitch would be: starting from the right side,

Pick up 2 beads, stitch back through the floor and through the next floor, pick up 2 beads, stitch back through the 1 st bead of the previous stitch, and through the floor and the next floor, pick up 1 bead, stitch back through the 1st bead of the previous stitch and through the floor and the next floor, and you will see there are the 4 beads ready for you to be stitched together in right angle weave.

I hope this helps, I am sure for some project it is ideal for aothers it might not work at all.

I have noticed while teaching this that the fact that it is possible to stitch constantly clock wise or counter clock wise makes the stitch a lot less confusing for a lot of us.


Marcia, love and greetings, feel free to share this on your blog, warmest regards, Huib Petersen