Crocheted Anglican Prayer Beads

I designed this because I wanted to make myself a set of Anglican prayer beads, but without actual beads - I wanted something soft and quiet, so that I could pray without disturbing others, or in situations where I might not want a rosary / prayer beads to be obvious. The pattern is for Anglican prayer beads (4 weeks of 7 beads), but could easily be adapted for a traditional catholic rosary (5 or 15 decades of 10 beads), or some other arrangement that works for you. At the moment, the pattern does not include a pattern for a cross.

I am licensing this pattern under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
This means you can reproduce it, make rosaries using the pattern to sell, but you must attribute me as the author. You can also alter the pattern so long as you license it under similar terms.

Pattern

This pattern uses US terminology. Tension isn't important. Choose an appropriately sized hook for your yarn. I used a 3.5mm hook with 2-ply yarn (laceweight)

Start with a "pater" bead. This is a popcorn stitch made of 4 dc. Ch3, 3 dc into 1st ch. Remove hook from loop. Insert into top of ch3 and pull through loop to gather stitches together.

Ch4 between beads.

Make an "ave" bead. This is a popcorn stitch made of 3 dc.

Ch3, 2 dc into 1st ch. Remove hook from loop. Insert into top of ch3 and pull through loop to gather stitches together.

Continue making beads with ch4 in between beads:

Make 6 further "ave" beads (7 in total). This is one "week" - one "pater" and 7 "ave".

Make 3 further weeks, finishing with an "ave" bead.

Ch4. Slst into original bead to join the beads into a loop. Slst around bead to a point midway between the chains.

For an invitory bead (optional): Ch3, make a "pater" bead.

Loop for a cross: Ch6, slip cross onto chain, slst into bead above to close loop. Alternatively, Ch3 and then crochet a cross, starting at the top.