Herringbone: the ladder that leans

Bench guide · reviewed November 2026 · columns of leaning pairs, the app's flat herringbone

What herringbone is

Herringbone stitch — also called Ndebele stitch — grows in columns of bead pairs that lean together like a V, which is where the name comes from: the chevron look of herringbone tweed, or a fish's spine read backwards. Where square stitch lays beads flat in counted rows of single beads, herringbone stands beads on end in straight columns and leans them in pairs, and that lean is the entire personality of the fabric.

Each stitch adds two beads that sit on two beads of the row below, at an angle to each other — Fire Mountain Gems' herringbone page describes how the two-bead stitch makes the beads angle up row by row. No source checked says which way the angle has to point; the fabric just does what its column tells it. That's why the app draws each pair leaning apart and lets the look happen.

The supplies, honestly minimal

The counts: always even across

Herringbone only works on an even count across: the ladder that starts it is an even-count ladder, and every stitch takes two beads off two of its rungs. An odd width strands half a pair at the end of every row. Fire Mountain Gems' and PotomacBeads' flat tutorials both start on even ladders, and the app doesn't even offer you the wrong choice — its size sheet steps herringbone in twos, from 4 to 40 beads across.

The app's starter pieces follow, with the repeats its size sheet works out from a 7 in target (whole repeats, so the finished lengths land just over 7 in):

Where those sizes come from: herringbone beads stand on end, so each column of pairs takes the bead's diameter across (1.6 mm for a Delica) and each row climbs the bead's length (1.3 mm). That's the app's own estimate from the published bead sizes — no published gauge exists for herringbone, so on the screen the sizes carry their "about" flags. The narrow band uses round 11/0s at 2.1 mm across, which is why four of them are still only 8.4 mm wide — columns of small beads, standing nearly vertical.

The ladder

1. The tail. Leave a 6 in (15 cm) tail. For the thread itself, the app suggests working with an arm's length at a time and adding more as you go — joins are fine in this stitch.
2. The first rung. String two beads. Go back through both, so they sit side by side with their holes upright. Holes upright is not decoration: every column that follows stands on this choice.
3. The figure eight. For each next bead: string it, go back through the bead before it, then through the new bead again — a figure eight through the pair. The thread path is what locks the rungs side by side; this is Artbeads' ladder stitch, the same ladder brick stitch starts from, so the two tutorials teach the same strip.
4. Finish the ladder. Build it to the width of row 1 of your chart — it will always be an even number of beads — and finish with the thread coming out of the top of the last bead.
5. The calendar-page fix. If your thread exits the bottom of the last bead instead, don't re-ladder: flip the whole ladder over top to bottom, like turning a calendar page. The last bead still lands on the right and the beads still match the chart's order; only a book-page turn would swap them.

The stitch: two beads at a time

1. Pick up two beads, with the thread coming out of the top of the last ladder bead. The first new bead sits on the bead the thread came out of; the second on the one after it.
2. Go down through the next bead of the row below, then up through the bead after it. The two new beads now sit on top of two rungs of the ladder, side by side.
3. Snug them and look at the pair. They rest at angles to each other — the V. Pull gently and evenly; the lean comes from geometry, not force.
4. Repeat down the row. Pick up two, down through the next bead below, up through the bead after it — one pair per two beads, until the row ends. That's the "half as many stitches as beads across" doing its work.
5. Start the next row where you stand. From row 2 on, each row begins where the thread left the one before — Fire Mountain Gems has you pass down through the second-to-last bead of the previous row — so every row runs the other way, and the app draws the arrow on each Make step to match.
6. Every place takes a bead. Each stitch lands two beads on two beads of the row below, so a chart with a gap has a hole waiting — the app's Make steps say "Herringbone needs a bead in every place" and flag the rows to fill in Design before you start.

The turn that has to catch something

1. Where you are: after the last stitch of a row, the thread has gone down through an edge bead and comes out of its bottom.
2. The turn: take the thread round the outside of that edge bead, then up through the last bead you added, so it comes out of its top. Artbeads' herringbone diagram draws exactly this — down the edge, around the outside, up through the new bead only.
3. The trap: going straight back up the bead you just came down through catches nothing — no thread, no bead wall — and the turn pulls out the first time the work is handled.
4. The other way: Interweave's Stitch Pro turnaround loops the needle under the thread between the edge bead and the bead beside it, then back up through both. The app's Learn tip offers it as the alternative; either way, catching something is what holds the turn — and the loop version also hides the thread at the edge.
5. Then keep going. The next row runs the other way: pick up two beads and go down through the second-to-last bead of the row you just finished, and the ladder-lean rhythm takes over again.

When it goes wrong

The bead math, on the app's starters

Plain arithmetic on the app's own starter counts, with the shopping list's 10% spare (advanced mode offers 0, 10 or 20%), the per-gram figures — Delicas at 200 beads to the gram, size 11s at 110 — and the shop's real tube sizes (7.2 g Delica tubes, 8.5 g Miyuki 11/0s):

Thread, on the same arithmetic: the app estimates the bracelet at about 5 m (5.4 yd) — the thread passes through each bead about twice, plus 60 cm to finish. It's labelled a rough estimate on the Supplies screen. For the same chart square stitch asks for more, because square stitch re-passes each bead several times.

Shopping notes worth taking to the store: galvanized finishes can rub off with wear and dyed colors can fade in sun or water — Duracoat and PermaFinish are made to last — and the shopping list flags a line when it sees either. The shopping-list builder runs this math in the browser: beads across × rows with the spare, grams and tubes per line. In the app, the Supplies tab works it straight off your herringbone chart, repeats included.

And what the method doesn't cover, honestly: tubular herringbone — the rope-shaped version with a step up each round — is a different structure, and the app charts flat herringbone only. If a tube is where you're headed, learn the flat turn here first; the ladder and the pairs carry straight over to it.