I'm ambidextrous, but left-hand dominant when it comes to many things including writing and...yes, beading. When I wrote my first tutorial I had to face the graphics dilemma - I realized halfway through the first diagram that I was charting for left-handed beaders, while most of my public was presumed to be righties. I solved the problem by going ahead making my left-handed diagrams, then flipping the image with a photo-editing software so it would read correctly for righties.

Likewise, any pattern or diagram can be scanned and the image flipped to make for easy as pie chart-reading for lefties!

Andréa

Oh, I was so happy to read your post! Though I believe we lefties can learn any technique or stitch if we really want to, it is often funny - and sometimes frustrating - to be living in a right-handed world. As OriginalSin wrote, it is easy to read graphic patterns if you flip the image. This is why I prefer graphic patterns to written instructions - I often get confused when I try to follow a written tuto, because I tend to forget that what is left there will be right to me and vica versa. The two-needle technique is a nightmare, for the same reason... But if I could learn to use those horrible scissors which maime your fingers if you use them in your left hand - I will not be discouraged by a beadwork pattern :)

I am also a left hander, however I am able to use both hands for many things.

I really have never struggled being left handed even with knitting, crochet and even beading. I follow the pattern exactly how it is printed, I just hold the needle in my left hand.  You may have to slightly adjust how you hold the angle of the body of your work for some stitches but it works just fine.  If the pattern calls for circling to the right then that's what I do.  It makes for less confusion then trying to read a pattern backwards.  Once you get the hang of it, you won't even think twice!

I'm a lefty, but I usually hold my needle in my right hand. But I have noticed that when following patterns I tend to start on the right side and work myself to the left side. When following a peyote or brick chart, I find I turn the pattern on its side so I'm actually working up and down as opposed to left to right.

I'm a lefty, but I usually hold my needle in my right hand. But I have noticed that when following patterns I tend to start on the right side and work myself to the left side. When following a peyote or brick chart, I find I turn the pattern on its side so I'm actually working up and down as opposed to left to right.

For leftys who are learning to bead and are following diagrams, consider scanning pictures and charts into your computer. Then, using the "draw" menu in Word or Publisher (or other graphic applications) choose "flip" horizontally and your pictures will reverse. Print those out and you won't have to follow charts backwards ever again.

I am a righty, but in my last class I had four lefties out of 15! I can bead awkwardly with my left hand but when I have to, I can feel this physical jerk in my brain as I switch! It is really weird.

With the way I draw my instructions it would not be hard to flip them horizontally but it would also involve rewriting them for the text to be oriented correctly. If lefties would tell me in advance that they would be in my class, I would try to do it for them because it would make teaching easier for both of us.

Also, it is good for all teachers to try beading with their left hand so they know what it is like for someone who is learning. You never know when a skilled left hand might come in handy.

Diane Fitzgerald

As a lefty, I sometimes scan the pattern on my computer and then reverse it. I also enlarge it to see it better.

Devorah

I'm another lefty.  until I read this article, i never really thought about it.  I just automatically put the needle in the left hand and went.  I do bead from left to right and I do the LAW rather than RAW.  I never have written instructions or have done diagrams.  So thanks for the heads up!

I am a lefty and what to know why no one has ever done a left handed beading book of all the basic stitches.  I have left handed needlework, knitting, etc.books.  I have sent numerous e-mails to Beadwork and Bead and Button asking why they have never printed left handed instructions.  No replies.  

I teach knitting & crochet and also bead and make jewelry. One of the tricks I have learned for crochet charts (which are quite confusing to follow backwards!) is to hold them up to the mirror (which allows them to be read "correctly" for a lefty) and take a picture. By printing the picture, you now have a correct chart. This would work for beading charts as well.

i'm a left-handed beader and spent a lot of time frustrated and upset with myself because i often 'didn't get it' when it came to some stitches. several years ago i teamed up with Glenda Payseno and began converting all of her patterns from right to left-handed. in my experience, it isn't always as easy as just flipping something to go in an opposite direction and she and i both struggled over it for several months. now i find i have very little problem reading 'righty' and beading 'lefty'. LOL however, i do still struggle some with netting and RAW stitches if i have to work from a righty pattern.

if you do a google search, you will find links at yahoo and Lulu that will help you find patterns geared just for the southpaw beader. and Crowbubbie, there is a lefty book of stitches in the works. [i hope i'm not breaking the forum rules by saying that if it's not ok, please LMK.]

I am left-handed and I remember quite vividly my mother teaching me how to bead, cross-stitch, knit and crochet when I was a child. She was right-handed, but a very saavy teacher and figured out that the best way to teach me was to sit directly across from me and have me follow her motions as if in mirror image. It worked very well and I think, as a result, it's helped me to be able to read and duplicate directions as written whether they are written for righties or lefties.

I would highly recommend this approach to anyone out there who is right-handed and has a left-handed child they wish to teach crafts to.

Myra  

Thanks JannM for starting a book of left handed stitches.  I just don't understand why it hasn't been done before.

I'm left-handed and have never really found it a problem - although it may explain why I rarely follow patterns exactly! I tend to find that once I've understood the thread path for a stitch or a component, it makes no difference which way up I'm holding the beadwork or whether I'm going from left to right - I can still follow a diagram and I just hold the beadwork whichever way is most comfortable for me. Designs with lettering are a bit more of a problem though...

I am left handed and also have Fibromyalgia (including brain-fog issues). But I LOVE bead weaving and I am absolutely determined to learn them all and then be able to make those lovely patterns in beading books and magazines that require you to know several different weaves.  But I need help - desperately.  Due to the severity of my illnesses - they are disabling - beading is one of the few things left to me that I can still do - that I truly enjoy.  So if anyone has any help/advice they can give about learning RAW, ladder, square, ,brick tubular (everything), netting, herringbone etc. I would be very very very greatful.

I have made a few even peyote bracelets, a few simple netting necklaces, and done a few other kits (I even made berries that required several stitches but I didn't know it back then, I just muddled my way through the directions the best I could).  But I am feeling frustrated and sad at my inability to make things (even from kits that claim to be very simple) due to being left handed.  I am pretty much home bound due to illness so I haven't taken a class (although I would probably be too intimidated to do that as I would be afraid I would be the only one who didn't "get it" and would hold the entire class up...)

Anyway, all suggestions welcome.

Equinox, I share all of your problems plus a very bad back.  I thought that beading was for me after back surgery.  I am now frustrated to the point of throwing away thousands of dollars of beads due to not understanding the stitches and how to use them. Shops I have visited usually understand right hand very well. Left hand users are left only with their beads to admire, frustration. I am trying to convert the patterns only some are not easily converted.  Hope we get some help somewhere,

I am finished with giving away my money for classes not to be able to go home with a beaded project.  12 UFOs