What lacing for ISO 349 rim + Rohloff
 

First-time wheel builder here looking for expert advice. I'm building a ISO 349 wheel with a Rohloff Speedhub for a folding bike. I read somewhere that Rohloff hubs need a cross 2 pattern, but after getting the spokes I'm having trouble with the lacing. Does this combination need a cross 1 pattern? Any other advice you can offer?

If you are getting a severe angle at the nipple, yes.
How many spokes? Just curious.

32 spokes. It doesn’t seem to be so much of an angle/nipple problem as the latter spokes have to be bent in order to be installed around the earlier ones. It may just be my inexperience?

The smallest wheel I have ever built with a Rohloff was a 406 and that one required 1 x to get it right, so a 349 would definitely need to be 1x. I would not worry about interlacing them either. You can go all heads in or heads out with 1x but even if you chose to alternate heads in and out, I would not interlace.

It's going to depend on how the holes are drilled in the rim. When I've built small wheels, the spoke can end up kinked a little bit just above the spoke nipple. It looks a bit weird but the wheel held together fine.

The shortest spokes I ever used were on a 17" rim (Moulton size) with a Campy high-flange hub. I went with 1X lacing and it worked fine.

With 32 spokes, 16" rim, and a Rohloff hub that wheel is going to redefine "bombproof". I would build it 1X with all the bends on the inside of the flange. Putting the bends on the outside will kink the spoke around a little too much for my taste.

If you're feeling lucky you could lace it radial. I know, I know... people are going to say that it's going to "wind up". Not on that wheel- the spokes are going to be so short that the wheel will be essentially rigid.

Yup. 16" wheels with electric hub motors are laced radial all the time.

This is all great information, thank you.