How to show many different images on same sprite?

I need to make a Facebook friend list with their pictures. I have one sprite for the picture, however due to this behavior (http://www.scirra.com/forum/sprite-loadimage-from-url-is-working-wrong_topic62033_page1.html), I cannot load different images on the same frame for different sprite instances.

Therefore, the question is, as a person may have 1k or more friends, how to achieve my goal? To create a sprite with more than 1k empty frames looks like a horrible idea to me...

the whole idea of a sprite with over 1k frames sounds bad any way you look at it. I would advise changing your design instead trying to force it to do something that most likely wont perform well. Seems loading all those images will be a bear regardless of how you do it.

wouldn't it be smartest to show a few at a time, and use AJAX to load new ones as old ones scroll offscreen? (while using a buffer... e.g. if you're showing 6 at a time, have 12 loaded (3 ahead, 3 behind in case they scroll either way)