One easy way to knit with beads is to string the beads onto your yarn before you get started knitting. Using a small beading needle, a length of sewing thread and the yarn and beads you want to use, it doesn't take a lot of time to preload beads onto your yarn.
Once the beads are in place you can cast on and knit as normal, sliding the beads down the yarn and out of the way as you go, and placing beads wherever you like to form a pattern on the surface of your knitting.
But how do you get the beads onto the yarn in the first place? It's a pretty simple process.
Supplies
- the yarn you want to work with
- the beads you want to work with
- a small-eyed sewing or beading needle, of a size that will easily fit through your beads
- about six inches of fine sewing thread, threaded onto the needle and tied in a loop
Instructions
- Fold the knitting yarn through the loop in the sewing thread and over itself.
- Thread a bead onto the sewing needle and push it onto the thread and then onto the yarn.
- Repeat as many times as necessary for the number of beads you want to use. After a little practice you can string more than one bead at a time.
Tips for Beading Success
Make sure that the beads you choose for your project easily slide onto the yarn you've chosen. In the photo I used medium weight yarn and pony beads, which are much larger than what you'd want to use for most knitting projects. Smaller beads will need to be used with finer yarns.
The nature of manufactured beads is that there is often some variation among the beads, even in the same package of beads. This can make your stringing job very difficult if some of the holes turn out to be too small to work with your yarn. Buy more beads than you think you'll need (you can always use the leftovers in jewlery making projects) and sort through them before you begin, picking out those with the biggest holes to use first.
