Mim’s Blog

OK, sorry for the delay, but here it is.

How to add beads to your Icarus shawl.

Background: I had included beads in each of the edge points in my original design, to add weight and glitz to a simple shawl, but when Interweave Knits told me they wanted to publish it, they nixed the beads. They liked the idea, as I recall, but it just took too much space in the magazine to have a tutorial on how to add the beads. So they were cut, but now you have the option of adding them back in to your own version. This can be done with the published version, although it adds another row or two, so account for that in your yarn total. Also, although I didnt’ take pictures of it (and forgot to do it on my demo swatch), you would do the same thing over the edge yarn overs so that you have a bead there as well.

Materials:: Fishing line or other beading thread, and beads (41 of them if I recall correctly, since kamarria asked) that can accomodate a double thickness of your yarn or a double thickness of your fishing line, whichever is thicker. Of course it’s always easier to get a thinner fishing line than to get different yarn.
Intro: You will start with these instructions as the right side row AFTER you drop the extra 3 yo’s off of teh yo4’s. On this beaded row, do not work the increases around the center stitch or just inside the edge stitches. This will be a row without increases.
Step 1:

When you get to the stitch above the yo4, thread your fishing line through and fold the fishing line in half. This effectively makes a beading needle out of your fishing line.

Step 2:

Remove the stitch above the yo4 (that you’ve just threaded the fishing line through) from the needle.

Step 3:

Use the fishing line as a beading needle and thread your bead onto BOTH ends of the fishing line at once. Push the bead down on the line until it pops onto the stitch.

Step 4:

Replace the stitch that now has a bead on it onto the left hand needle (this is best done by poking the left hand needle through and THEN removing the fishing line. If you remove the line first, you risk loosing the bead AND the stitch and having the whole thing uravel all the way up your shawl. That is BAD, my friends).

Step 5:

Work that stitch (knit or purl…. doesn’t really matter, your preference). At this point the bead is wedged onto the stitch funny, and everything is sort of tight and awkward. This is normal. Once you work another row or two, it will be fine. Repeat this process above each of the yo4’s and above the center stitch across the whole shawl.
Step 6:

Work another row without increasing knitting the knit stitches and purling the purl stitches. If your beads are especially large, you MIGHT want to work a second row after that, but it really isn’t necessary.

Step 7:

Bind off as instructed in the pattern (or if you chose to do 2 more rows, you can bind off with knits instead of purls).

Step 8:

When blocking, place a pin in the row after the bead so that the yo4 opens up and the beads remains centered in each of the points. Also, please note that this picture is a dry blocking (and I forgot the beads on the edge points), so it looks like crap.

And in this pic, please disregard the Ekho and Miriam hair that is littering the floor. Miriam needs to vacuum.

Good luck!

M

p.s. thanks for all your lovely congrats in yesterday’s comments! You guys sure know how to make a grrl blush!