Beads--part four

No, I haven't gotten sick of beading yet.

I have this lovely skein of handspun. It was spun especially for me by Heidimonkey, made with long colour changes.

When wound up, it made a gorgeous cake of yarn. I went and got a tube of bright green beads, hoping they would show up well in the knitting.

The shawl is coming along well. Here's a preview of how it's coming together, though the beads (right there on the upper edge) hardly show in this photograph.

Ok, enough blogging. Back to knitting!

Beads--part three

And while we're disussing beads, (and we were,) I must bring up my Shipwreck, the longterm project with 1400 yards of yarn and 4600 beads.

Get this--it's done.  No really! I beaded and knit and beaded and knit and finally, I have a lovely new shawl.

This shawl is so epic that I went out and bought a black dress just to wear with it. And then today I bought another one!

I keep hoping I'll get to take it out for a real photo shoot. So watch out--there may be more photos.

Beads--part two

In 2007, I bought a skein of laceweight on impulse.

I fully intended to cast on as soon as possible, but at the time I had Christmas knitting to finish. And so finally the skein got tucked into a bin for safekeeping, and while always loved, never utilised.  

So this year, I've been making a fresh effort to use the wonderful yarns that I own. And I decided it was time to bring this yarn out of hibernation and into a project.

This one got paired with some dark iridescent purplish beads I've had for years, and the pattern Annis.

The results are a very light and airy shawl.

The yarn didn't have a tag, but the ravelry entry says it's 50g.  The shawl used 40g of yarn, and I had 39g leftover!

Beads, beads, and more beads-- part one

Hello blog!

Let me tell you, there has been a whole lotta beading going on!

Threatening Seas

I started with a lovely skein of blue 100% merino. This skein came from the Canon Hand Dyes Shakespeare Club. This was the November skein, inspired by the Tempest, entitled:

Though the seas threaten, they are merciful.

I paired it with a bead blend called "oceanic mix", and a pattern entitled Adelei.

The results were small and bunchy.

But as always with shawls, a good blocking pulled it into shape and brought out all its beauty.

Look! It's a shawl!

Sadly, the beads were such a good fit they hardly showed.

But I still love it.