Beaded Knitting

The 'floating section' for next year's competitions is a handbag in beaded knitting. If you look for 'beaded knitting' online, you find everything from a few beads added to a scarf to items that look as though they're made entirely of beads. I'm not  sure which sort the judges are going to be looking for, I hope to find out more at an information day, tomorrow or next week. In the meantime I've been working on some samples and finding out what I can.

The most useful pattern I found was this one by The BeadKnitter. It is knitted with only one colour bead, but gives the clearest instructions for how to add beads. The little flower sample is worked from a tunisian crochet pattern, which I found here. Lesson number one: my first attempt came out as a mirror image; because the beads are added from the back, the chart must be followed right to left when threading beads. I worked it again with tiny beads. It faces the right way, but the pattern doesn't show up well with such small beads.

 I came across Julia Pretl on Pinterest. Her beaded bags are inspirational. You can see  some of them here.

The tulip pattern at the top I worked from a knitting pattern book called Family Album by Kaffe Fassett and Zoe Hunt. The original chart shows where to use different coloured yarns, but it works just as well for different coloured beads. I think cross stitch patterns would also work.

I hope this post is not too garbled. I'm just beginning to explore beaded knitting and this helps to bring together my research so far. Beaded knitting is not the same as the beaded crochet ropes I've been making, but some of the principles are the same and the equipment is the same.  I do think my crochet work will help me with knitting.