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Tuesday March 18, 2008

Christina: River Rock (Dawn) - thread the beads

Alison suggested we do this scarf as a Knitalong when I visited her last October. A bit less of a challenge than a guernsey! We chose our yarn and beads together at Hollis' shop Full Thread Ahead. We spent ages mooching about in the shop trying to decide from the fantastic range available - it's such a a great environment there that mooching itself is half the pleasure. I finally picked Dawn from Naturally Hand Knit Yarns of New Zealand - for its lovely feel - wool and silk - and its lovely petrol blue colour (there was also fabulous rich chestnut colour). Hollis' advised me to get smaller beads than those recommended in the pattern, to better suit the yarn.

To thread them I used a (fairly common I think) technique that I was shown in the beaded bag workshop in November 2006. I have illustrated it here with a large eyed needle and wool. First thread the needle, say left to right, as normal - note that you have already checked that the needle is small enough to go through your chosen beads! Then wind that end round and thread the needle again in the same direction, left to right. You have created a loop.

The loop is to thread your working yarn through (just seen above). You push your beads on to the needle, past the eye, onto the looped yarn...

and finally on to the working yarn.

I actually used a much finer needle, and dental floss to create my loop. The initial double threading of the needle can be the most difficult part - especially for very fine beads. So once you have threaded a needle in this way for beading, you may wish to leave it permanently threaded up for future use (!).

This technique made "thread 767 seed beads on your first ball of yarn " a complete breeze.

Posted by Christina at 2:26 PM. Category: River Rock Scarf