Knitting with Beads E-Book

Fiona Morris

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2018

Beschreibung

Knitting with beads is a technique that has been used since the early nineteenth century, but has become increasingly popular in recent years. Now, with new methods offering exciting ways to experiment with materials and equipment, there is no better time to improve your skills. Knitting with Beads is a contemporary guide to a traditional technique covering a variety of different techniques, with beads threaded onto the yarn, as well as beads applied as you go along. These methods are developed further in a chapter on experimenting with year, beads and different stitch patterns, which offers readers the opportunity to develop their own ideas for using beads in their knitting. The projects section at the end of the book includes a wide range of items that allows readers to put these techniques into practice. Superbly illustrated with 160 colour photographs and 52 line artworks offering clear step-by-step images for each technique.

Leseprobe

Knitting with Beads

FIONA MORRIS

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2018 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2018

© Fiona Morris 2018

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of thistext may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 508 4

Frontispiece: Garter-and-Diamond Lace Shawl, knitted with Juniper Moon Farm Findley Dappled lace-weight yarn.

Tech editor: Heather Murray

Photographs: Dave Morris and Fiona Morris

Acknowledgements

There are a number of people I need to thank for their help and support while I wrote this book: my knitting friend and tech editor, Heather Murray; another knitting friend, Joanne Cummins, for doing some knitting; my friend Jan Wilson, who did all of the modelling; Cathy Scott of Stitchmastery, who helped to develop some new chart symbols to represent the techniques of knitting with beads; and Jacquie Kennedy of Liss Wools and all the knitters who visit this yarn store, where I often teach; but most of all my husband, Dave, who not only took many of the photographs but also did the cooking and housework so that I could work on this book.

CONTENTS

Introduction

Part 1: Techniques

1 Tools and Techniques

2 Bead Knitting

3 Beaded Knitting in Garter Stitch and Stocking Stitch

4 Beads and Lace

5 The Crochet-Hook Method

6 Experimenting with Beads, Yarn and Stitch Patterns

7 General Knitting Techniques

Part 2: Projects

Purses and Bags

Knitted Jewellery and Decorations

Jewellery Knitted with Wire

Jewellery Knitted with Monofilament Nylon Fishing Line

Accessories

Garments

Abbreviations and Chart Symbols

Resources

Further Reading

Index

INTRODUCTION

I first came across beads in knitting in the early 1990s when I was attending a textiles course. One day, the tutor brought two vintage beaded items to class: a Victorian beaded, knitted purse and a beaded, crocheted miser’s purse. I had never seen this type of knitting before. When I got home, I did a search on the Internet and came across an American website called Baglady. The website (which is now defunct) had for sale booklets of patterns and materials that included the very fine needles needed for knitting amulet beaded purses. I purchased a pattern book and some needles, which started my knitting-with-beads adventures.

I found British suppliers for the fine cotton yarns and beads required and made my first amulet purse by following the instructions in the booklet. In an American knitting magazine, I found another pattern, which I knitted, and then I started to design my own purses. I designed several small amulet purses and then a couple of beaded, knitted evening bags. I also started playing around with beads and wire, and beads and nylon fishing line, to knit jewellery pieces.

Initially, I could not find much written about knitting with beads, until I was given an old copy of Mary Thomas’s Knitting Book by a friend; this book includes a brief history of knitting with beads and explains the difference between Bead Knitting and Beaded Knitting. I realized that the purses I was making were Beaded Knitting. I subsequently did make a couple of items of Bead Knitting, where a bead is knitted or purled through every stitch, to give a solid, beaded fabric.

Around 2000, another friend came across a book called Purls on the Pulse, about Norwegian Beaded-Knitting cuffs. The book was written in Norwegian but contained charts for all of the included Beaded Knitting. The cuffs were worked in garter stitch, with the beads being placed according to the chart between knit stitches when working the wrong-side rows, to produce a pattern on the right side of the knitting.

In the last ten to fifteen years, there have been quite a few developments in knitting with beads, particularly in conjunction with lace, all of which has added to my knowledge and enjoyment of knitting with beads.

I have written this book to encourage knitters of all levels to explore the various methods of including beads in their knitting. The book covers a variety of different techniques, with beads being threaded on to the yarn and beads being applied as you go along with a project. Chapter 6, which covers experimentation with beads, yarn and stitch patterns, offers starting points for you to develop your own ideas of using beads in knitting, and Part 2 of this book features projects for a wide range of items, involving various techniques.

Part 1: Techniques

CHAPTER 1

TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES

Tools and materials

Beads

There is a large range of different types of beads available now, but not all of these beads are suitable to use in knitting. The size, shape and weight of the beads are all important factors to consider when selecting beads to knit with. Very large and heavy beads will be uncomfortable to wear, but very small beads or beads with very small holes may not be possible to thread on to the knitting yarn.

For most types of knitting with beads, glass seed beads work best. Seed beads have a rounded or cylindrical shape and a central hole. The beads come in a range of sizes; the smaller the size of the bead, the larger the bead’s size number. For example, a size 6 seed bead is much larger than a size 15 seed bead. The range of sizes available does vary from manufacturer to manufacturer. Size 11 or 10 beads are usually the smallest size of seed beads to be used in Beaded Knitting. Size 8 or 7 beads are a good size for a variety of uses, and size 6 or 5 beads generally make a bolder statement.

The main factor determining how well the beads will work is the relationship between the yarn being used and the size of the bead hole. The beads often need to be threaded on to the knitting yarn before knitting. Most seed beads will go on to fine lace-weight yarn or No. 8 Pearl Cotton yarn, but large beads may not work well on very fine yarns.

A general guide to yarn thickness and bead size

Beads of size 11 or 10 will go on to fine lace-weight yarn, No. 8 Pearl Cotton yarn and fine kid-mohair yarn.

Beads of size 8 or 7 will go on to most 4ply/fingering-weight and finer yarns.

Beads of size 6 or 5 will go on to fine DK-, sport- and 4ply/fingering-weight yarns.

The material that the beads are made from is also important. The larger the bead, the heavier the bead is, and this is especially noticeable for heavier materials such as glass. A fine yarn may not support the weight of a heavier bead.

Other types of beads can be used in knitting, such as crystals, bi-cone beads, bugle beads and metallic, wood, bone and plastic beads, to mention a few. Decorative beads can be used to embellish the knitting, but, if you want to work with the beads by using Beaded-Knitting techniques, the holes in the beads must be large enough for the beads to be threaded on to the knitting yarn.

Fig. 1.1 A selection of different types of beads: seed beads of various sizes, cube beads, triangles, bugle beads, bi-cone beads and a variety of decorative beads.

Fig. 1.2 Samples of similarly sized seed beads from four different manufactures. From the top down are Czech Preciosa size 7, Czech Matubo™ size 8, Japanese Toho size 8 and Japanese Miyuki size 8 seed beads.

Fig. 1.3 Different bead finishes, clockwise from the top left: transparent, coloured iris, metallic, silver-lined, metallic iris, frosted and opaque.

There are a number of manufacturers of seed beads. The beads used in the samples in this book come from either Japan or Czechoslovakia. The Japanese manufacturers include Miyuki, Toho Beads® and Matsuno, and the Czech manufactures include Preciosa and Matubo™. The quality of the beads with respect to the constancy of shape and size does vary depending on where the beads are produced, with the most consistently shaped beads coming from Japan.

Seed beads also come in a variety of finishes. The beads on three out of the four featured bead strings have a similar finish and are often described as metallic-iris beads. They are opaque beads with a polished finish, and there is variation in the colours of individual beads included in a particular bead colourway. Some other bead finishes are transparent, silver-lined, gold-lined, AB (aurora borealis), opaque, frosted and matt. The colour of transparent beads is affected by the colour of the yarn that they are threaded on to. Silver-lined beads have more sparkle than opaque or metallic beads. Beads with an AB coating have a slightly iridescent look; frosted beads have less of a shine and look more like matt-finish beads.

Yarn

The main factors to consider when the selecting yarn to use for knitting with beads are whether the yarn is fine enough to go through the holes in the beads that you want to use and how robust the yarn is.

Most designs that require Beaded-Knitting techniques are made in 4ply/fingering-weight or finer yarns, as these yarns will work with the largest range of seed-bead sizes. The yarns can be made from a variety of different fibres and by a variety of different spinning methods, but, for most Beaded-Knitting techniques, the yarn does need to be robust.

For most of the techniques covered in this book, the beads are threaded on to the yarn before the knitting is started and therefore are constantly being pushed along the yarn, which can cause the yarn to wear. If the yarn is very softly spun or is a singles yarn, the yarn may break during the knitting process or require fewer beads to be threaded on to it at any one time, to avoid yarn breakage, resulting in shorter lengths of yarn being used and therefore more yarn ends having to be woven in.

Fig. 1.4 Fine enamelled craft wire (right) and monofilament nylon fishing line (left).

Fig. 1.5 A selection of knitting needles, including 1.25mm (US 0000) steel needles.

Fig. 1.6 Crochet hooks and dental Superfloss™, for placing beads.

As well as conventional yarns, other materials such as fine knitting wire and monofilament nylon fishing line can be used for knitting with beads, to make jewellery. Wire comes in a large range of gauges and colours. Fine, 0.20mm, enamelled copper wire has been used for the samples of wire knitting featured in this book. This thickness of wire is quite flexible, making it fairly easy to knit with. If you want to use a thicker wire, the 0.20mm wire can be worked with several strands being held together, to make up a thicker wire; this approach is recommended, rather than trying to use a thicker wire, which has much less flexibility.

Monofilament nylon fishing line also comes in a range of thicknesses. A range of thicknesses between 0.17mm and 0.23mm have been used in the project samples. The nylon fishing line is fairly easy to work with, although it can be difficult to see the stitches on the needle. The nylon may be clear or it may have a tint of colour. The different colours of nylon show up better on some types of needle than on others, so you may have to experiment with using bamboo, wood and metal needles.

Knitting needles and crochet hooks

For most Beaded-Knitting techniques, it is not necessary to have any specialist knitting needles, as long as the needle size is appropriate for the yarn being used. Knitting needles can be made from a variety of materials, including wood, bamboo, steel, coated aluminium or plastic. The type of needle, for example, straight, circular or double pointed, is more relevant to the project being knitted than the fact that beads are being included.

Bead Knitting and some fine Beaded Knitting, such as for the knitted purses, are worked with very fine yarn and small beads, so very fine needles, such as 1.25mm or 1.50mm needles (US 0000 or US 000 needles, respectively), are also required. These very fine needles are usually available only as metal or steel needles, because wood or bamboo needles this fine have a tendency to break.

Fig. 1.7 A beading mat, a piece of chamois leather and small containers are all suitable for holding beads when they need to be threaded on to the yarn or picked up with a crochet hook.

Fig. 1.8 Tools for threading beads, from left to right: a beading needle threaded with a doubled thread to create a loop at one side of the needle eye, a beading needle threaded with a thread that is tied into a loop, a Big Eye beading needle and a Beadalon® collapsible-eye needle.

When working the method that places a bead on a stitch by using a crochet hook, this method requires the use of a crochet hook that is fine enough for the bead to fit over the head of the hook. The size of the hole in the bead does vary with the size of the seed bead and with the manufacturer, but generally a crochet hook of between 0.60mm (US steel hook 14) and 1.00mm (US steel hook 12) works best. Hooks that are finer than 0.60mm may not hold on to the stitch very well and may be unable to pull the whole yarn strand through the bead, and hooks that are larger than 1.00mm (US steel hook 12) may be too thick to go through the hole in the bead.

An alternative to using a crochet hook to place beads is to use dental Superfloss. One end of the Superfloss is coated, which makes the end firm enough to go through the hole in a bead and also to pick up a stitch from the needle but flexible enough to fold back on itself when the bead is being placed.

Other beading-related tools and materials

The majority of techniques that are used when knitting with beads require the beads to be threaded on to the yarn before the process of knitting begins. To stop the beads from rolling away when being threaded, they can sit on a beading mat or be held in a shallow container. Beading mats can be made of a variety of materials, as long as the materials used will stop the beads from rolling around and will not hamper the threading process. Mats designed specifically for beading are made with a soft, almost fur-like surface of short fibres and work very well, but other materials such as fine velvet or chamois leather can also work well. Felt does not work as well as other materials, as it tends to catch on the threading needle point, resulting in the beads flying all over the place.

Some people prefer to use a jam-jar lid or a Pringles tube lid to hold the beads. Pringles tube lids do work well, because they can be pinched together to make a funnel when returning unused beads to their storage container. Shallow bowls and containers are also good for holding beads, when working the crochet-hook method.

Yarn is too soft to be able to push the yarn end through the bead hole, when threading beads on to the yarn, so it is necessary to use another method to thread on the beads. There are a number of tools that you can use to pick up the beads and move them on to the knitting yarn. The most common method is to use a sewing or beading needle and a transition thread. The needle is threaded with the transition thread, either threaded double to make a loop at one side of the needle eye or threaded and then tied into a knot to make a loop. The knitting yarn is passed through the loop. The needle is used to pick up the beads, which are pushed down the transition thread and on to the knitting yarn.

You can also buy a Big Eye beading needle or a Beadalon® collapsible-eye needle, which allows you to thread the knitting yarn through the needle and then pick up the beads with the other end of the needle. Another alternative is to use a den-tal-floss threader. The yarn can be passed through the loop of the floss threader, and the end is firm enough to pick up the beads.

A bead scoop or small spoon such as a medicine spoon is very useful for picking up beads that need to be returned to their storage container.

Fig. 1.9 Picking up beads with a medicine spoon to return them to their container.

Techniques

Threading beads on to the yarn

There are several ways to get beads on to knitting yarns. The method used may vary depending on the size of the beads to be threaded. Size 11 or 10 seed beads are about the smallest size that are used in knitting. The bead size is small, so the hole in the bead will also be small.

The method when threading beads of this size is to use a fine beading needle and Nymo® thread (a beadwork thread), threaded double through the eye of the needle.

Fig. 1.10 Knitting yarn passed through the loop of Nymo® thread that is attached to the beading needle.

Fig. 1.11 Beads picked up on the beading-needle point, with the needle held parallel to the surface holding the beads.

The knitting yarn is threaded through the loop on one side of the eye of the needle. The easiest way to hold the beading needle is to hold it parallel to the surface of the beading mat and to use the point of the needle to tip the bead over so that you can push the needle through the hole in the bead. If you try to come into the bead vertically from above, it is quite difficult to pick up the bead, and you generally have to pick up the beads one at a time. By using the method of tipping the bead over, you can pick up quite a few beads on to the needle, before pushing them down the transition thread and on to the yarn.

This method of threading beads can be used for any size of bead.

If you are working with size 8 beads or larger, it is possible to use a fine sewing needle threaded with sewing thread that has been knotted into a circle to make a loop. As long as the bead hole is big enough to go over the knot, this method works well. The knitting yarn is threaded through the loop. The beads are picked up with the needle and pushed down the transition thread and on to the knitting yarn.

Fig. 1.12 Beads that have been pushed down the beading needle and on to the transition thread.

Fig. 1.13 Beads that have been pushed down the transition thread and on to the knitting yarn.

Fig. 1.14 Knitting yarn passed through the knotted thread loop that passes through the eye of the beading needle.

Fig. 1.15 Beads that have been picked up with the beading needle and pushed down the transition thread and on to the knitting yarn.

Fig. 1.16 Beadalon® collapsible-eye needle threaded with yarn and beads that have been pushed on to the knitting yarn.

A Big Eye beading needle is made from two thin wires that have been sealed together at each end, making a large opening along the length of the needle through which to place the knitting yarn. The Beadalon® collapsible-eye needle is very similar, but the two wires are twisted together, leaving a small loop at one end. The beads are picked up with one end of the needle and then pushed down the needle and on to the knitting yarn. The dental-floss threader works in the same way, but it is made from plastic rather than metal.

If only one colour of bead is being used for a project, the threading process is quite simple: just thread the beads on to the knitting yarn. If there are a lot of beads in the project, it is often better to try not to thread all of the beads on to the knitting yarn at the start of the project, as the beads have to be pushed along the yarn and can cause the knitting yarn to wear and become fragile. When making the small amulet beaded purses (seePurses and Bags), you should thread about half of the total number of beads on to the yarn at the beginning of the project.

For some projects, you may want to use more than one colour or type of bead. In this case, you will need to thread the beads in a set order, that is, in the reverse order to the order that the beads will be knitted.

Fig. 1.17 Green shawl edging worked with two different colours and sizes of beads.

Fig. 1.18 Beads threaded in the correct sequence for working ten pattern repeats of the green shawl edging shown in Figure 1.17.

In the featured green shawl, beads of two different colours were used for the edging. It was necessary to work out the bead-placement order for each repeat of the edging pattern and then thread the beads in the reverse order.

There are a lot of repeats of the edging pattern for this shawl, so, when threading the beads on to the yarn, it helps to divide the beads into groups of repeats and then to tie a piece of contrast-colour yarn around the knitting yarn after every ten repeats. This makes it easier to keep track of the number of repeats that have been threaded before you start to knit the edging. Once you start to knit the edging, these contrast-colour marker threads provide a way to double check your progress so that, when you reach a marker thread, you should also be at the end of a repeat and can then remove the marker thread, before starting on the next group of ten repeats.

Yarn and bead combinations

It is important to ensure that the beads will go on to the yarn, but you also need to consider how well the size of the beads works with the thickness of the yarn being used and also how well the colour of the beads works with the colour of the yarn. A larger bead on a fine yarn can distort the knitting, but sometimes a small bead may be obscured by the yarn.

Fig. 1.19 Three samples of Beaded Garter Stitch worked with the same yarn and size of needles throughout but with different sizes of seed beads.

Fig. 1.20 Three samples of Beaded Garter Stitch, for which the yarn and needle size have been changed along with the bead size used for each sample. These bead, needle-size and yarn combinations are more balanced than those of the dark-green samples with gold beads shown in Figure 1.19.

The dark-green yarn used for the three featured samples was a No. 8 Pearl Cotton yarn, knitted with 2.00mm (US 0) needles. The same numbers of stitches and rows were worked for each sample. The seed beads were all from the same manufacturer, Toho Beads®. The top sample was worked with size 11 seed beads, the middle sample was worked with size 8 seed beads and the bottom sample was worked with size 6 beads. As the beads get bigger, the width of the Beaded Garter Stitch gets wider, and, with the sample showing size 6 seed beads, the beads are almost too wide for the space between stitches. For this fine yarn, the size 11 seed beads probably work best. Size 8 seed beads will create more impact, but the size 6 beads are really a bit too big.

Fig. 1.21 This sample has been worked with four different colours of beads. From left to right are Matubo™ Crystal Full Labrador, Matubo™ Crystal Labrador, Toho Silver-Lined Crystal and Miyuki Blue/Purple Matt seed beads.

Fig. 1.22 A beaded edging worked in two different sizes of seed beads. The two beaded pattern repeats on the left were worked with Toho size 8 seed beads, and the two repeats on the right were worked with Matubo™ size 7 seed beads. The middle repeat was half worked with Matubo™ size 7 seed beads and half worked with Toho size 8 seed beads.

Fig. 1.23 The same yarn was used to knit this lace sample and Beaded-Garter-Stitch sample. The same three colours of size 6 seed beads were also used in both samples.

In this second group of three samples, the same numbers of stitches and rows were worked for each sample, but the yarn and the needle size were changed with each increase of bead size, giving a more balanced fabric in relation to each bead size. The top sample shows size 11 beads on a lace-weight yarn, knitted with 2.50mm (US 1.5) needles. The middle sample shows size 8 beads on a 4ply/fingering-weight yarn, knitted with 3.25mm (US 3) needles, and the bottom sample shows size 6 beads on a DK-weight yarn, knitted with 4.00mm (US 6) needles.

Beads that may look lovely in the packet may not show up very well when knitted, particularly if the beads are used singly. The colour of the beads may be so similar to the colour of the yarn that they disappear, or a special finish on the beads may not be visible once the beads are on the yarn. It is a good idea to spend some time sampling the yarns and bead colours that you want to use for a project, before starting to make the project.

The technique being used to work the beads will also affect the way that you see the bead and yarn combination. Beads worked in Beaded Garter Stitch can look very different to beads worked in lace or placed over a stitch by using the crochet-hook method.

CHAPTER 2

BEAD KNITTING

Bead Knitting produces a solid, beaded fabric. The main feature that distinguishes Bead Knitting from Beaded Knitting is that the bead lies vertically on one leg of a stitch rather than sitting horizontally on the yarn strand between two stitches or in front of a stitch. Bead Knitting does require quite a bit of care and attention while it is being worked, and it is generally slower to work than other knitting techniques.