Monday 9 May 2011

Bead Bracelet


I was clearing out my studio the other day and found this knitted bracelet from ages ago.

Very simple to make, and a good way to use up a stash of beads (it uses so little yarn that it hardly counts as a knitting stashbuster.)


It's knitted in the round, in stocking stitch, which makes it curl the way it does. The beads sit between the stitches on the purl side. Between two bights. (Yep, I didn't know that either until a few moments ago.)


You'll need:

some yarn (I used DK cotton)
some beads*
a circular needle or double-pointed needles to knit in the round (I used a 3mm needle, I think).

Thread the beads on to the yarn, cast on enough stitches to go over your hand easily, join to knit in the round, and knit 1 round.

Bead round: knit 1, slide a bead up to the needles, knit the next stitch. The bead should sit between the 2 stitches at the back of the work. Do this for the rest of the round.

Next round: knit.

Alternate beaded and unbeaded rounds, ending with an unbeaded round. Cast off.

*How many? Let's see.... 35 beads to a row... 3 rows of beads.... 105 beads! Which means I cast on 36 stitches.

5 comments:

Denise Kiggan said...

You've inspired me to try this out with crochet some time. This is lovely!

Sonya Philip said...

So simple and really striking results. Great way to teach beaded knitting.

Anonymous said...

What length of circular needle did you use? I've never knit in the round before!

Jesse said...

I used the magic loop method (http://www.knitting-and.com/wiki/Magic_Loop), and any length circular will work for that. You can also use double-pointed needles if you find magic loop uncomfortable.

Indigo Blue said...

What an excellent idea!