Beads, Beads, Beads

I love beads and beading. And knitting and my knitting stuff and my kitty. And we all live happily in my apartment.
I put beads on cards:

I put beads on shawls:

Usually I put them on hand knitted silk shawls and I've made a few in my time, however this week I've been experimenting with putting beads on my machine knits:

Experiment results. I did some hand tooling before I did the beads.

These beads are too big for the idea. The beads are prethreaded and this is where counting the first is an excellent idea, the needles in between the beaded sections are put into hold, UWP, beads placed, until each section has been knitted. This would look much better with small 5mm (5/0) or 3mm (8/0) glass seed beads. But I these were in the same box as the big plastic ones - I was checking the technique so I can do something similar in the Ravellenics.

This is one way of threading beads onto your yarn. Thread a very small needle with a sturdy thread, I used dental floss, tie a knot in the end and thread the yarn though it, about 10cm/4" should do it, thread them onto the needle and pull through, it is helpful to count up how many you need or you will have to keep pushing them along (or cut the yarn and unthread them. Another method is to get some PVA glue and make a point from the end of the yarn - rub it between your fingers to form a point, hang to dry and trim up the tip - this is a very easy way for a tight fit.

This is the 0.5mm crochet hook I use to put the bead on, take the stitch off the needle, hold firmly and pull the bead over it so it fits on both the "legs" of the stitch, making sure all of the wool is through the centre of the bead. Fishing line can also be used, thread the beads onto the fishing line, insert the end through the centre of the stitch, slip the end through the first bead, slip the bead onto the stitch "legs" and put the bead back on the needle.

I used a rouleau turner, it is too thick, but will be good for pony beads

And a day later, here is an excellent tutorial of the three methods of beading in hand knitting

Spin, Spin, Spin Beading Tutorial