Did you see? We now carry beads for you to add to your knitting!

Beads add a wonderful element to knitted items. They add sparkle and drape to lace shawls, fancy highlights to handbags, and they stand out against plainer items to create something special. With this in mind, I wrote the Starry Stole pattern!

This free pattern features a pattern of beads in a starry field on a background of simple stockinette stitch.

This allows you to get a feel for the beads without any complicated patterning in the body of the stole. The beads add a wonderful bit of weight to the super-light Shadow yarn. It feels wonderful to wear!

We carry a good, basic selection of colors right now: Silver-lined clear, red, blue and gold, clear with a rainbow coating, and multi-iris (an oil-slick color). They’re all shown swatched on either black or light grey yarn, so you can get a feeling for how they look in a project.

Beads are sized the way a lot of gauged things are – the higher the number, the smaller the bead. So, for lace and fingering weight I’d recommend the 8/0, and for yarn up to DK, go for 6/0. Our beads are calibrated, too, meaning that the overall size of the bead and the hole size is consistent. No more struggling to fit some beads over your needle, or having to pick and choose to get even sizes! They are a dream to use – I have to say I’ve tested them extensively. Hey, any excuse to knit, right?

If you’ve never knit with beads before and want some tips, Jenny has made two wonderful videos explaining how to use beads via the pre-stringing method and the crochet hook method. Can’t find an uber-teeny crochet hook? No problem! We now carry those too!

We’re all really excited about having beads amongst our offerings – and we hope you are, too. Beads add a whole new dimension to knitting – once you try them, you’ll be hooked!