Knitting with Beads

How-to Questions
1

Hi all,

I’ve picked up a new project, the Schaefer Yarn Undulating Waves scarf that is knit with beads. I’ve never knit with beads before, and I was curious about working with them. I get that I have to thread the beads onto my yarn first before working it, but it seems that people have used between 900-1300 beads for this scarf. Ideally I’d like to knit this in one piece, so I would have to thread on the beads initially. But how do you wind the ball so the beads are easily accessible and don’t get trapped in the center pull skein you wind? Or do you leave all 900-1300 beads outsde of the center pull skein and only wind the excess from that point forward?

Thanks,
Kelly

2

I’ve knit a sweater with beads and I can tell you that it’s very wearing on the yarn to string more than about 100 beads. The yarn is rubbed by all those beads being pushed by. I strung about 100 knit until I ran out of beads and then broke the yarn and re-strung 100 more.
Here’s an alternative method
which doesn’t require stringing beads at all. Try a swatch with both this method and stringing beads and see which one you prefer for that very good looking scarf.