Any Beads Any Yarn

Free yourself to use any bead size with any yarn, even textured yarns

With this month’s Easy Elegance Mitts you have the chance to use beads in ways we have not seen in our previous KnitHeartStrings KAL’s.

Beaded yarns available for purchase are beautiful, but can also be pricey. I’ve designed Easy Elegance Mitts to give you an excuse to indulge yourself with a bit of extravagant yarn that you might have been eyeing at your local yarn shop.

I am also going to give you a couple of other ways to use any size beads with any yarn, thus creating your own beaded accent yarn.

Ready-made Beaded Accent Yarn

Purchased beaded yarns are usually loosely plied with a thin thread upon which the beads  (or sequins or even crystals) are carried. The advantage of buying these beaded accent yarns is that they are ready for you to knit with.

Mariel’s Crystals by Tilli Tomas – now discontinued but still beautiful eye candy: Silk Plied with Swarovski Crystals

Some commercially beaded yarns come in mini-skeins, which  is a perfect size for the few accent rounds in projects like Easy Elegance Mitts, as well as keeping the cost down rather than buying a larger  skein.

Mini Skeins of Beaded Accent Silk Yarn

In these pre-plied purchased yarns, the spacing will be dependent on what has been determined by the manufacturer, plus there might be some fiddling to show the beads to full effect (you wouldn’t want those expensive crystals or pretty beads to hide on the inside out of sight!). Hang on — I will have a support article coming up soon on that, too.

Make It Yourself: Accenting Yarn with Beads

An alternative to using ready-made beaded yarn is to knit accent bead rows/rounds with the main yarn along with a supplemental thread upon which beads have been strung.

This frees you to use beads with tiny holes to accent thicker yarns, and even textured yarns.

Of course, you’ll still want to choose a supplemental thread that is strong, smooth  and thin enough to go through the holes in the beads. Usually I pick a supplemental thread color that will blend with the main yarn. But there is no rule that you could not choose some other color that you feel coordinates pleasingly.

An advantage in using the method of knitting with a supplemental thread  strung with beads is that you have total control over their placement.

For those who have gotten the Supplies Paks for Easy Elegance Mitts at the KnitHeartStrings Online Store, go ahead and string the Tencel thread in your pak now with the supplied beads if you have not already done so. Then it will be ready to use when you come to the beaded accent yarn rounds.

Making Your Own Plied Beaded Yarn

Another possibility is to ply the strung beads on your supplemental thread with some of your main yarn before you knit the accented rows/rounds.

Basically you would be simulating the commercially available beaded accent yarns with this method. There is one advantage in doing your own plying though — you can plan your spacing to your own specifications. It takes planning and careful attention to gauge, but can be done. Or you can just let serendipity take over and get random placement.

I am not going further into details for plying your own beaded yarn, at least at this time for this KAL, but did want to mention.

Beads WITH the yarn, rather than ON the yarn

I hope with this month’s project for Easy Elegance Mitts, the possibilities for using any beads WITH any yarn will open to you. Basically, the strategy is to use a “helper” thin thread to carry beads along with the main yarn, rather than being constrained to only beads that can be put ON the main yarn.