Combining beads and yarn: Learning to make good choices

The importance of selecting quality materials for your projects cannot be underestimated. After all, you put time and talent into your project, so you deserve the best choices! But what aspects of “quality” should you really be concerned about for knitting projects that combine beads and yarn/thread?

Here is a short checklist to start things off —

Quality Characteristics of Beads

• Uniformity / Consistency
  The fewer the defects, the less hassle and waste you will have.
• Smoothness / No Sharp or Rough Edges
  Avoid bead brands/types that have rough/sharp edges. Even with the most abrasion-resistant yarn, sharp glass beads will eventually cut through yarn like a knife.
• Lasting Color/Finish
  If you are using beads for a wearable item, you want the beads to hold up to the cleaning process. Even with hand washing or gentle machine washing (turned inside out or placed in a net bag), use quality beads that will retain their original beautiful color and finish.

Tip: The Japanese-manufactured seed beads for knitting are usually the most consistently uniform, smooth and have the most stable colors/finishes. My personal favorite brand is Miyuki.

For the Beaded Garter Stitch in this month’s Beading Hearts Friendship Bracelet, you first string beads onto the yarn you will be knitting with. For Beaded Garter Stitch (as well as other beading techniques that use strung beads), you will slide one or more beads into place as needed while you are knitting. The remaining beads are pushed away along your yarn/thread until needed later.

This leads us into these important characteristics of  yarn to select for these types of beading projects —

Characteristics of Yarn/Thread for Projects with Strung Beads

• Smooth / Non-textured
  A smooth, non-textured yarn obviously makes sliding beads along it easier. It’s possible under certain circumstances to use slightly textured yarns, but we’re going to defer that discussion until later.
• Firmly Twisted / Abrasion-resistant
  You want a strong, firmly twisted and abrasion-resistant yarn/thread that will hold up to the weight of beads, as well as to avoid fraying the yarn with the friction of the beads on the yarn during the knitting and wearing.
• No Knots or Weak Places
  This goes along with the first two points, but bears repeating. Even if your yarn of choice qualifies on the two points above, it can avoid down-stream problems to check along the length needed for your project’s beaded section that there are no knots or weak places that can disrupt the flow of beads sliding smoothly along the yarn.

Of course, there are also other choices to be made when combining beads and yarn, such as

• yarn/bead color combos, and
• compatible yarn weight/bead sizes.

I promise I will be getting to these in future episodes. In the spirit of “Bits”, I don’t want to blab on too long here. (With my love for knitting with beads, believe me, I could go on and on — it is all I can do to hold back for now, lol).

Stay tuned for more in this month’s tutorials, tips & techniques for the Beading Hearts Friendship Bracelet pattern.