Adapting Beaded Crescent Neck Lace to Other Stitch Counts

Use what you’ve learned in last month’s Beaded Crescent Neck Lace KAL as a jumping off point to make other sizes. Here are the magic numbers.

For those who participated (thank you!) in the KAL for Beaded Crescent Neck Lace that recently ended, you should now have a pretty good idea of the basic approach for bottom-up short row crescent shaping. You can use what you’ve learned as a jumping off point to start with other narrow edgings of your choice or to make in whatever size you want.

As a follow-up bonus, I wanted to briefly go over the “magic numbers” in adjusting Beaded Crescent Neck Lace for other sizes by changing the stitch count. An example of a smaller size would be a choker style. Or you might want to do something a bit larger for a bigger neck or that hangs further from the throat. Maybe sized up even larger for a scarf or shoulder shawl.

Assuming the same short row interval increase of 4 stitches, the magic recipe is adjustments in multiples of 8 stitches and (8 + 4) beads.

How Did I Come Up With the Magic Numbers?

Each short row increases by 4 stitches. A 4 stitch increase for a RS row + a 4 stitch increase for the return (WS) row = a total of 8 stitches increased for each set of RS/WS rows. This gives us our stitch multiple.

Each cast on pickup stitch uses a loop of the Beaded Loops Edging with a bead on it. Multiple of 8 cast on stitches = multiple of 8 beads needed for the Beaded Loops Edging.

Every other stitch bound off is beaded. Multiple of 8 stitches bound off = multiple of 4 beads for the Beaded Bind Off row.

Taking into account an extra stitch for symmetry (i.e. the center stitch), the final numbers for making any size Beaded Crescent Neck Lace are —

8 beads per multiple plus 1 extra for the Beaded Loops Edging.
8 stitches per multiple plus 1 extra for the cast on pickup.
4 beads per multiple plus 1 extra for the Beaded Bind Off row.

Example: Adapting to a Choker

The commercial standard size of a choker is 16 inches. Note: For a custom fit, measure the exact length around your neck (or the recipient’s).

Based on gauge of 5 stitches/inch, 16″ requires 80 stitches. (i.e. 5 x 16)

Lucky us! 80 is evenly divisible by 8; i.e. giving a multiple of 10 times. But remember that we still will need to add in the “+1” extra stitch at center to arrive at the the final numbers of stitches and beads.

Plugging a “10” into the formulas for making any size gives us —

Beads to be strung for Beaded Loops Edging: (8 beads x 10) + 1 = 81 beads.
Stitches for cast on: (8 stitches x 10) + 1 = 81 stitches.
Beads to be strung for Beaded Bind Off row: (4 beads x 10) + 1 = 41 beads.

Fudging the Multiple

What if your gauge and target size do not produce an evenly divisible number for the multiple?

For a choker, I suggest going up to the next higher whole number multiple, assuming you don’t want to choke yourself or someone else. <g>

For a larger piece, it’s your choice to round the multiple either up or down to a whole number. Rounding down will use less yarn. Rounding up will use more yarn. As the rows get longer and longer, those extra rows can eat up the yarn faster than you might expect! I advise to round down if you are concerned about the amount of yarn you have.

Other Crescent Inspiration

If you’ve enjoyed knitting with this bottom-up crescent shape approach, I invite you to some eye candy of these other pattern designs in my HeartStrings line for inspiration or to knit in the future.