New Skill: Adding Beads to Knitted Projects

Since I’ve finally mastered the art of basic knitted scarves, I thought I could teach myself to make prettier scarves by adding beading to them.

It turns out that there are 2 ways of adding beads to knitted wool projects:

1)      Pre stringing the beads onto the wool

2)      Adding the beads using a crochet hook during the knitting process

I find the 2^nd option much more fun to do, especially as I don’t always like planning the finished look in advance.

So I found a really good instructional video on youtube:

 

And bought myself a box of beads for some more variety and a crochet hook – both from Lincraft.

 

My First Granny Square Crochet

For my birthday about 2 years ago, I got a Patons introduction to knitting book for my birthday.

So far, I’ve only made hats and scarves, so I figured that it’s about time that I actually tried making a ‘real’ item of clothing.

So about 6 months ago, I decided to attempt making the poncho design in the back of the book.

It turns out that knitting squares take a long time, so I thought it might be a good idea to speed up the process by crocheting some of the squares instead…

Which led me to teach myself how to crochet a granny square from lessons found on youtube…

Crocheted Flower Shawl and Scarf

Following finding that crocheted flower tutorial on youtube a while ago, I realized I had some silky grey wool sitting around that I got from charity, so I decided to use it to practice making flowers. 8 flowers later and turning them into a scarf seemed like a good idea….

‘Cos I really don’t like spending a long time sewing pieces together, I figured that I could save time by using my trusty hot glue gun. It turns out that it is pretty easy to stick the pieces together in terms of tough joins as the glue can fuse the fibers together. Also it works pretty well when you run a little along the edge and press the edges of the two pieces together…and so long as you don’t mind the joints being a little scratchy due to the hardened glue…

I’ve also always been fascinated with the idea of wearing capes to keep warm – instead of wearing jackets. It turns out that women were wearing capes during the 1930s rather than coats (as mentioned by Anais Nin in her diaries). So I thought I’d give making a crocheted flower cape a go…

Very First Crocheted Flower (21 March)

Given my love for lacy things, part of me has always had a soft spot for crocheted items. 

So it’s a bit of a no-brainer that I also wanted to add crochet to my list of things that I could do…

Seeing as I already have a crochet hook that I use with my knitting, some bright multi-colour wool that I couldn’t think of what to do with and that I’ve always loved the look of crocheted lacy flowers, I decided to give this tutorial that I’d found on youtube a go…