I forgot to post that I’d finished the Clothilde. I wanted to wait to post pictures until I could give it to its recipient, as she felt like seeing the pictures was like knowing what was in your Christmas presents before you open them. She got it a couple of weeks ago, just a week before her son was born, and she loves it! The steam-blocking gave it a nice sheen and it drapes nicely too. Here’s a blocking pic:

I used a thumb gusset I really like from another armwarmer pattern to make a new pair of armwarmers. These use the Traveling Vine lace pattern from Barbara Walker and the yarn colorway is adapted from the famous Doctor Who scarf, so these are the Time Traveling Vine Mitts, one of which is done and the other of which is now half-done:

Honeybee Cardi swatch…

And the lacy scarf is being made out of yarn I dyed with Kool-aid:

Finally, at long last, it’s done, in Knit Picks Shimmer, colorway Sherry, with 6/0 seed beads in a translucent pearly bronze, and here are the pictures to prove it.

What you’re trying to do with any beading method (other than pre-stringing your yarn with beads) is to somehow get a loop of yarn (your stitch) through your bead. And while you could just poke your stitch at the bead and hope it goes through, it will take you a very, very long time, assuming you have the eyesight and coordination to want to try it in the first place (I don’t).

So what you need to do is use some kind of tool to pull the loop through the bead. Crochet hooks are good, if you have appropriately teeny crochet hooks, and if you have the patience to try and catch your loop on a nearly invisible hook (again, I don’t).

Or you can use thread (or dental floss) to pull a stitch through a bead…

First, I threaded a plain old sewing needle with some plain old sewing thread. You don’t need a lot of thread – 6-8″ is plenty. Make sure the ends of the thread are about even and knot the yarn. To make sure I didn’t lose any beads off the end of my string, I also tied a knot around a bead at the end. Then I string some beads onto the thread:

I run the needle through first through the stitch I want to bead, then back up through the bead. In this picture, you can see the needle going back through the bead:

Pull the bead down the thread toward the stitch:

Keep moving the bead till it’s on the stitch rather than the thread, then just pull the thread the rest of the way through the stitch:

Pretty simple, but I’ll add that this is one of those things that makes more sense once you’ve done it a couple of times. Hope the pictures help, though.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a handful of projects to show off…

I finished Bean’s shawl, in mmmmmalabrigo Sock, Archangel colorway:

And I made this hat for myself. It’s very slightly too small, but I blocked it out so that it fits okay. I may have to make another one a little bigger someday, though. It was my very first Fair Isle, and I’m pretty pleased with it.

I’m working on the Clothilde for Lisamarie…it’s a lot farther along, but I promised her I wouldn’t post any more progress pictures until after I give it to her, because she felt like she was peeking!

And I just started this pretty little Ethereal shawl, which I’m hoping to have on display/for sale at my friend Laura’s salon. This yarn feels so tiny compared to the worsted-weight of the Clothilde, and it’s so slippery – but oh so soft – it’s Knit Picks Shimmer (alpaca/silk).

Cupcake is 3/4ths done with his Doctor Who scarf, and just started a pair of kilt hose. Productive times in our house.

Next, these socks are lovely:

I’m also working on a Summer Flies for Booga’s little sister Bean, and just started a Clothilde for Lisamarie, who is due with her first baby in March.

The Summer Flies is my first adventure with the yumminess that is Malabrigo. The Clothilde is in acrylic…shut up. It needed to be washable and something that wouldn’t need to be reblocked. So sue me. It’s Vanna’s Choice, could be worse. Could be Red Heart.

So.

I finished the Boogaruni nearly a month ago now. She loves it. Pictures after the jump.

Close-up of the beading:

Finished and blocking:

Done!

Booga’s Haruni, in which I lost a stitch this afternoon and ended up having to rip out an inch after my top lifeline turned out to be coming out at the other end. Here we see half of it – the needle cable is too short to stretch the whole thing out:

My Dovecote, which is easily the most complicated lace I’ve ever done. Provisional cast-on, picot sides, double YOs ftw.

And some Cupcake projects! Modeled by Booga, who is still a young’un and thus won’t have her face posted in my blog:
The Cabled Scarf. This was his third knitting project:

And the completed Celty Mitts. I think these were his fifth project – he finished her scarf, and then made some socks, and then these. He’s now working on a Doctor Who scarf.

This little number is about 7.5 feet long; it was a bit more, but it’s relaxing slightly from the blocking, which is fine, because I didn’t intend to block it that hard in the first place (it just happened!), and would rather it were slightly shorter. It’s lovely, and doesn’t match anything I own, but that’s fine. I like it.

I’ve now cast on for Booga’s Haruni, and will have a post of that as soon as it looks like something worth taking a picture of. Right now it looks like someone threw up a bunch of easter egg-colored spaghetti. Gross, right? But apt.

From left to right: DK-weight alpaca from Shady Haven’s Fiber Designs; two skeins of fingering-weight wool/bamboo/nylon blend – the yarn is called “Sheen” and it’s very shiny – from Samantha In Stitches; three skeins of laceweight merino/cashmere/nylon from Sun Valley Fiber Farm. The skully bag came from Samantha in Stitches; she was running a deal where if you purchased over $50, you could get a free bag or needle case. I was going to get a needle case but then I saw the skully bag and had to have it. I also got a chart keeper at her booth (not pictured); the stitch markers in the little baggies came from Sun Valley Fiber Farm (and were free because I bought so much there).

It was fun. More pictures of baby lambs later.