When you knit with beads the bead knitting yarn is the foundation of the whole stitch work and thus very important. The bead knitting patterns are often very informative and gives you examples of what kind of beads, bead knitting yarn and needles that will work out best. But you can substitute these specific types to what you like the best, as long as you can follow the bead knitting patterns. A good way to really find out what options there are is to go to your local yarn shop and get inspiration. Feel the textures, see all the variations of colors, ask questions to the often very nice, helpful and competent managers and soon you will have made your own opinion. When I started looking for bead knitting yarns on the Internet I found out that there is a lot of yarn with pre-strung beads, you buy a whole ball of yarn and every ten centimeters or so there is a bead or sequin. When you use this sort of bead knitting yarn you won’t be able to choose where the beads should be put (this may be decided in bead knitting patterns) but the stitch work will be decorated with randomly placed beads. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing!

The fabric made bead knitting yarn you buy in shops is made of one, two or even three strands that are twisted together in an S- or Z-form. Hand spun and/or hand dyed bead knitting yarn is often more nice to the skin, both to you fingers when you knit and to your body when you wear the finished item. Fabric made bead knitting yarn can sometimes be harsh and scratchy and that’s good to thin about if you’re extra sensitive or if you’re knitting to a baby. Hand spun yarn is not as uniform concerning thickness as mass produced yarn. This can give the surface an interesting uneven texture unpredicted by the bead knitting patterns.

The material the bead knitting yarn is made of can be either natural, synthetic or a blend. Wool is by all means the most common material yarn comes in. It’s warm and soft and sometimes a bit scratchy. The pure wool may run or shrink when you wash it so be careful. Synthetic materials such as polyester, rayon in bead knitting yarn has a great advantage; the can be both machine washed and machine dried. The blend with wool and mohair has a funny furry feeling. Cashmere yarn is another very soft one. Bead knitting yarn made of cotton is the best to use when you’re knitting clothes to wear during the summer since it’s not as warm as the other materials and much more light weight. You can also use silk for this purpose but that’s much more expensive. Other popular types of bead knitting yarns are aurora yarn, berroco comfort, boa yarn, bohemian yarn, decor yarn and grace yarn. You can find great prices on bead knitting yarns at a yarn clearance, so visit as many of them as you can. Nothing is more inspiring than to have a stuffed basked of bead knitting patterns and bead knitting yarns in different colors and textures!

As mentioned the texture of your bead knitting yarn can be different because of how it’s made. Bouclé for example is made of shiny mohair yarn that’s twisted in a way which creates small loops. When you buy a bead knitting yarn there is often a label or belly band telling you if you can wash the yarn and if that’s the case, how (usually the yarn has to lay flat when drying), the thickness and if you’re lucky also an indication of how many stitches and rows that will make a square of 4×4 inches (10 cm x 10 cm). What if you don’t know the thickness of the bead knitting yarn? Well, there’s an easy way to measure it yourself! The unit of measurement is called “wraps per inch”, WPI. It’s a universal word to spinners and is also useful to knitters. The procedure is this:

  • First make two marks with and inch between on a pencil (the unsharpened end).

  • Cut a narrow opening in the end of the pencil.

  • Fasten the end of the bead knitting yarn to measured in the opening and then wind the yarn around the pencil between the two marks.

  • Wind loosely, don’t straighten the yarn strands. It should just touch the pencil.

  • Now you just count how many strands of bead knitting yarn there is between the marks.

  • This is the WPI number!

The bead knighting yarn can be divided into groups according to their weight or thickness (WPI). These classes can be called any yarn, fine, medium, heavy or bulky for example. The bead knitting patterns will tell you which yarn you can use.