Knitting with beads is a popular way to make clothes or accessories with a personal touch for yourself or as gifts to friends. To knit with beads is also a very relaxing and funny way to spend your spare time! During the last years, knitting with beads has increased explosively and you probably have at least a few friends, relatives or acquaintances who like knitting with beads and keep bead knitting pattterns in their purse. And it’s not mostly the elder women like your grand-mothers who knit with beads but in fact many younger too. Hand knitted clothes have been seen on catwalks all over the world and has achieved a prominent position in the fashion world. This, of course makes knitting even more popular and common.
There are different kinds of knitting with beads and beaded knitting is one of them. It’s an exclusive, maybe time-demanding way to create unique and personal things for yourself to wear in a time when clothes usually follow similar rules. The most usual activities in this area is to beads knit your own mittens, caps and scarfs following bead knitting patterns. Knitting clothes for babies is also common. The chose of color, pattern and structure (what kind of stitches you use in your knitting) offers great variation possibilities. But to add something extra to your piece of knitting you may use beads of different kinds, colors and sizes. In this case, you’ll find out that knitting with beads is a perfect choice. In beaded knitting the stitches are decorated with glass or ceramic beads which make the knitted fabric both more beautiful and lasting because the beads protect the yarn from from being damaged and worn out.
There are two different methods of knitting with beads; bead knitting and beaded knitting. Though the names are very similar these two techniques of knitting with beads differ from each other in some aspects which may make the results almost incomparable. In bead knitting (or beads knitting), the beads cover the yarn completely. This is achieved through putting the beads into the stitches. In beaded knitting on the other hand, the yarn is visible since the beads are put between the stitches. Thus, in beaded knitting the beads are merely the decoration and not the main part. Both are variants of knitting with beads and in this text I use ”bead knitting” as a summary word including both bead knitting and beaded knitting. When you knit with beads you need a “starting kit” including bead knitting patterns, some basic materials and tools. These can be of different quality and sizes but as you can read further down on this site, it’s a good idea to keep in mind that, for example, all beads doesn’t fit all types and sizes of yarn. So you need to match up your material a bit and not chose randomly. This is a short list of basic things you need when knitting with beads:
• Yarn
• Beads
• Bead knitting needles
• Bead knitting patterns
I’ve created this site to let you know how much there is to learn about knitting with beads. The main theme is bead knitting patterns in different aspects but you can also read about other bead knitting methods and history of bead knitting. In two articles I explore the differences and similarities between the two techniques of knitting with beads; bead knitting and beaded knitting. I also let you know a lot about bead knitting yarn, bead knitting beads, bead knitting needles and at last bead knitting stitches. I hope you will find the site interesting and that you learn something new and inspiring. Good luck with and enjoy your new knitting with beads project!