My Blue Heaven

I finally would the skein tonight and was relieved to find there are no knots in it. I was going to split it into equal skeins but since I was planning on eyeballing the split, I decided to just wind into one ball and knit both socks at the same time from either end of the ball.

The beads that I received were more sharp, royal blue than most. I do love the way the beads change colours as you swirl them in the light. Some of them catch a somewhat golden hue and others have a blue-green tinge.

Because I am new to beaded knitting, it’s taken me all this time to tackle the first task on the list: threading the beads onto the yarn. I found a box of Oral B Super Floss which had a stiffened end that merges into a spongy floss and ended with your regular floss. The spongy part of the floss helped suspend the beads in the middle while I catch a few more with the stiffened end.

I then tied a knot of the regular floss onto the yarn, about 2″ in and then pushed the beads onto the yarn. It was a little tough going at first and I was worried that the yarn or the floss would break as I pushed the beads down thereby causing a plethora of beads bouncing all over the living room floor. Thank God, Tina has chosen a sturdy yarn base and that Oral B makes strong floss! It was actually fun stringing the beads but I wouldn’t do it any time soon. Aren’t they pretty?

Now my next challenge is actually knitting the pattern! Which brings me to my question: how the heck am I going to knit two socks at the same time from either ends of the ball when my beads are pre-strung only on one end?