If you’re not a knitter, you might want to just skip over this post.
So many knitting projects have beads. I’ve been tempted to add beads to a sweater for Addie but I’m afraid she will want beads on every future sweater so . . do I want to go there?
It’s funny because I never liked beads, thought I’d never ever use them but last year during Tour-de-Sock, we had to use beads and I fell in love with beads.
Floss Method of Beading
The way I learned to add them was using the Super Floss method and I still like. It’s great for size 8 beads. They get caught on the fluffy part and the beads can’t fall off. With larger size beads, they slip right off the floss and cause me great consternation. Well . . maybe not GREAT consternation but it’s a bit frustrating.
Fleegle Beader
A friend had taken a class at a yarn shop in Austin and she was taught to bead using the Fleegle Beader. I had never heard of it til she shared and showed me how it works. It isn’t for every beading project but for those where it works, it’s amazing! It comes in size .8, 1 and 1.3 mm.
It’s designed for fingering weight and lighter yarns — not the bigger, heavier yarns.
You can see it in use in this video.
Beader
My current project has LOTS of beads . . LOTS of beads! I’m using the Fleegle beader on most of it but the yarn I’m using is a bit thicker and a bit splitty and the Fleegle Beader isn’t perfect for this project but I was using it on a pair of socks with a thinner yarn and it worked so perfectly.
The folks who created the Fleegle Beader are just regular folks – she’s a knitter and got tired of using various cumbersome methods for adding beads.
The little black rubber piece on the bottom of the beader can be moved up so as to keep the beads closer to the tip as beads are used. The blue tip is removable . . it’s there to protect the hook end and to keep beads from falling off when not in use. HINT: If you order the beader, order an extra cap. I’ve already lost one.
It’s a pretty useful little tool and I’m glad my friend shared the discovery with me.
Dawn in NL says
Perhaps you could poke a hole in the cap with a sewing needle, attach thread to it and tie it to the end of your beader, that way the cap will never be far away.
Sandie says
Thanks for sharing Judy! I may actually try beaded knitting now- it seemed to be much too “fiddley” before now.
DeeDee says
I’m an avid beader when it comes to my knitting. I took a Craftsy class from Laura Nelkin several years ago and ever since I want to put beads on everything!
Janice says
I watched the video and the process is painfully slow I think it would drive me crazy (because I’m a very fast knitter) if a had many rows of beading to do. OMG I watched a video of the dental floss method and it’s even slower!! Many, many years ago I did beaded knitting. Worked out how many beads were necessary, threaded them on the yarn and went from there, much faster! Just my opinion.