knitting with beads

Over the winter I decided to give knitting with beads a go. It is SO FUN! And very addictive. I'm now on the lookout for shawl patterns that can be enhanced with the addition of beads. 

Here are a couple I recently finished.

Swallowtail shawl, modeled by my soon-to-be 8 year old. This used about 1.5 skeins of knitpicks sock yarn (Essential in the "grass" colorway...so old they don't even make it anymore).

Gosh, it's hard to photograph the beads. Can you see them?

How about now? I used them in place of the nupps, as many people have, throughout the lily of the valley portion of the shawl. It's much easier than the nupps and gives a different look. I like the sparkle! I used most of a tube of size 6 beads that I got on sale at AC Moore, so this was a frugal and fun way to get into beaded knitting.

And here is my second flower basket shawl, knit from the same kind of yarn as the swallowtail (Knitpicks Essential, this time in "pumpkin"), also beaded (same kind of beads as the other shawl in a different colorway) but this time only in the border pattern.

Basically anywhere there is a *yo, k1, yo* in a pattern you can add a bead. It's not hard but it looks so pretty and people think you're really awesomely talented when they see it! Oh, and I added an extra repeat or two of the main flower basket pattern because I knew I could get a bigger shawl with the two skeins of sock yarn I had.

I just took these photos today, our first warm day of the season (75 degrees!). Also the first day suitable for knitting outside:

Lovely.