Be Still, My Beading Heart

Whew! What a ride! My eyes are crossed, I have a stiff and knotted band of muscles across the top of my shoulders, the tips of my fingers are raw and I still haven’t posted my sock pattern….Again! Again! I want to do it again! More lace! More! I can tell you that the next time I take on lace knitting AND beading in the same project, I won’t be messing with any old glass beads. I’m going straight for the good stuff like these exquisite glass beads by Nadin Art Glass.

We’re gettin’ there! I’ve finished the main body and am 13 rows into the leafy edge. The rows are very long at this point, about 500 stitches, although you’d never know it by looking. Periodically, I stretch it out with my hands just to see how the finished product will look after blocking. One of the best things about lace: you don’t really get the full effect until blocking. Surprise! I’ve been doing a little research on blocking lace and have found this great tutorial on blocking with wires. As it happens, my LYS no longer carries blocking wires (?) but found these at the (utterly fabulous) Knit Picks. Also on my Knit Picks wish list are these handy-dandy blocking mats and I must, must have these beautiful cable needles.

This has been an entirely enjoyable project; I’ve loved every minute of knitting it. The pattern is fabulous so if Haruni has found its way onto your Ravelry queue, I say do it! I must admit I’ve had a bit of a tussle with the chart; I’ve found the instructions much more useful. (Hurray for frequent stitch counts.)

This Filisilk yarn is a dream. Not to pass the buck, but… I think that a bad yarn choice was mostly responsible for my earlier lace failure. (Where was the Knit Fairy that day?) Filisilk is 70% Merino and 30% Silk, is resilient and lofty and tends to be fluffy rather than split-y if you know what I mean. It comes in a huge range of colors, although my LYS stocks only a few, and really, considering the content and yardage, is quite a good bargain at $29.95/600m.

HUGE  thanks to Laura for the inspiration and for her tips on knitting with beads. Thanks a lot, Laura. There’s another item on my obsession list.