half-assed knit blog
half-assed knit blog
half-assed knit blog

Shiny!

I want to try knitting with beads.

No good will come of this.

Listen to me. I want to knit with beads. This means obtaining beads. Lots of them. Little baggies containing hundreds upon hundreds of small, shiny objects. I will never actually make it all the way to my yarn, or my knitting needles, because HAY SHINY OBJECTS LOOK SHINY SHIIIIINY WEEEEEEE!

Shiny.

Okay, but see, I have this yarn.

IMG_5457

Don’t worry, I have not gone on a forbidden yarn binge; I bought it a while ago. It’s Dream in Color Smooshy in November Muse. That’s sock yarn. I do not knit socks. Nope. I won’t do it and you can’t make me. I have very well thought out reasons for not knitting socks, and I once typed them out on Ravelry, and because I totally can’t remember what they were, I’m just going to go look up that post:

Well, I’m afraid of knitting socks because then I’ll have to buy sock yarn, and then I’ll want even more sock yarn, and hand-dyed sock yarn, and sock yarn with a bit of silk in it, and seventy different kinds of teeny sock needles, and then some more sock yarn, and then ALL THE SOCK YARN IN THE WORLD because it’s just so darned pretty, and soon I’ll spend all my money on sock yarn and sell my clothes for sock yarn and stand on a street corner with a sign saying “will knit socks for sock yarn” while people hurl mass-produced dirty socks at me in disgust, and then I’ll be living in a box, a box lined with sock yarn and decorated with curtains made of sock yarn, and I’ll be all cold because I sold my clothes for sock yarn but at least my feet will be warm.

Ah, thank you, Ravelry’s search feature. See? Perfectly logical and not at all unreasonable.

So I don’t knit socks, but I do knit lace, and I want a brown lace scarf.

And then I saw – okay, here’s the thing, I stalk my patterns on Ravelry, don’t judge me. I just think it’s cool when people make ’em and I like to look at the FOs. So I was stalking and I saw a beaded Serpentina. Shiny! But I can’t make another Serpentina. I already have a Serpentina. How sad would it be to knit my own pattern twice? I resisted making a Malabrigo Serpentina and I can resist this too. So there. But I can make a different beaded scarf. And I can go through Ravelry’s entire list of lace scarves and decide that I don’t want to make any of them. And then I can bang my head against a tree a few hundred times until I annoy a nearby squirrel and it starts hurling acorns as me, because that’s just about as productive as my “nope, I don’t like any of these three thousand scarves” sessions.

At this point a beaded squirrel was starting to sound like a good idea, so it was time to just pick a scarf already and stop the madness. So I did. Beaded Lace Scarf II by HeartStrings FiberArts. Well, maybe not exactly. Maybe just something that looks somewhat like that. Yeah, the madness never stops, it only takes quick coffee breaks, but at least now I sort of have a plan. And I need beads. Shiny ones!

But not brown ones. I don’t want sparkly little polished turds on my scarf. I’m teal-obsessed lately so clearly that’s the way to go. Unless it isn’t. Maybe red would be a safer choice with brown. But I want teal! But maybe red would look better! But but… are hobbies supposed to be all anxiety-inducing like this? I’m thinking not so much. Especially not when said hobby involves handling sharp, pointy sticks. This isn’t going to end well. Okay, but two minutes in Photoshop ought to solve this dilemma.

whichscarf

Hmm. That’s not giving me the answer I wanted.

The easy thing to do would be to buy some teal beads, and buy some red beads, and play around with both. Beads are cheap. But this would mean that I’d end up with at least one baggie of beads that I would not be using for this scarf. And then I’d have to do something with them. Oh yes. I couldn’t just put them in a drawer and forget about them. Shiny things simply do not work that way. The shiny must be enjoyed! Shiiiiiny. What could I do with an extra bag of beads?

I wonder how hard it would be to catch a squirrel.

22 Comments

  1. marianne says:

    Squirrels aren’t easy to catch… just sayin’…
    What a dilemma… that brown sock yarn is seriously pretty though…. damn, both versions are gorgeous. Good luck with that!
    oh, and btw? if you were living in a box lined with a kerjillion skeins of sock yarn… you’d be warm, not just your feet…;^)




  2. marisa says:

    Teal! Teal teal teal teal teal tealtealatelatealtaltal…or clear. Clear kind of picks up the colour of the yarn and make it sparkly, in a good way. Not like a polished turds way. I don’t think red is the way to go. Red on blue would look awesome, but I love love love the brown and teal.

    I also love your sock rant. I don’t like knitting socks either (anymore), but my reasons are much pithier: “They slouch and make me crazy like a fox. Plus get sweaty.” Your reasons, however, are several degrees of magnitude more hilarious and quotable. I should work on that.

    And Dream in Colour yarn is awesome. There’s always more of it coming out of the skein! It’s like a magic skein of plenty! Love it.




  3. Cass says:

    Would it be too difficult to alternate the colors on the columns? There are five bead column thingies so you could do one red column, one blue, one red, one blue… Do you see how indecisive I am too?

    I am all for a shiny squirrel.

    Me wants!

    *devises a pattern*




  4. Mandy says:

    How much do I now want a box lined with sock yarn with sock yarn curtains!!! It could be my escape den!

    But do understand the fear of sock knitting leading to sock yarn buying. I’ve only knitted two pairs of socks but have enough sock yarn in my stash to ensocken the feet of all my friends and family, their friends, their work colleagues’ babysitters ‘ boyfriends etc!

    Agee with Marisa on the beads – teal or clear. Or both…




  5. Amanda says:

    Personally, I prefer the red beads paired with the brown yarn but agree with the person who said that clear beads might be a good idea. They would accent that lovely yarn and, speaking practically, the scarf would match with a lot more things that way. Teal, red, or clear would all be pretty though!




  6. Julie says:

    Wow, I love the idea! I think I’d vote clear beads, myself. Then it’s still shiny and sparkly, but more flexibility in terms of what you wear it with. Good luck!




  7. Beverly says:

    Teal beads all the way! I don’t think red would pop the way teal would.

    The great thing about working with beads is when you’re sitting all comfy in your chair, knitting away, and the cat knocks over the little jar of beads, so you have to get up out of the chair and crouch on the floor to pick up as many beads as you can find (clear beads + light beige carpet = complete frustration), and you find a whole bunch of beads on the floor left over from the last time you knitted with beads 5 months ago. I either need to vaccuum more often, or never knit with beads again.




  8. Leigh says:

    squirrels are not easy to catch. They are fast…and small…




  9. MJ says:

    I remember reading that post somewhere! Maybe in the fearless knitting thread? Ah, I don’t know.

    But just personally, I love brown w/ teal. Or turquoise! BLUES! :P




  10. becca says:

    Glad to see you back!
    That beaded serpentina is excellent! (Oh, and my serpentina is finished, really, I’ve just been the laziest person ever in the last month and have not taken any pictures of any FO’s)
    I finished my first beading project too! The cheshire cat shawl that I rewrote like 6 times and re-cast-on at least three. But it was fun, and the beads are totally cute. I should photo that too…..
    And teal beads, all the way. No question :)




  11. Preeti says:

    Beaded squirrel…now that’s a first!!! Me like shiny too, and the scarf will look fab with any colour beads you choose:)




  12. oobinsnaffa says:

    Oh my, that is one beautiful scarf. I am partial to teal, myself, but I love the suggestions for clear! I’m going to have to bookmark this so I can check back to see what you decide on, and how it turns out!




  13. CanarySanctuary says:

    You think just like me.
    I’m all NOT about the socks myself. But I do like the sock yarn!
    I’d vote for the teal and blue, personally. I think those two colours go great together. Brown is a neutral, after all, so you can put it with (almost) everything.




  14. Jamie says:

    This looks like Barbara Walker “Japanese Lace” stitch pattern, which I started when I was visiting Japan, because I’m like all creative like that. I think teal would go well when you wear it with Aquamarina, but those red beads won’t go to waste, given your love for red, which I share.




  15. Marie says:

    Teal! And iridescent! Um… I’m totally not trying to live a magpie life vicariously through you.




  16. amanda says:

    I think teal with brown will look good. Go for it.

    PS. I dont knit socks either!!




  17. Theresa says:

    I agree, teal with brown is yummy. Go with your fist instinct. It will be beautiful.




  18. heatherfeather says:

    Dude. Duuuuuuuuuuuude. Your progress bars map your faves on the Rav?

    Of course, there are those whole “progress bars for blog” posts on the forum that I never read which could be why I’m gobsmacked over them.

    (teal)




  19. Marie says:

    So… I have some leftover beads. They look like this:
    http://www.firemountaingems.com/details.asp?PN=H20DB0276V

    I might could mail them to you.




  20. MonkeyGurrl says:

    Teal, teal, teally, teal, teal. Go for the teal. And what’s wrong with making your own design twice?! You may have need of different colors for different outfits.

    Go for the teal.




  21. LisaD says:

    OMG!!!! Don’t do it…but if you must ;-)

    firemountaingems.com




  22. Webbo says:

    Of course I’m much too late commenting to make any difference to your madness but anyway…

    TEAL
    TEAL
    TEAL
    FTW