History of bead knitting
In the Victorian era, it was popular to knit densely beaded purses using tiny knitting needles made of stiff wire, much smaller (less than 1 mm) than the smallestTechniques
There are two main approaches: threading the beads on in advance, and threading the beads on individually as the object is knitted. The techniques are described here for beads, but knitting sequins (and other perforated objects) can be done analogously.Thread in advance
The classic approach is to thread beads on the yarn in advance. There are several ways to go about knitting the beads in though: slipping the stitch, putting the bead between stitches, and putting the bead on the stitch. The slip stitch method is to slip the stitch with the yarn (and bead) in front at the position where a bead is desired. The bead will be visible only on the right side of the work. The disadvantage of this method is that beads cannot be arranged on top of each other, since the same stitch would have to be slipped multiple times. The axis of the bead is horizontal to the work. Putting the bead between the two stitches is done by positioning the bead on the yarn connecting two stitches, i.e., between two bights. This results in the bead being visible from both sides of the work when beads are slipped on both sides. The bead has a tendency to not lie straight when placed with this method. The axis of the bead is horizontal with respect to the work. This is the method shown in the picture. The third method is to knit the stitch with the bead on the bight itself. Technically, this is considered "bead knitting" rather than "beaded knitting." For consistency, the bead should be positioned on the same leg of the bight. Using this third method, one can make a densely beaded knitted fabric, i.e., one that appears to be all beads, with no knitted yarns visible. It is sometimes difficult, however, to keep the bead on the right side of the fabric; for this reason, the stitches are often twisted, to tighten up the fabric.Thread during knitting
A second approach that offers more flexibility is to thread the bead onto theReferences
* (2002) ''Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Knitting Book'', updated ed., Sixth and Spring Books. * Robinson D. (1986) ''The Encyclopedia of Knitting Techniques'', Viking Penguin. * June Hemmons Hiatt (1988) ''The Principles of Knitting'', Simon and Schuster, pp. 293–305. {{knitting Knitting Beadwork