Le Tissier Designs

Of Larks and Linnets and Flying Fingers

Tag: knitting with beads

  • Bead Knits

    Bead Knits

    On the subject of beads….

    It can be said with some authority that I am more than a little obsessed with beads and the many possibilities they offer for embellishment on our knits. It is more than a pity that our society really isn’t so much into the glittering styles of the past! I would so rock those days!

    Rhiannon – knit with Buffalo Wool Co Sexy yarn and 20,000 + 24 k gold dipped delicas and crystals.

    Knitting with beads – There are several methods for placing a bead onto knitted fabric: between the stitches, on one arm of the stitch or on both arms of the stitch. Some methods require that the beads be strung on the knitting yarn before knitting. Some are placed on the stitch as it is knit and others are added after the work is finished. The size of bead will determine whether it can be placed on the stitch or whether it needs a separate strand. If you are planning to use thousands of beads on a project, do work a sampler first to determine the most efficient method of working the beads. When stringing beads make sure that there are no knots in the yarn.

    Pre-strung beads used for loops and beads placed between stitches in a garter stitch background.

    Traditional bead knitting -The bead is placed on one arm of the stitch. All beads need to be pre-strung and if using multiple colours they need to be pre-strung in reverse order.

    Bead knit gloves, mitts, gauntlets and jewelery!

    A bead is placed on an arm of each stitch, as you are knitting through the back of the loop. This style of knitting will have a tendency to bias. This is not a problem if the fabric is knit circularly. (Which is the only way I will tackle it!) Most Victorian purses were worked circularly and the biasing was not readily noticeable. The other advantage of working circularly is that you do not need to work a purl stitch through the back (try purling through the back of a loop and placing a bead at the same time!) Bead knitting used to be worked with small (think micro) seed beads and silk or cotton thread and very fine steel needles. There are still knitters who work in this way.

    I work bead knitting with small beads (not micro) and fine yarns – lace or fingering weight yarns (not threads) and small needles, anything from 2.0mm US#0 to 2.75mm US 2. I haven’t done any bead knitting for quite a while. I have taught both styles of bead knitting but always had a hard time convincing others that working traditional bead knitting was worth the effort!

    I still use a lot of beads in my knitting but they are mostly placed with a small crochet hook, and not always pre-strung as in traditional bead knitting.

    So, when I decided to knit a pair of gloves with some beautiful new yarn I also decided to knit myself a beautiful bead knit edge for those new gloves.

    Beautiful Alpaca fingering weight yarn – a soft pinky/lavender grey melange.

    I am seeing a short beaded gauntlet with either short finger gloves or mitts! But maybe I won’t be able to resist the lure of a proper pair of gloves! These gloves are my “swatch” for the yarn. From this I can learn about the yarns strength, how or if it has a “halo”. How much will it stretch (alpaca has no memory – so if it stretches it won’t go back). And I have something useful at the end of the knit. Many of my hats are gauge swatches. A trick that Elizabeth Zimmermann suggests as a means to learn your yarn and create something useful at the same time!

    The yarn is a breeze to knit with. And yes, there is a lovely halo. The yarn is also handling the weight of the beads without too much obvious stretch. So I will continue on, and isn’t it a beautiful colour?

    I was wondering if anyone would be interested in a workshop this summer to learn how to bead knit…. I would love to lead you down the garden path and introduce you to another side of working with beads and knitting!?

    Check out the Orchid! It is still kicking and has opened some new blossoms!

    Happy Knitting!

    Lynette

  • Spring Fling Shawls

    Spring Fling Shawls

    I had a couple of shawl samples come back from my test knitter in the last couple of weeks. It was planned and it worked! They both are knit in fabulous fresh Spring colours! And I hope to have both patterns out by the end of May!

    Cockleshell Love – knit in B.C. Garn Loch Lomond Lace, Eggshell and Baby Pink (more rose pink) colourways.

    Fushia – knit in Manos Fino, Topsy Turvy colourway.

    What do you think?

    Spring has Sprung!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Glory in the Snow

    Glory in the Snow

    Yarn is my Happy Place. Knitting with yarn is the perfect expression of my state of mind. Knitting with yarn that is new to me and often has been gifted to me is my idea of perfection!

    I am in my heart a lace knitter – it is one of the most beautiful expressions that can be created by two sticks and some string. And right now I am extra Happy!

    Yesterday Angela Beltane of Widdershin Farm, which is just outside of Duncan, gifted me with some of her BFL, Blue Faced Leicester, fingering weight yarn… enough for a large shawl. I am thinking a large Pi shawl! This yarn is soft and glossy and Oh so smooth!

    The Bluefaced Leicester (BFL) is a remarkable breed of sheep that traces its origins back to the eighteenth century in Dishley, Leicestershire, United Kingdom. Let’s delve into the fascinating details of these woolly creatures:

    1. Appearance:
      • BFL sheep have a distinctive blue-gray face, which gives them their name.
      • Their ears are long, and their fleece is curly and fine.
      • Unlike other woolly breeds, they lack wool on their heads and necks.
      • The Roman noses of Bluefaced Leicesters reveal dark blue skin beneath their white hair.
    2. Wool Quality:
      • Their wool is one of the softest among UK sheep breeds.
      • Fleeces weigh between 1 to 3 kilograms (2.2 to 6.6 pounds).
      • Although not heavy, their wool is lustrous and prized for its quality.

    It is going to be gorgeous. I took the day off of my other projects – dress knitting, class knitting and future planning to play with my new yarn.

    Umm, just ignore the mistake in the first round of eyelets! I am! LOL!

    Today is one of my day’s off and it is rainy and gray and the perfect kind of day to knit! Rainy days also produce some lovely photographic opportunities! Check out the Scilla (Glory in the Snow) from the garden. They are the inspiration, and name, for my Pi Shawl, one of my favourite shapes for a shawl. A PI Shawl is circular and can be as big as you can knit! It is going to be full of floral, water and leaf motifs!

    I am going to work from Elizabeth Zimmerman’s basic Pi Shawl tutorial and fill it full of my own patterns!

    Can’t you just see crystal beads on the shawl? Just like the flowers!

    Happy Days! Happy Knitting!

    Lynette

  • Knit a Dress with Me – Part Two

    Knit a Dress with Me – Part Two

    What is in a hem?

    Thank-you to everyone who has expressed interest in my journey to knit myself a dress. And for those of you who wish to join me – here is a discussion of your first consideration – I have already worked out these questions for myself!

    In the pattern that you downloaded I offered up three different hem widths. These were just arbitrary numbers based on what I thought my ideal hem would be. It can and should be changed to create the hem that you want. Every other aspect of the dress is created from your hem.

    My only caveat is to not make too narrow a hem, unless your skirt is quite short. Remember a comfortable stride is part of a comfortable garment.

    How do you decide what might be best for you?

    Start out with your favourite dress. The one you love to wear, the one that fits just right. Lay the dress out and take some measurements.

    • How wide/long is the hem?
    • How long is the skirt to the waist?
    • What are the measurements of waist, bust, shoulders, length of arm?
    • How wide or deep is the neckline?

    With this basic information we ask ourselves some questions? Do you want to keep to the dimensions of the original? Is there something about it you would like to change?

    For the moment your hem is only decision. My hem of choice is fairly full. Basically about 8 feet, 240 cm around. I like a full skirt. You may not. So look at your dresses and judge from there. I have started a forum thread on Ravelry. Feel free to ask me questions at any point in your journey.

    To figure your cast-on for your hem you will need to employ some pithy math.

    Pithy Math – My pattern panel repeat is approx 5 inches wide x I have 18 repeats. 5 x 18 = 90 inches. Since I know that this number will be a little wider/longer once properly blocked I feel pretty confident that my hem will be around 96 to 100 inches long 8 to 8.5 feet. Each panel is 21 sts wide, so my math for my cast-on was 18 x 21 = 378 sts. It will create a hem close to what I am expecting. 

    I do not and you should not expect exact measurements. We are creating a fabric and garment from a string. So many things will affect our final results. What the string is made from. The weight of your string versus the weight of my string. Your tension/gauge as different from my tension/gauge as different from every other knitters tension/gauge!

    My Dress

    My dress will be an amalgamation of my current dresses and a favourite dress from memory. So it will be all its own. The colour will be whatever my favourite colour is once the dress is complete. Right now it would be a very bright pink. Probably not by the time this dress is finished. It will most likely be a jewel tone though, probably not a subdued colour. I do love the deep jewel tones.

    Here is the hem on Francine. Wouldn’t a variation of this make a great collar. And it would need beads of course!

    I am hoping that my dress will be fairly close to the sketch. I will be adding a collar. It will be a gathered collar and it will be beaded. 

    That is the only known fact about my bodice. And I am thinking that there may be beads on the bodice and sleeves, that could change. I am also thinking that I may sew a simple slip to wear under my dress, maybe with a knitted lace edging, that could change.

    A big part of process, once your hem is decided and you have started knitting is dreaming about all the parts that will come next. Knitting the skirt will be the longest part of the process. There will be lots of time to think. I am already thinking ahead and keeping and discarding my ideas. You can too!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Creating Order from Chaos

    Creating Order from Chaos

    Where to go next? My life has pretty much been on hold or in chaos for the last few months. I haven’t had the energy or time to do more than touch at the edges of any of my projects. But I think that is changing…

    I still need to tidy my workroom – the chaos there really does mirror my mind. So today I am going to work around the edges and make a start. I am trying to convince myself that it not really as bad as it looks.

    My main desk – computer and printer and lots of little bits!

    So…. what does your workroom look like? Do you have a workroom? Or a corner on the couch? Do you work best in Chaos? Or are you a neat and tidy person, everything needs to be in place or your mind is distracted?

    I know I work best in chaos! But not this much! Here I don’t know where anything or everything is! So time to fix it all!

    Desk area before
    Desk area – getting there

    So yesterday I made the start. I was wrong, it really is as bad as it looks. Today I worked a little more. In the pictures it really doesn’t look like a lot of improvement. But I can see and feel the difference. Books are on the shelves, samples are separated from stash and I can see what needs to be shifted and maybe even where it may be shifted to!

    By next weekend it will be a new room! I must admit I am cheating a little, some of the stash has found a new location, but most of it is just going back to where it belongs.

    Cupboard area – before
    Cupboard area – getting there.

    I am working on a new stitch pattern. Something a little different, a drawn stitch pattern, one that pulls yarn through stitches already knit to create a new pattern on top of the stockinette stitches. I am calling this stitch “Feathers”. I have seen something like this or maybe even this stitch online. The technique is familiar to me as I have worked drawn stitches before. My patterns Big Leaf Maple and Jacobean are both worked with drawn stitches.

    Drawn stitches are a fabulous way to embellish your knitting. They can be worked on any weight of yarn and use up those bits of left over yarn that we collect as we finish bigger projects. The basic pattern will be written for Fingering weight, Worsted weight and Chunky weight yarns. I am going to create a great basic pattern that will create hats for the whole family!

    Did I mention that beads might be a possibility!?

    I umm, also fell in love with a baby bonnet idea I had and it has sort of high jacked the basic knitting until it is done – but it is going to be OH so cute!

    So Knit Happy – keep chaos at bay!

    Lynette

  • A Fashion Show

    A Fashion Show

    A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to try something different. So I did.

    I sent six of my samples off to a fashion show in Edmonton Alberta. To the Gathering Threads Fibre Festival Fashion show. Here are some of the runway pictures. This was an inclusive event – so every body type, every ethnicity was included in the modeling group. I got to pick the models for my pieces and think about and help choose what they would wear and how they should appear. It was a lot of fun.

    North Sea Hap
    Meandering Meadows
    Seed and Leaf Hat and Poncho with Jester Gloves
    Tidal Pools – hand painted after knitting
    Sundail or High Summer Shawl
    Covid be Damned – one of my personal favourites!

    I was pleased with the results – the photographs are excellent. It is very different to see your knitting efforts put forward this way. I am hoping to go next year and see everything in person.

    I felt for the organizers of the show though – the center where the show was being held became the gathering place for the fire evacuees – it would have been so stressful for all involved!

    Happy Knitting
    Lynette

  • The Grande Pavilion KAL

    The Grande Pavilion KAL

    Now this is a Grand Pavilion – Brighton Pavilion on a glorious Summers’ Day.

    It’s Been a while since my last KAL, two years in fact. Life in all its glory has been making it self felt and there just hasn’t seemed to be time. But it is going to happen this year! And I am so excited!

    I am planning a Summer Knit-A-Long. Would you like to join me?

    There will be knitting and knitting with beads if you like.

    Think of a Garden Party in a fancy Gazebo or Pavilion with your best dress and tiers and tiers of your favourite goodies.

    Think knitting out in the park or your back yarn on a sunny day, there is a light breeze and there is champagne or a mint julip on the table beside you.

    Think perhaps of a gaily stripped tent, complete with ribbons and party favours! Perfect for afternoon knitting.

    Think of your favourite Summer Knitting Spot!

    Could you imagine knitting this garden! ? How clever is this!?

    A Zoom tea (read beverage of choice here LOL!) cause I know we all live all over the place and can’t get together except by Zoom! And Prizes, who doesn’t love a good prize. And did I mention some knitting? I will be starting a new thread in my Ravelry Forum for the KAL! Looking forward to seeing you there!

    Sign up will be on Ravelry. Forum Thread on Ravelry – LeTissier Designs Group – Grand Pavilion KAL.

    • Sign up – starts tomorrow, 7:00 am pacific time, May 14, Mother’s Day. For that day only sign-up is 75% off – code MUM
    • Sign-up May 15 to June 1 – sign-up for 50% off – code EARLY
    • Sign-up June 1 to June 30 – sign-up for 25% off – code Pavilion
    • Sign-up July 1 to close – full price – $8.00
    • Start date – Saturday July 15th
    • End date – Saturday September 2nd

    Skills used in the construction of the shawl include short rows, picking up stitches, basic and not so basic lace knitting skills. The shawl is a half circle shape, plus a little extra to sit nicely around the shoulders. The edging with be quite “frothy”. I will leave that up to your imagination.

    The shawl requires 800 yds of laceweight mohair and 800 yds of fingering weight wool (or favourite fibre), 4.0mm US #6circs 24 and 40 inches long and a spare dpn or 2, markers and the regular notions. If beading you will also need a .60 or .75mm crochet hook. If you are thinking of adding beads I still am not quite sure of how many I will be using and in what way. I have approx 3000 delica 8/0’s to play with. I most likely won’t use them all but I will be adding quite a few. Beads are always optional as I know that not everyone likes them.

    I went back to Ancient Arts for my yarn choice. I had used their Lascaux Fine for the High Summer KAL and loved the results. This Spring I fell in love with a colour of their Delicacy Lace, a mohair silk blend, the Mineral (varigated) colourway and the plan developed from there. My fingering weight yarn is the Lascaux Fine in the Wild Rose (a sophisticated pink) Colourway.

    Auditioning Beads
    Teaser Swatch

    Sign-up starts tomorrow! See you in the Forum.

    There will be more teasers as the next couple of months progresses!

    Happy Knitting

    Lynette

  • Due Process

    Due Process

    Designing is a process. Designing with a new yarn has a few extra steps. Designing for another person has a few more steps. So, process.

    I am doing some designing for Gathering Yarns. They are a yarn distributor out of Alberta and they are expanding a little and are wanting to add some patterns to their inventory.

    Recently Cindy sent me some recycled cashmere. I started to play with it. I wanted to know how it felt to the hand. How it reacted to different techniques, what needle size I wanted to work it on, etc.

    So I knit a pair of beaded fingerless mitts – Bee’s Knees’ Mitts. This was a pleasure to work with with great results. So maybe something bigger was in order…

    Swatch

    A shell or halter, something not to big to keep it affordable. So I ran the idea past The Powers that Be. Idea was approved – more cashmere came my way. So I swatched my idea. Swatch was approved.

    There were still a couple of questions to be answered. So I made a beanie, a bigger swatch that can tell me more. What’s the best gauge? How much give? How much stretch over the larger area? Ribbons Beanie – it will be an accessory to the Shell/Vest pattern I am going to design.

    Sketching is next. Or maybe I will work on the red and white cashmere gloves I can see in my head! Isn’t this a luscious red?!

    That Red!

    I have a love/hate relationship with Spring! I start so many things as I cannot seem to decide on just one!

    So Due Process – perhaps with a touch of Spring startitus!

    Be Well and Knit Happy!

    Lynette

  • Juniper Moon Spring 2023

    Juniper Moon Spring 2023

    *Juniper Moon Yarns released 8 shawls onto Ravelry that I had designed for them over the last few months.  Each one is a different.  Knit with different fibres, different weights of yarn and different shapes.  Below are the covers of each pattern.

    My personal favourites – the ones I would have in my wardrobe and wear over and over are Tradition.  I may have to reknit that one for myself.  Dewey – just so pretty with the beaded edge and Grand Pennant – simple and elegant!

    So yesterday was an exciting day – to see the patterns professionally done and available to all!

    I hope that you have a fabulous day today!

    Be well and knit happy!

    Lynette

    PS – header is a detail from Tradition. It is fully reversible with flowers on one side and stripes on the other! Definitely my favourite!

  • New and Noteworthy

    New and Noteworthy

    I have been busy!

    I am currently working on a few patterns for Gathering Yarns –

    • Cats in the Cradle – baby blanket or shawl with coordinating beanies.
    • Funky Brimmed Hat with Bad-dana Cowl – Hat modelled by Glorious Gertrude
    • Caahh…shmere with beads swatch – lusious lace tank in the future.
    • Cashmere beaded Fingerless Mitts – The Bee’s Knees!
    • Cable Cool Balaklava and Mitts
    • Cable Cool vest.

    For fun times in the future – beautiful handmade glass buttons.

    Ada made the beautiful buttons – Ada Babys Beads on Facebook – and I made her this hat with her favourite hearts! I finished the hat with one of her buttons.

    Well, I got the first box from the Beyond Merino Club (hosted by The Small Bird Workshop and Sweet Paprika. It contained 2 hanks of gorgeous, soft Corriedale sheeps wool from the Falkland Islands, one a natural grey and the other a beautiful deep Lagoon blue. Sweet Paprika did the dyeing. I made a half hap shawl. I finished it with I-cord edging and a couple of big, fat tassels. It will be part of the Happiness Hap pattern – coming soon!

    We are planning the next session of classes for Mad About Ewe Fine Yarns. I am planning to teach Mosaic Knitting. The first sample is done – a funky little Cloche – finished with a little tassel. I do love tassels. It is knit with Fleece Artist BFL DK and some Drops Kid-Silk.

    For myself – I am working on a sweater. I just started it last night. And like most sweaters for myself it will most likely get stalled along the way! You never know! I might surprise myself! LOL!

    It is pretty. Some soft mohair from Fleece Artist and a just a few little beads for show!

    Be well and knit Happy!

    I am trying to stay mellow and keep with the flow that comes with knitting. I hope that works for you too!

    Lynette