Durant - Knit one, bead too : essential techniques for knitting with beads

Knit One BEAD Too

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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Durant, Judith, 1955
Knit one, bead too/by Judith Durant.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-60342-149-2 (hardcover with concealed wire-o : alk. paper)
1. 2. Beadwork. I. I.

Title.
TT825.D7695 2009
746.432dc22 2009007801 This book is dedicated to
knitters and beaders everywhere
who continue to innovate
and share ideas. To present the techniques in this book, Ive picked up the threads of countless knitters and beaders, known and unknown, past and present. The history of knitting is somewhat vague: The oldest surviving fragments of knitted cotton are from Egypt and date to somewhere around 1000 AD. The history of beads begins much earlier than that of knitted fabric. The first known beads, made from animal teeth and bones, were discovered in France, at an archaeological site called La Quina, and date to approximately 38,000 BC. Bead manufacture has come a long way over the past 40,000 years, and today beads are made in every conceivable shape and size and from materials ranging from wood to glass to plastic to metal to clay.

I wish I could tell you who first had the brilliant idea to knit with beads, but that history is a bit elusive. The best theory seems to be that it developed from needlepoint, where one bead is incorporated into each stitch of the work to paint a picture. One example dates to the beginning of the nineteenth century, and there are many examples of the technique used for gloves, bonnets, and purses from 1850 onward. Judith Durant

The first two techniques are traditional, dating back to at least the midnineteenth and early twentieth centuries respectively, and the last three are more recent developments. All but the last technique require that you pre-string beads onto your yarn. Bead Knitting Bead knitting () is the technique to use for pictorial designs. It was popular with Victorian-era knitters and was used in baby bonnets, gloves, socks, handbags, and other small items. While you may use the technique for one-color and random designs, for pictorial designs youll have to pre-string the beads according to a chart. Beaded Knitting With beaded knitting, () a bead (or beads) lies on the thread between two stitches. Beaded Knitting