I made this beaded bag for a class at Tangle Knitting Studio in Lake Oswego. I wanted to learn the beading technique. The materials used were:
Patons Grace color 60130 “Sky”
Bernat Boa color 81104 “Mocking Bird”
600 6mm green glass beads
6″ plastic mesh disk for bottom
Green batik fabric for the lining. This fabric was originally purchased as the lining for the funky felted buttonhole bag that I still hadn’t gotten around to lining when the little beaded bag was done, so I just considered this fabric part of my fabric stash (yes, I have a fabric stash) and pressed it into double duty.
Blue and silver spacers and charms from my bead stash. (Yes, I have a bead stash, too. Is there a problem with that?)
The bag was knit on a pair US#2 Addi Turbo circulars.
I’m afraid that I was sort of the black sheep of the class, as I didn’t follow directions very well (go figure).
I missed the first class because of family obligations. But I had the pattern and the teacher said that if, by the second class, I could get the bag to the point where I needed to start adding beads I should be OK to follow along with the others. The pattern called for a 16″ US#2 circular, but I didn’t have one. In the interest of not adding too much to my needle collection (and because it was late at night and all of the LYS were closed), I looked around for an alternative.
I did have two 24″ Addis in the right size and I’m used to knitting socks and such on two circs, so I cast on blithely to my double circs, knit the boa around the top, did the YOs for the eyelets, and made it to the first beading row.
At class that week, the very patient, lovely woman who was the teacher said, “What the heck are you doing?” and looked at me like I were crazy. I explained that I didn’t have a 16″ circ in the right size so I was using two 24″ circs. She kindly offered to lend me a 16″, which I politely declined. In the end I think I chose the better method. As the rest of the class struggled with sets of DPNs to decrease through the bag bottom, I went blithely on my way with my double circs all the way down to the end.
For the ends of the I-cord (that’s 60″ of I-cord… have I ever told you how I hate knitting I-cord?), I added the same green beads as the bag. That looked a little plain to me, so I added the blue and silver spacers from my bead stash. The colors of the bag remind me of the ocean on a sunny day. The sea-themed charms were thus a natural addition and led to the name I’ve given this object:
Charmed, I’m sure.
Since I’m not really a beaded evening bag sort of person (I’m more the big, funky bag sort), #1 Son has scooped this up as a gift for E.
Click on any pic to enlarge.
