Jewel

I am working on a knit right now that I LOVE.  I first stumbled across the pattern while trying to find something to make with this wool.  Someone else had made it, and I knew I had to do it to.  So I went and bought some beads, and merrily started on my way.  And I almost finished too, but a little nagging voice in the back of my mind kept saying 'start over, start over, start over'.  I had twisted my stitches when joining in the round (a first for me, i had never done that before, even when learning to knit in the round).  And I had thought it might not matter in the end because it is a cowl, and will always be twisted around my neck anyways.  But also it was my first time knitting with such a lace weight (is that a proper knitting term?) yarn, and my tension was a bit off in parts, and it just looked sloppy.
And so I unravelled The.Whole.Thing.  I should have actually taken some pics because it was a pretty serious undertaking, especially with 51 rows of beads, each with 14 beads.  Some quick math tells me that is 728 beads!  I tried to be careful every time I got to a beaded row, but a few times (ok maybe more than a few) I was going too fast, and sent little seed beads flying all over the living room.  And into the couch crevices.  And when I stood up there were beads stuck to my legs.  Oops.  Little seed beads bouncing across the wood floors may or may not have annoyed another member of my household :)  Also Maurice may have likely ingested a few little purple beads :)

Anyways, while in Portland in September I purchased this and had been saving it for something special:

Which is actually the yarn called for in the pattern, and it is much better.  This yarn is amazing, I love it.  My only regret so far is that the beads I chose are ending up looking a little silver, when I had wanted them to be clear.  Oh well...