Knitting

I'm fond of multicolor knitting - the more complex the ornament is, the better. The ornaments were taken from old Russian "Niva" and "Rodina" magazines. It is difficult to say whether it was a destiny or even an act of god who gave me a chance to look one hundred years backwards. We bought a house in the Ukraine and in its attic I came across a whole pile of enclosures to these magazines. Ex-owner of the house was called a landowner up to the end of her days, she originated from some local noble family. I spent four summers with my kids in this house, helped my husband's granny with house-keeping and gardening, read books avidly, stitched and knitted. The depth of the starry night Ukrainian sky, the smell of cherry in the heat of July are still in my mind!!! I decided to use cross-stitch patterns from those magazines for knitting (recently I learnt that cross-stitching patterns can also be used for crocheting). I'm fond of making my own patterns - it is especially good for knitting caps: you never know what you will get in the end, it is usually difficult to repeat it plus sometimes you are simply lazy to do it again.

I knitted a coat with lions for myself thirteen years ago and now it is my daughter who wears it (it is size 36), however better to say she agrees to put it on from time to time. I'm sure that you also were confronting usual problems with knitted clothes - they tend to shrink, form pellets on their surface, which spoil the look of ornaments. There is a good saying: "When you do something, you always bear something else in mind". My "something else in mind" has always been how to protect a knitted garment. And now, when I discovered the joy of beading this problem has been solved solved! I'm so happy that my feelings can be compared to the fireworks, I'm almost shouting of joy!!!

I don't see a point in explaining the technique of beading - it is well known and has been well described in numerous manuals. Yet I a little bit developed it to use for knitting. You may knit with beads anything - from winter wool caps to summer cotton or linen dresses. Knitting with beads is somewhat slower than knitting an ordinary thread but the result beats all efforts! You may knit in a free style (it is faster) but you may also take time and knit an ornament. Consumption rates for a little hat: 300 g of thread, bead size No 7-8, thread length 300-350 m. As for the thread type - the "Russian mohair" and Alpaka wool are very good. As for threads for summer garments - it took me some time to select proper ones but my final choose was "Linen" threads. It is exceptionally good for knitting! An excellent quality, proper length, good colors. It was the linen threads that gave me an idea to try to combine fillet crocheting and beads knit with knitting needles. When I say "beads" I usually mean any staff that can be threaded: glass or acrylic, stone or wooden, provided that it can be put on a double thread. It took me one year to knit more than 10 hats (unfortunately, I did not make pictures of all of them), a dress, two T-shirts, three scarves. And I hope that before the winter comes, I will think of something nice and warm and fluffy but definitely with beads.