Knitted Bracelet

Knitted Bracelet
Originally uploaded by Sheepish.

Tada! Even though this is not yet finished, I'm proud. Why? Because I was at least able to get the camera to focus well enough to take a semi-decent picture of it. Beads don't cooperate well in that regard.

Now comes the second question you're probably asking yourself - what is it? Why it's modern art/a fashion accessory. Can't you tell?

Wait, let's rewind and start from the beginning. I was at the fabric store to buy some new pinking shears (realized I've been spelling that wrong, by the way) as well as some notions I needed, when I happened upon their reasonably sizeable selection of jewelry making supplies (much better than their sad little knitting section, by the way - almost like Walmart gifted them with their most horrendous reject yarns.).

You know I've been working (well, not since I broke my pinking shears) on that recycled dress shirt rug for the Not Yarn Along. Keeping in that spirit, I was inspired by the array of thin wires and beads. I snagged up a spool of navy blue metallic wire and two packs of multicolored beads (one of transparent ones, the other of opaque ones).

Last night, I was so excited, I set right to work spilling the microscopic beads one by one onto the couch, convincing myself that I was actually attempting to thread them onto the wire. Many, many attempts later, I had a wire full of the slippery little doodads and maybe only a dozen scattered across the floor. So, I cast on for a bracelet.

I'm really happy with the look so far, and besides the fact that the wire is a bit hard to work with (not for those with sensitive fingers, for sure), the project I laid out for myself is really easy. I'm just doing a simple garter stitch, inserting one bead between each stitch.

If the bracelet turns out well, it'll be a birthday gift for my brother-in-law's girlfriend. If it turns out REALLY well, it'll have to become MY birthday gift. Yeah, don't tell me you've never done the same. What she don't know won't hurt her, right? No, I'm not so selfish (or at least not all the time). After doing one, though, I may find that I need to make some adjustments in the way I've made it, so a newer, better one may end up getting done.

Anyway, if you've got strong enough hands to mess with metal wire, this is great fun. It's cheap (all supplies were around 10 euros). It's cute. And, it's extremely portable (since you string the beads in advance, once you cast on, they're trapped and can't slip off). What more could you want in a knitting project?