I finished up chart 3 last night, staying up a bit late to get through it. It was a bit of a problematic chart. Early on I missed one of the wrapped stitches and didn't realize it until I was working the wrong side row. I just did the wrap then and moved on. And while we're on the topic of wrapped stitches, may I just say that I am not a fan. I never know how tightly to wrap the stitches, and I find the whole affair fiddly. I did try using a cable needle, but that was more awkward than passing the stitches back and forth between the needles. I am glad that I am done with them. Then two wayward beads inserted themselves into the knitting when I wasn't looking. I remember feeling them under my fingers while I was knitting, and thinking I needed to slide them down the yarn, but then I got distracted (probably by a cat), and they disappeared. I thought about them later, and discovered them lurking on the back of the work. I thought about leaving them there as a silent witness to my inattention, but after I finished the chart I took an awl to them and broke them off the yarn. To do this I carefully inserted the tip of the awl into the bead being careful not to poke into the yarn, then put the tip of the awl against a cork board and gave the handle of the awl a little wack with my hand. The beads broke easily. That is the safest way to get them off, although glass can go flying when you break them, so putting a cloth over the set up is recommended. I do not recommend using a pair of pliers to break beads off of yarn as this can cause the broken glass to cut into your yarn. The awl forces the bead apart and sends the sharp edges away from your yarn.
For those keeping track, the story so far. I started with a 200 g set of yarn from The Unique Sheep.
I started with skein 4, the one on the left. It was a little heavier than 50 g, 52 g to be exact. I wasn't sure how far I would get on skein 4 so I threaded 100 beads onto it. I used size 8 beads. I am working the large size as I want to use as much of my yarn as possible. I always hate having leftover yarn. The bead counts for the large size are as follows:
9 x 8 = 72 beads needed for chart 1
8 x 8 = 64 beads needed for chart 2
7 x 8 + 12 = 68 beads needed for chart 3
I ended up making it to row 3 of chart 2 with skein 4, which included 1 row of beading on chart 2, so I needed the following bead counts on skeins 4 and 3.
Thread 72 + 16 = 88 beads on skein 4
Thread 64 - 16 + 68 = 116 beads on skein 3
Or I would have, if there hadn't been an error in chart 1 - the beads were missing on row 14 and I didn't realize it until I started looking at the beads needed for charts 2 and 3. In the end I left off the corresponding beads on charts 2 and 3, just so everything would be consistent.
Here is a close up so you can see the butterflies and the fish and the beads I used. They are an iridescent bead with colors very similar to the colors of the yarn - I went for blending rather than contrast.
Pattern: Koi Rama by Kitman Figueroa
Yarn: The Unique Sheep Tinsel Toes in Pisces
Needles: US 8 (5.0 mm), US 6 (4.0 mm), US 4 (3.5 mm)
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