Covered Beads

Meh.

These few beads were inspired by this necklace, though somehow just the three beads by themselves don't seem to have the same charm as the complete piece. Or maybe it's the variegated colorway that interrupts the effect, or there's too much contrast between the yarn and the underlying bead. In any case, it bothers me enough that I haven't put a clasp on it yet, though I'll still call it finished—the knitting is finished, and that's all we care about, right?

But—silver lining!—for this project I figured out how to make a tube on two straight needles by double-knitting. It turned out to be not so difficult once I got a few rows in, and certainly easier than trying to manipulate a twelve-stitch tube on seven-inch dpns. I used the *k1, s1p (yif)* method and got a pretty good rhythm going as I went on. I expect I'll get plenty of chance to exercise this skill on future Sample Skein projects.

Yarn is a bit of leftover Kid Merino, the rest of which made a delightful lace beret.

French Lace Bracelet

This used exactly ten yards of thread.  I even worked the button tab using a long tail left at the beginning, to avoid using up yarn starting and ending again.

I got this little ball of J&P Coats Pearl Cotton 5 from my great aunt before she passed; so far this is the only thing I have made from it.  This particular thread is no longer made, but it seems to be almost exactly like the DMC pearl cotton available everywhere.

The pattern (available here) is in French, but it includes a chart, and I had reasonable success with the text after machine translation.  There are also several projects with photos on Ravelry that show what you should be aiming for.

Zipper Guard

I made something like this a while back while experimenting with different Tunisian crochet stitch patterns. Depending on the gauge and stitch pattern, Tunisian can have a strong tendency to curl. At some point I worked a very tight, very curled little swatchlet, and in a stroke of inspiration used it as a zipper guard for knitting with a ball of yarn in my bag. But since the original was made out of fuzzy acrylic yarn, it would snag on the yarn passing through, and eventually I stopped using it. King Tut is a very smooth, mercerized cotton yarn, much less likely to snag, so it is better suited for this use.

This pattern turns the advice for avoiding curl right on its head. It uses a relatively small hook (G/4mm) and a stitch (Tunisian Knit Stitch) with more bulk in the back then front. This causes it to roll into a tube, which you can then slide your working yarn into from the side.

To make it, I started with 8 chains, picked up Tunisian Purl Stitches in the back bump of the chain, then after the first return pass made one more row of TPS + return. (I wanted the very first bit to be flat to provide some structure to the tube.) After that I firmly worked rows of Tunisian Knit Stitch until the fabric was long enough to roll over into a tube. I finished with a "bind off" of *TSS (Tunisian Simple Stitch), yo, pull through both loops* across, then worked regular crochet slip stiches along the top and right sides to add a little more firmness. I also added two lines of slip stitch on the back, to make a space for the zipper to slot into. This used about six yards of yarn in total.

If you don't want your Tunisian crochet to curl, here are a few articles on keeping things flat:

• Why Tunisian Crochet Curls and How to Get Rid of It
• How do I stop the curling when working in Tunisian crochet/afghan stitch?
• Tunisian Crochet: How to Reduce the Curl

Pencil Top Duster

I very much wanted to make something useful out of this five-yard scrap of Vanna's Choice. Since the purpose of this project is to use up the Sample Skeins, I think it's a little unsporting to just make a series of appliqués or similar, which would sit unused in a box somewhere. A pile of yarn flowers tucked into a drawer is no improvement over a similar pile of swatches or skeins. Still, this particular scrap was a bit challenging; five yards is barely any yarn, and the colorway is not something I like well enough to make a bracelet or something for me to wear.

In the end I made this pom-pom pencil topper, a miniature version of a duster meant to go on top of a broom handle. If I put it next to my office plant, which is frighteningly dusty, I can call it a useful object. So there.

To make it pencil-sized, I reduced the stitch count of the tube from twelve to four. This is very snug, so it should certainly stay on the pencil.

That's at least three yards of yarn in that pom-pom, and it's still pretty skimpy. Pom-poms eat yarn!