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.