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(upbeat music)

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- Hi, I'm Marly Bird.

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I'm a knitting and crochet designer,

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as well as the host of the Yarn Thing podcast

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and the Marly Bird YouTube channel.

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In this technique, I'm gonna show you

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how to add beads to your knitting.

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To do this technique, you're going to need

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a pair of knitting needles, some yarn,

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a crochet hook that is small enough to go through

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the hole of the beads you are using, a tapestry needle,

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some scissors, and, of course, your beads.

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To begin, we are gonna go ahead

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and pre-string some beads onto our yarn.

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To do that, I'm going to go ahead

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and thread a tapestry needle onto my yarn.

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The reason I'm using a tapestry needle is because

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it is small enough to go through the hole of the bead.

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If you need to use a different sized needle

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because the hole of your bead is smaller,

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go ahead and do that.

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I'm just threading them right onto the needle

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and pushing them right down onto the yarn.

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If you need your beads to go in a certain color sequence

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be sure that you add the last color you need

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to work into first and the first color last.

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Once you have those all threaded onto your yarn,

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we're gonna go ahead and cast on some stitches.

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For this example I'm just going to use

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a long tail cast on and cast on five stitches.

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I'm using a circular needle today, but you don't have

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to use a circular needle to complete this technique.

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I just prefer circulars over straights.

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You can use any type needle you want to use.

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And I'm gonna keep the background stitches

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as purls for this particular row,

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and I'm gonna work across two stitches.

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And now I'm going to add a bead.

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Just go ahead and pull up a bead directly up to my needle.

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I won't need all of these, but I'm bringing them up here

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just so that they're ready to go.

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When I pull it up here, the bead rests on the yarn

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between these two stitches, so when I go in

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to purl the next stitch, you can see the bead actually

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rests between the two stitches on the needle.

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I'm gonna do that one more time

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between the next two stitches, pull up a bead,

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go ahead and purl the next stitch and the following stitch.

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If you wanted to add a bead to a knit stitch,

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this is how you would do it.

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Knit the first stitch, and let's say I wanted

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to put a bead between the second stitch

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and the third stitch.

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Pull a bead right up next to my needle,

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and knit the next stitch.

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You'll notice that still puts the bead

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in between the two stitches on the purl bump,

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and it makes the bead pop out to the reverse side.

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So if you wanted to add beads on the knit side

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of whatever you're working on, you can do that.

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Just remember it puts the bead on the opposite side.

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I'm pulling the bead right up to the needle,

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and I go ahead and I knit the next stitch.

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When I finish the row and turn, my right side

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is still my right side, I've just now added a bead

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to the knit row instead of the purl row.

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We've been working in stockinette,

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adding beads to the purl side.

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But what if you want your bead to show up on the knit side?

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I'm gonna show you how to do that right now.

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To add a bead to show up on the knit side,

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I'm gonna knit two stitches, and then between this stitch

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and that stitch, I'm going to pull up my bead,

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and I'm going to purl this next stitch.

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What that does is put the bead between the two stitches,

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but it makes this stitch an actual purl.

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It allows the bead to show up on this side.

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If I carried on and I just carried on knitting,

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it would surround the bead with knit stitches.

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Let me show you how to do that one more time.

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Knit a couple stitches, add a bead, so that way

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it shows up on the knit side by working a purl.

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Bead comes up, and I purl the next stitch.

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I could do that again, if I want to.

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Pull up a bead and purl the next stitch.

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And I could knit on.

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Now my beads are showing up

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on the knit side of my stockinette.

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If we take a look at these, you can see

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in this one it is the beads are surrounded

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by a reverse stockinette, or the purl side.

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If I flip this over, the beads are actually hidden

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on the knit side because they're all hanging out

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over here on the purl bump.

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If we take a look at this one, this is one where,

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when I was on the knit side, I purled the next stitch

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between the beads, and it put the bead on the knit side.

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If I flip this over, now that looks like the beads

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are receding on the reverse stockinette or purl side.

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See how that looks?

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Now you know how to add beads

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to your knitting if you pre-string them.

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But what if you're mid-project and you decide,

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you know what, I could really use a good bead here?

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Let me show you how to do that.

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And let's pretend I wanted to add a bead

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directly to that stitch.

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One of the benefits of adding beads this way

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is that it actually puts the bead on the throat

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of the stitch and not in the purl bump between the stitches.

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I'm grabbing a crochet hook that is small enough

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to go through the hole on my bead.

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Put the bead directly onto my hook,

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and I'm coming over here, and I'm taking the next stitch

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that I want the bead on off of my lefthand needle.

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I take the bead and pull it right off of the hook

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directly onto that stitch, and I put the stitch

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back onto my lefthand needle.

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And I knit that stitch.

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We have now knitted a bead directly into the stitch.

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Let me show you how to do that one more time.

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Knit the next stitch, and let's pretend

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we wanted to add a bead again.

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So I've threaded a bead onto my hook,

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take the stitch off of my needle,

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put the bead directly onto the stitch,

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and put the stitch back onto my needle.

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Once I do that, I knit that stitch.

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And I'm carrying on.

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There are times, and some patterns,

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when it'll say that instead of putting that stitch

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back onto the lefthand needle to put it directly

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on the righthand needle, just as if it was a slip stitch.

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Either method will work.

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Adding a bead using a crochet hook

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is actually my preferred method

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because it's a way for me to be a little bit more creative.

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If I'm working on a project that doesn't call for beads,

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and I'm thinking to myself, you know, some added beads

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here on the trim would be really great,

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I could just grab my crochet hook and some beads,

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and add them directly into the stitches.

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Another benefit to using this method is that

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it is reversible in the sense that the bead shows

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up on both sides of the work.

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So you don't have to worry whether it is resting

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on the purl bump on the right side or the wrong side.

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It stays on the actual throat of the stitch,

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in the middle of the work.

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Now you know how to add beads to your knitting.

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I hope you will go out there

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and embellish all of your knits.

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(upbeat music)