Beaded Shawls Part I: The Lazy Way with Rowan Kidsilk Haze Glamour

Swarovski is my friend.  I just love adding beads to my lace shawls, as you’ll see in Part II of this series.  But sometimes I’m tired, and I just want to knit and have the beads magically place themselves.

Enter Rowan Kidsilk Haze Glamour, a light and supremely fuzzy lace/fingering weight yarn beaded with oodles of sequins.

The yarn is a bit different from the much-loved Kidsilk Haze, as it has synthetic fibers: 55% mohair, 22% silk, 20% nylon (probably the thread holding the sequins), 3% polyester (probably the sequins).  To the touch, it is rougher, and to the eye it has a bit of an unnatural aura.  However, when knitted, it is surprisingly softer and has a lovely bounce.

It's not just me saying this.  Even my friends were surprised at the difference between the way it felt in the ball, and the way it felt after blocking.

I was given a ball of Glamour by Rowan to review, and because the ball was lonely, I bought two others for a collective 531 yards.  Stellaria, a crescent-shaped shawl by Susanna IC (Twist Collective) I've always wanted to make, takes 523 yards (or less).  Bingo.  

You can see that I was taking a chance making this with mohair yarn, as this pattern used a 100% silk yarn, which is as much drape as you can get!  But I was still curious to see what a fuzzy version would look like.

I like it!  It is so very sparkly and warm, but you can see that it is different from the silk version.  First, it comes out much smaller, as there is no weight to stretch out the border.  Second, the Glamour is significantly thicker than laceweight Kidsilk Haze, making the garter stitch body rather thick and cushiony.  

I think I would have liked to use larger needles to get a more lacy effect like I am used to with Kidsilk Haze.  I used 2 3/4 balls of the Glamour, though, so I might have not had enough for a bigger size.

Some notes about knitting with beaded yarns.

1) Unlike adding beads to your knitting, the sequins will come out on both the right and wrong sides of the knitting.  So, 1/2 of your beads will not be directly visible.

2) Don't even try to weave in an end with a bead on it!  If it's a sequin, just cut it in half with scissors.  If it's a bead, unwind the plies until you can pull it off.

I didn't make any modifications to Stellaria, I rarely do with shawls.  What I did try to do though, was not pay attention to the blocking instructions!  Oh man, what a mistake!  I got "pinburn" on my thumb from re-pinning this baby out 4 or 5 times.  Well.  You see that schematic in the pattern?  THAT IS A BLOCKING SCHEMATIC, DAYANA.  Save a Band-Aid and read!

The challenge is that you have way more stitches in the border than the shawl body, so you really need to curve it upwards to try and expand those points.  (omg, look at the sparkle!)

Also, it was really surprisingly hard to figure out which point was in the center of each motif.  Give yourself an hour to properly block this shawl!  

As you can see, I like to pin at an angle against the direction of the border.  This way you can stretch like crazy and the pin won't flip out.

One of the reasons I really love this yarn is the sheer un-stingy abundance of sequins included in each ball.  You know when you open a cheap bar of chocolate "with nuts" and you struggle to find one broken shard of almond?  Well, Glamour is like the Ragusa Swiss Chocolate of yarns... 

It is littered... no... BOMBED with sequins!

In fact, I'd like to coin a new term that yarn companies should use to describe their beaded yarns:  

SPSI:  Sequins Per Square Inch

Photographing a shawl is always a challenge.  Here's just a photographic experiment using different backgrounds.  Ugh, I never know which.  Thanks, FB followers, for trying to help.  :)

I really recommend this pattern.  It is simple, fast, and if you use a gorgeous glittery yarn like Kidsilk Glamour, you will have a stunning quickly-scrunch-into-your-bag warmth for a night out.  Lucky you, the yarn comes in 8 colors to match all your party dress needs.

After all, I'm wearing this one over my wedding dress.  :)

My Sequin Stellaria on Ravelry

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