Crumpets!

I was knitting Crumpets just as happy as a lark until I found out that the pattern I had purchased, the very first pattern I had ever purchased online... was totally off in stating the number of beads needed for the bodice- like- by half- I know- Don't say you didn't try to warn me- all over the internet there is info about how many beads a person really does need- it's just that you don't know to look until you run out of beads only two inches into it... and living an hour away from the craft store and since they were sold out of the beads I needed- I was going to be held up for a few days... days I really can't spare because the baby's birthday is next week.

So I figured I would knit the skirt from the bottom up and graft after I had finished the bodice. So I did the mind numbing stockinette skirt then finished the last four fun repeats of the bodice pattern- and then I bit the bullet and grafted all 132 stitches of the bodice to the 132 stitches of the decreased skirt. My solace in the whole ordeal is that rather than having the skirt full of increases at the waist- I have very tidy K2tog all around.

I didn't want to do the tie at the top of the shoulder straps indicated in the pattern. I wanted to have "bump free" cardigan options- so I wanted to make the shoulder straps ribbonlike flat straps. How to do it- and how to do it with a few beads ta-boot? I tried several things but I could not cast on and bind off and get the two edges to match- I really like the look of that doubled bind off- the one over two bind off... looks like a herringbone... so how did I do it?

I used the provisional cast on (for the first time ever- what a cool trick!) As I figure 8ed my way along I added my beads where I wanted them- then I knit one row. (I only added beads on a small portion of the strap)



After knitting one row I bound off that side using the one over two bind off then I kind of fudged my way around the end because it's going to be hidden by seaming anyway... then I removed the spare yarn and knit a row on the other side- then I bound off the other edge and viola- I have two matching edges on a strap that won't stretch, roll, spiral or curl! Another bonus about the way this strap is made is that if you leave yourself a tail when you do the provisional cast on- when you finish- you will have a tail at the other end as well- so you can sew on your straps without any extra ends to weave.

This yarn is Sinfonia, the beads are Czech Glass.