Beaded Headband

there's been a lot of talk on one of the looming groups i belong to (The Knifty Knitter and Loom Knitting Group, you should join!!!!) about beaded work. a lady had done a cute set of hats with beads in the brim. it generated a lot of posts and it got me thinking about beading. so, when i went to knit a headband, i decided to throw some beads on it. it wasn't very hard, but it was a bit tedious. i was working with a ribbon yarn which was very sheer. i had some cute, tiny, little red beads that i wanted to use, but i couldn't find my needle threader. but i have tons of different gauge wire from my jewelry making, so i figured i would make a threader out of that. but all the wire was too thick. in some cases, the bead would go on the wire, but you need to double the wire up to have a little loop to thread the yarn through, and when i made the little eye, the bead wouldn't fit over the wire anymore. so i was stumped, trying to think of another way or a thinner wire to use when it came to me...GARBAGE BAG TIES!!! that wire was thin and flexible enough! so that's what i did! AND, i figured out that i don't have to make a complete eye to thread the yarn through, i just need to fold the wire over. here's a little slideshow i made to show what i did. hopefully its clear enough to help someone else out.

the hardest part was constantly pushing the beads down the length of yarn as i knitted. i had threaded on about 70 to 80 beads. its a lot to push down. i had to push down ten or fifteen, then go back and push down another ten or fifteen. it took a little time each time i had to push the beads down. i THOUGHT i had pushed it down really far, but, two or three rows later, i had to push them down again. the yarn was curling up on itself, too, and i couldn't get it to straighten out because of the beads. but, all in all, i was happy with the result. i decided to get a little fancy and try to make a pattern on the headband, but i quickly settle on just a basic wave pattern. anything else would require me to get out the graph paper and sketch it out. here's a few pic of the finished headband.