Beaded Rainbow Odenwald Shawl!
Lost my mind a little and added (if my math is correct) 5,615 beads to Nim Teasdale's Odenwald pattern. Anything worth doing is worth overdoing!
The goal was “soothingly weighted but not uncomfortable to wear, even as someone with chronic pain.” It could have been a little heavier, so maybe I’ll make a shawl with larger beads another time, but I’m very pleased with this one. I used size 6/0 seed beads, applied as I go with a .6mm crochet hook.
Yarn-wise, used 2 cakes of YarnArt Flowers. I knitted the fully purple sections from both, then knitted all the way through the yellow-oranges with a single ball. When I hit the beginning of red-oranges, I used yarn from both cakes, alternating between them. (Not the entirety of both, I played it by ear to make sure I made it through the full rainbow.)
I do have edited charts with bead placements. I will only share them with Nim's permission.
I've done A LOT of knitting/crochet this year while chronic illness kept me from my sewing machine, but I'm feeling much better now. There will be new quilts to look forward to soon, plus a few more yarn crafts to share in the meantime!
omfg this is stunning! I want to learn to knit or crochet just to do this but my hands hurt just looking at it. Fantastic work.
I have, in fact, trained myself to hold yarn more loosely and knit on smaller needles than patterns call for because my hands also hurt just thinking about it! I fucked them up pretty badly when I first started knitting in college. I had to either change how I did things or give it up entirely.
And when I crochet, I use big cushioned foam grips on the handle of my hook.
Okay I hadn't thought of the foam grips or using a different sized needle! First, I'll have to learn the basics, which is on my list of things to do anyway :)
