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Hollow Glass Bead Tutorial

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I’ve been making a bunch of hollow beads lately. I think of them as a kind of sorbet to all of the cupcake beads I make. A hollow bead is more zen like in its creation. Generally one rod of glass, one color, maybe a few accents, but usually very simple. I like to use glass that does all of the talking like a raku or other silver glass. The bead pictured above is one of mine made with raku glass that’s been frosted. I just love it!

So I went looking for a tutorial since I don’t have one yet and found a number of them in googleland. I’ll share links to a couple of them the first being Lori Greenberg’s blog (she used to write this blog). She always explains things well and has good pictures.

There are some videos out there in the internets but I do have to say, Lori’s tutorial can have you making a hollow bead in no time. That is with a bit of practice. Happy zen bead making!!

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Krampus Sweater Knitting Pattern

Santa and Saint Nicholas generally get all the good press, but Central European kids know you don’t want to just be good so you get presents from St. Nicholas; you also want to avoid the ire of Krampus. (He’s depicted as a human-like figure with horns and usually hairy or furry who gives birch rods instead of gifts to kids who are bad.)

If you’re the type to embrace the naughty side (or you just want to scare the children into good behavior over the holidays), maybe you’ll want to knit a Krampus sweater.  

This one, from Sofie Amalie Laulund, is a top down circular yoke sweater with Krampus faces at the top and cavorting Krampuses further down the body, with some traditional Scandinavian snowflakes thrown in for fun. 

Because of the large motifs there’s not a lot of room for adjusting the fit, but it is available in five sizes (the Ravelry page doesn’t say what the sizing is, and it says its worked with no ease but the photo looks like the sweater has a bit of positive ease, so if you decide to make this one just check the measurements and your own comfort level for ease when picking a size). 

It also uses five colors, but there’s very little red and brown so you can probably use scrap yarn for those parts. It calls for DK weight yarn. You’ll want a background color that helps the creatures stand out. You could also work the snowflake bands in different colors if you want to mix it up. 

The pattern is available in both English and Danish, and you can find it on Ravelry. This is the designer’s first pattern, which kudos to them because it’s such an ambitious (and fun!) project I’m happy to add to my collection of whimsy-filled knits. 

[Photo: Sofie Amalie Laulund]