I was out for lunch recently and one of my friends, Sofia, gave me a bag of beads; all natural, some semi-precious like lapis lazuli, citrine, jade, onyx, among others. I accepted them with alacrity!

I knew immediately that I wanted to knit them into a necklace, as about twenty years ago I knitted some of my mother’s pearls into a bracelet, which I love.

I remember having a lot of trouble getting the edges to lie flat on the bracelet so this time I thought I would knit the beads on an i-cord, so it wouldn’t matter that it wasn’t flat.

I had some gold wire in my stash (of course!), so began knitting, placing a bead on every row. I had three stitches on the needle and I varied which stitch I attached a bead to to spread them out a bit. I have to say at this point that the i-cord didn’t quite work out the way I planned, but at least I wasn’t trying to flatten the rows out constantly.

I have several different clasps in my stash, not sure where they came from, but I chose a gold magnetic one for ease of putting on and taking off.

I took this photo before I tucked in all the wire ends, but you see how it worked out. I had wanted a large bead at the front but misjudged things a little, so to wear it at the front I have to have the clasp off centre, but it doesn’t matter.

I would have liked another large orange bead on the other side, but it’s hard to arrange for such things as all the beads have to be threaded on the wire before knitting commences, and the order of threading is the order of knitting. There are no second chances with this!

I am finding that I can wear the necklace with lots of things, it seems to blend into my wardrobe seamlessly.

It’s quite strange how well a necklace will finish off an outfit, even a casual one.

I seem to be pairing the necklace with orange and yellow, so have made a note to branch out a bit with outfits of a different colour – pink maybe.

I still have a lot of beads left, as well as some from my own stash, so I am contemplating a long necklace with a bit more design to it. I might need to do some research!

Finally a couple of shots of Pepper getting some love from her little mistresses.

she really is a most tolerant dog, with the softest mouth.

We won’t discuss the no dogs on the furniture rule!