Yum Jelly!

As is known by many of my stitchy friends and my dear readers of the blog, I have a slight addiction to novelty yarns and crocheting with unusual materials (spaghetti anyone?).  So the first time I heard of Jelly Yarn I had to investigate.

The talented Vashti Braha had mentioned it one evening on the Getting Loopy podcast chat room. I was immediately intrigued and decided I must find some of it to play with.  Fortunately not too long after that I was at the Buffalo Knit and Crochet Show (August 2009) and Jelly Yarns had a booth.

My Jelly Yarn Purchase

Jelly Yarns is owned by Kathleen and Nick Greco, super nice people and lots of fun. Their booth was a bright fun corner of the market floor.  I was especially excited to find Glow-In-The-Dark and glittery Metallic (sparkles!) Jelly Yarn. I purchased a couple balls of the metallic and one of their “Glow in the Dark” colors.

If you can’t find Jelly Yarn in your area check out their website at JellyYarns.com (it’s also a great place to explore tips about using Jelly Yarn and to see the latest fun stuff they have planned).

The yarn is available in 3 different weights and 14 colors. Kathleen works with their manufacturer in Pennsylvania (another thing to love, this yarn is made in the USA) planning and developing new colors.  She also creates wild wonderful knit and crocheted art pieces and patterns from Jelly Yarn.

It is a bit strange to crochet with at first.  The yarn is 100% Vinyl, reminding me a bit of the lanyard lacing type stuff used to make woven key chain fobs in summer camp (way back when). This isn’t “yarn” in the fibery sense, but it is very flexible and I love the sculptural quality of it.  It is fantastic for beaded crochet with big hole style beads.

Kathleen recommends using a hand lotion or hand salve on your hook to improve the “glide” of the yarn over the hook and thru stitches.  Her favorite salve to use is Burt’s Bee Hand Salve.  She also recommends the use of a metal hook like the Susan Bates Silvalume.  I found I didn’t need the lotion or salve when using my Clover Soft Touch hooks especially as I wanted a loose stitch structure.  I do like the salve for tighter projects though. The finished fabric is very elastic with a structured quality and a slight grippy feel to it.

When I returned home from the Buffalo show I made some single crochet bracelet “worms” for my boys from the Glow-In-the-Dark yarn.  I also strung a bunch of blue toned beads on the Silver Icing sparkly yarn with the intention of making some fun jewelry items.  Unfortunately life got busy like it does and I tucked it away to work on later.  This past Monday I was having a clear out of my working space and re-discovered the ball of yarn and decided it was time to play with it again.

So here is the fun and slightly funky bracelet pattern I came up with. Enjoy!

Glittery Beaded Cuff

designed by Andee Graves

Materials:

Jelly Yarn (100% Vinyl)  in Silver Icing color. Fine weight

Size J (6 mm) hook (I used my Clover Soft Touch – the matte finish of the metal seems to help)

79 – Size E beads (I used Blueberry Pie Mix [color 01] from Twisted Sistah Beads)

Large yarn needle for weaving ends

Gauge: 6 sc and 7 rows = 2 inches

Special Stitches

Beaded Single Crochet (bsc): Bring bead up close to work, insert hook in st, keeping bead to back of work yo and pull up a loop, yo and pull thru both loops on hook.

Double Beaded Single Crochet (dbsc): bring bead up close to work, insert hook in st, keeping bead to back of work yo and pull up a loop, bring second bead up close to work, keeping bead to back of work yo and pull thru both loops on hook.

Pattern Notes

My cuff is 2″ wide (5.1 cm) and 7 3/4″ around (19.7 cm). If you want yours longer for a larger wrist just add un-beaded rows at the end and beginning. If you want more beaded rows add 5 beads for each additional bsc row and 12 beads for each additional dbsc row. Remember you will need an odd number of rows in the end to make the finishing seam work correctly.

Jelly Yarn isn’t a fiber yarn so taking care of the ends is a bit different. Vinyl will stretch thinner and then relax back into its original size, so knots tied tightly in this yarn tend to stay put.  Read the details in the finishing closely to keep your bracelet from coming undone.

Instructions

First string all the beads on your yarn. This is easy to do because the yarn is stiff enough to act as your needle.  If you have extra beads you might want to add a few just to be sure you’ll have enough for this project.

Foundation: Chain 7, turn.

Row 1: Sc in back bump of 2nd ch from hook, sc in back bump of each ch to beginning of ch. [6 sc]

Row 2: Ch 1, turn, sc in each st to end of row. [6 sc]

Row 3: Ch 1, turn, sc in first st, bsc in each st to end of row. [1 sc, 5 bsc]

Row 4 – 12: Alternate repeating Row 2 and Row 3, ending with a Row 2.

Row 13: Ch 1, turn, dbsc in each st to end of row. [6 dbsc]

Row 14: Repeat Row 2. [6 sc]

Row 15: Repeat Row 3. [1 sc, 5 bsc]

Row 16: Repeat Row 2. [6 sc]

Row 18 17: Repeat Row 13. [6 dbsc] Aug 27,  2016: Thanks to June T. for pointing out that Row 17 was missing. I had mis-numbered the rows. Eep! It’s been on here wrong for nearly 5 years!

Rows 18 – 27: Alternate repeating Row 2 and Row 3.

Rows 28: Repeat Row 2, fasten off.

Finishing: Pull beginning and ending tails to tighten slip knot and ending knot.  Using tails sew top of Row 28 to bottom of Row 1, sew half way for each tail so they meet in the middle of seam.  Tie a square knot with the 2 tails. Weave the loose ends of the tails back toward the sides of bracelet and cut off so ends don’t show.

I am offering this pattern for free so the only tech-editor for this pattern is me. Please let me know if you run into a snag with the pattern.