It seemed like such a wonderful idea.....add a few beads and sequins to the knitted butterflies so that the finished jacket would catch the lights and give off a subtle sparkle. Simple really. All I had to do was string a few beads and anchor them to the knit.I even had the perfect window of opportunity -- a week off from work for a much needed vacation. Happily ensconced in the delusion that I would move on to construction of the jacket lining by the following Sunday, I grabbed my bead tray, threaded up a beading needle, and thus embarked on a "beading adventure".
I first decided to outline the antennae of each butterfly with bugle beads. Silly me, I thought I could string a bunch of beads together, anchor each end to the antennae, and then stay stitch the antennae in place. It didn't work. After much trial and error, I determined that I had to literally stitch two beads in place at a time, knot the thread, and move onto the next two beads. Each antennae had approximately 20 to 24 beads. Once I beaded the first set of antennae, I realized the butterflies looked a little forlorn so I used seed beads on each of its individual spots. Each seed bead was anchored with a knot. I then put a seed bead and faceted sequin on each of the lower wings. Although the effect was exactly what I was looking for, I realized with growing horror that it had taken nearly 45 minutes to bead the first butterfly.
One down - 250+ more to go. It was going to be a long, long summer.....and autumn....and winter. 
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