I attended the Madrona Fiber Arts Winter Retreat February 10th-13th.  On Saturday the 12th, I took an afternoon class from Betsy Hershberg titled "I-Cord Beadery".  In the class, we tried out different ways of knitting and purling i-cord.  Turns out that one can purl i-cord.

This photo starting from the left shows: several rounds of knitted i-cord; knitting 5 rounds then 1 round of purling twice; purl 1 round then knit 1 round for 10 rounds; purling all rounds for several rounds; and knit 1, purl 3, knit 1 round for several rounds.

Close-ups:








It seems that when you purl all rounds, the i-cord will spiral.  Because one is purling, there is an elongated stretch between the last stitch of a round and the start of a new round.

This is the perfect place to put a bead.  See right end of wine coloured sample.

The wine coloured sample shows various places to place beads.

When knitting the i-cord pattern K1, P3, K1, the i-cord ends up flat.  Beads can be placed between the purled stitches:

OR several beads / a tube bead on be placed on the elongated stretch between the last stitch of a round and the start of a new round:


All in all, this was a great class of techniques.