Special 'me time' treat, beautiful crochet beaded collar

Way back in October during my visit to The Knitting & Stitching Show at Alexandra Palace, I picked up this beautiful little kit called the ‘Arabella Collar’,  designed by Nicky Hale (alifelikevera).  I had been saving this kit as a  special me time treat and it was, I loved every minute of it!

The kit came with two pattern options, with or without beads.  I would not usually wear a beaded collar, but the beads were such a fantastic match to the yarn that they gave the collar almost a ‘gothic’ look and feel to it.  I have not done much crochet with beads and wondered how simple this project would be. The beading instruction was concise, my advice to you is, don’t over think it and follow the instruction it is a breeze.  The pattern is both intuitive and repetitive, a joy to crochet.  I worked this over two evenings,  I could have happily sat up into the small hours and finished, but I wanted to save it as my reward for doing some ‘actual work’ the next day.  As delighted as I was that it was finished, a little bit of me was sad.

I just loved the simple yet very effective beaded picot edging.