Partially FO

*exhales*

I've officially finished the body of the neverending test-knit, and yesterday I held in my hands Claudia's own totally finished shawl. It's a work of beauty; it's knit of Begonia, I think, with glass beads along the bottom of the crochet edging. It's made me decide that, after all, I am a shawl-wearer, or will be one day if I can ever finish this thing and make my own.

It has swoopy, curvy ends, unlike the usual straight triangle-type shawl. They can be tossed around your neck and they'll stay there without the shawl falling off your shoulders (it's that short-row shaping), and the beads glisten and give the shawl some weight. Not too much weight, but just enough to hold the swoops in place and sparkle in the light.

So, now on to the beading. Have any of you done this? Claudia said to string the beads onto the yarn, all of them, all 1500 of them, so there won't be any ends to weave in along the way. 1500 tiny glass beads. How can I keep them from getting tangled? I mean, I still have about 300 grams of yarn left; that's about 550 yards. I can't just let the yarn/beads pool in a bag; they'll get tangled. What do I do?

I put a bunch (maybe 50-100) beads on the yarn last night, and already the logistics are overwhelming me. Should I unroll the ball of yarn and start from the end? Am I going about this bass-ackwards?

Any help out there? I've googled, but so far no good answers.

Auuuuugggghhhhhhh!