Knit a necklace thingey

As a kid I used to love doing French/spool knitting by the mile (many of you probably did too), but now I can't remember what I actually DID with the "worms"!  Doll's clothes of some sort probably.  I decided to give it a try again as I love chunky necklaces and bracelets and wear a lot of tunics, Tshirts and linen shirts, so they work well together.  I remember doing my spool knitting on a wooden cotton reel with nails around the top, but now they make these fancy schmancy ones which are longer and easier to grip.  The only downside to using beads on them is that the beads have to have really big holes - not always easy to find, although I want to make some myself using air dry clay or polymer clay (one day ...!)