Designer's Challenge: Beaded Peacock Socks (Part 3)

After another round of additional swatching (see Part 2) to decide on the kind of beads to use and bead placement, I must have knit about 5 socks worth by now - but have only two 1/2 socks to show for it… and they are different sizes…!

Well, the sizing is sort of intentional as I am experimenting with how to size the design…

Decision: I went with color-lined, size 6/0 glass beads in multiple colors.

Used the "Hooked On" method with a crochet hook to add beads to fabric.

Only leg above heel has beads so to not interfere with wearing shoes.

And, I’ve noticed that I’ve gotten lazy with writing down what I am doing with all the unraveling and restarts that it will make it hard in the end if I want to turn this design into a pattern…gotta get my act together!

So, back I went to unravel my 2nd 1/2 sock and re-did it filling in any missing information to recreate a 2nd matching sock. :)

Cuff

At first, I rushed to finish my sock because I was getting awfully close to the deadline of end of the month and didn't consider alternate cuff finishes...and didn't like what I saw...and paid by unravelling again. :(

After a couple of attempts, I was finally happy with the cuff. The peacock "wheel" now comes to a nice finish and the bind-off is stretchy (used Jeny's Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off).

Picture Time

It's 2 days before the end of the month and I am off to take pictures or better, I've recruited my 10-year old son to tag along and take the pictures while I modeled the socks. :)

Luckily, here in Colorado, we rarely have to worry about not enough sunshine as sunshine seems to be the norm here (300+ days of sunshine per year), but how do you typically take pictures of socks? After a quick overview on Ravelry, I got some ideas and found the ideal spot not too far away from home: a clam background of gray concrete that will not interfere with the sock color and pattern.

I take all my pictures with my Canon PowerShot XS100 IS, so nothing really fancy. And the best thing with digital cameras is that you can take lots and lots of pictures, view them on the camera's little screen, retake and later delete all unwanted shots. :)

And here is the finished pair of my Beaded Peacock Socks:

March Designer's Challenge entry: Beaded Peacock Socks

 You are welcome to email me if you would like to be notified when the pattern becomes available. :)

EDIT: 1st place winner in March Designer's Challenge on Ravelry!