Watermelon Socks

[firstfrost]

Whee, I got these in before deadline (my family Christmas is in January). I think they're really adorable, plus they were pretty simple to do. There was only one beads-all-over-the-floor incident, and, astonishingly, zero self-stabbings with the teeny crochet hook.

Comments

[mathhobbit.livejournal.com]

Wow, that was fast!

[merastra.livejournal.com]

Those are pretty cute. :-)

[kelkyag]

Cute!

What was the tiny crochet hook for? <tries to imagine a crochet hook tiny enough to thread those beads>

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

That's exactly it. You pull the loop of the stitch through the bead with a tiny steel crochet hook.

[kelkyag]

Wow. I was going to say there had to be a better tool, but ... maybe that's exactly the right tool. How big are the beads? I was guessing very small lest they be lumpy inside shoes, but I'm not sure how big would be too big to be comfy. (On investigating, the smallest hook I have is a US #10 steel, which fits through smaller beads than I would have guessed, but not the smallest seed beads I have handy.) Is it an elongated stitch?

[firstfrost.livejournal.com]

The beads are larger than tiny seed beads - you generally can't fit sock yarn through a really small bead, no matter how small the hook is. They'd probably be noticeable inside shoes, though I think almost any beads would be, just because they aren't compressible.

The stitch gets a little bit stretched out in the working, as you have to have a full workable loop on *top* of the bead in order to knit it, but it evens out after the stitches are done.

My first beaded project, I made a hook from a twist tie, but the tiny crochet hooks are better tools. :)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/14290881@N08/3166812246

[kelkyag]

Nifty! Thank you for the details.