I just finished my stage 3 TDS socks! The pattern had traveling stitches and beads. My socks are actually a dark blue, though nowhere near as dark as this picture implies! The yarn was mollygirl yarn, Diva, fingering, in the colorway pillows. I really liked the yarn-it worked really well with the beads, and didn't split as I pulled it through the beads using my crochet hook. I picked silvery shiny beads, which match the silver glitter in the yarn, but are large enough to be subtly visible, at least in person.
The pattern worked quite well, and forced me to do a different heel than my traditional heel flap. I don't think this heel flap works as well when knitting on double points. I suppose I could use circulars, but I like my double points and they're what I'm used to, so that's what I used.
I timed myself knitting the first sock, and it took me 7 hours 6 minutes of pure knitting time. Sleep, however, delayed my finishing time, along with work, so in total they took me just shy of 25 hours from initial cast on to final finishing. I think the second sock took me a bit longer than 7 hours, probably more like 8. I did the bulk of my evening knitting tonight at my local knit group, and I forgot to start my stopwatch when I arrived at my local yarn store! So I don't have the exact amount of time the socks took me recorded, though I did write down the time after I finished the first sock. I got 13th place, and my mom got 29th place.
