Which beads and bad pictures

My yarn arrived for my Mystery Stole. The suggested colors were either white or black for the purest interpretation of the theme, but white is just not a color that's an option for me. I mean, 3-year-olds, cats, a dog, they just don't go with white yarn, no matter how careful I am. And black... yes, I love black. All one has to do is look in my closet, or my high school yearbook to know that, but knitting tiny lace in black is a sure way for me to go blind. And so, I went with another favorite color and chose Knit Picks Shadow in Vineyard. It's a lovely eggplantish purple and I couldn't be happier with it. It's not splitty, it's not fuzzy, it's just perfect! And the price is perfect too. I don't exactly have a huge yarn budget... or any at all, for that matter.

So, I got my yarn and went ahead and did a test swatch to make sure I was picking the right size needles- size 4 options. I could knit for the rest of my life and never need another needle aside from these. Some people complain that they're too slick for lace knitting, and by the end of this stole I may feel the same way, but so far *knock wood* I've never once dropped a stitch or had one jump off the end of my needle. Aside from a little goof at the beginning, which I was aware of when I did it, but decided that I'd just keep on going because, well, it's a swatch, it turned out perfect.


Onto the beads. Since, as I said, my budget is fairly slim for this project, I decided to purchase beads locally rather than online shopping and hoping that my choice actually matched well once it arrived. I like the tactile experience of local shopping rather than trusting pictures on the computer.

Ny delimma? The pattern calls for size 8/0 beads, and they simply don't have them in any of the stores here. So, I picked up every size I could find in the color that I wanted-- an amythest with silver lining. I've got them in 11/0, 10/0, and 6/0. On first thought, I assumed that the 6/0 would stand out the best, but after rethinking, the 10/0 seem to be the better choice. I want them to be an accent, not a focal point, and I just think the 6/0s might be a bit too heavy for the yarn. Lord knows I don't want to put that much work into a project just to have a bead break the yarn and leave me a cursing, muttering, sobbing heap.



You can click on the picture to make it bigger. Yes, that really IS a crochet hook there! Can you see the tiny little hook on the end? How did our grandmothers do all that doily stuff?!

Of course, there's always the option of not beading at all, but that just doesn't sound very adventurous to me.

So, your opinion please...

The picture sucks, so please don't try and rely on color so much. The beads are the same color, just different in size. Which ones would you choose if you were going to knit this sucker? The 6/0's are the larger ones on the left... the 10/0 are the ones on the right. 11/0's not pictured... I can't get a crochet hook small enough to fit through them and they would most certainly give me fits if I were to try and string them with wire.