As you can see from the picture, the socks I wore on February 3, 2013 were an argyle pattern in black and various shades of grays with a hint of white. Now, I didn’t want to just copy the argyle design. I’ve been wanting to try and make my own plaid patterns for a while and thought this would be the perfect opportunity.

Stripes in Gray Folio Planners by ValeriesGallery

But wait, you say! This pattern obviously isn’t plaid! What happened?

After researching how to make plaids in Illustrator, I decided to give it a go. I made the vertical lines and liked how it looked. So, I decided to continue on and added the horizontal lines which I learned is called the weft. (And who says design can’t be educational?) Unfortunately ,it looked horrible! Although, I can’t quite put my finger on it, I think it’s because there ended up being too much gray for my taste.

However, since I liked how the vertical lines looked before hand, I decided to keep them and have a striped design instead.

Although the plaid didn’t work out this time, I definitely intend to try again in the future. Do you have any tips for making plaids? Feel free to leave it in the comments!

Stripes in Gray is available at Valerie’s Gallery at Zazzle, RedBubble, Skreened and Imagekind.

Gray stripes not your thing?  Then check out these other striped, sock and black and white designs from other talented artist!

<!–Monogram Phone

Chess Tees by Brandless	Happy Birthday Blue Stripes card by Mariana Musa	iPhone 5c Case Pop Art Giant Pandas Black & White by SocolikCardShop
Black and White Pawprint Flip Flops by AugieDoggyStore	Fleur de Lis Thank You Groomsman card by Penny Cork	Emergence – Dramatic Black & White Abstract Design Flask by elfinart
Bold Striped Mosaic by ObservationCreations	Fourth of July, with Fireworks, Stars and Stripes card by Teri Nelson Kuster	Simple Black White Personalized Monogram Initial Flasks by alleyshirts
Monkey with a Sock. Shirt by Animal_Art_By_Ali	A Perfect Match card by Ivy M. Brown	Scarf – Ship Anchor and Helm (black) by bkmuir
Where Is The Zebra? Fridge Magnet by worldofnature	Missing Sock Funny Father’s Day Card by NobleWorks Funny Cards	Black White and Gray Argyle iPhone 5 Case by tjustleft
Pattern zigzags (pink, green, yellow and brown) iPhone 5 covers by Astriddesign	Socks and Sandals Birthday Card by Lisa Crisafi	Moo Cow iPad Cases by Mewmew34
Harlequin Op-Art (Stickers) by IconDoIt	white satin be my bridesmaid card by eugenia bacon	American Flag Freedom Drinking Bottle by HoMeArts
Thank You Socks Card by funnylife	Hands Holding Baby Feet Please be my Godmother Request card by Cherie Haines	Space Cowboy Pillow by geo_barr
As Time goes by… Original Drawing – Watch by PBworks	Mom – Happy Mother’s Day – Alphabet Art card by ABC by Sue	Pink Monogram Chevron Stripe | Apple iPhone 5 Case by Plush_Paper