It's not easy to buy handpainted yarns, sight unseen. A tone too light or too dark can ruin the balance of the colours, not to mention whether something was painted more or less liberally with a particular shade. Some months back, I bought several grab bags of Lorna's Laces from Patternworks on the assumption that with a lot of skeins, I would get a few matches (oh how we justify these things). Well, there were matches but there were also quite a few singles. Rowanette Jill and I then amassed our odd skeins and we mated as many up as we could. Not all singles go well together, so I bought more yarn to pair up with the singles. I'm sure that I can give quite a few renowned stasher a run for their money :-).
Anyway, aside from the standard way to get a pair of socks out of 2 skeins of yarn ( 1 colours leg and foot use and another for cuff, toe and heel ), I'd decided to try it using the spiral method from the feb/mar 6 sox knit-along. Using one ball of Jaypond and one ball of Turquoise Lorna's Laces, I alternated between the 2 yarns, creating an overall darker tone to the yarn and as an added bonus, sorted out the pooling problem.
The only annoying thing is the tangling but as long as I untwist after every 10 or 12 rows, it's not really an issue. This methods seems to work really well and I 'll definitely go back to some of my more garish skeins with a view to 'tone' them down using one dominant complementary colour.
With this spiral method, I can easily extend the variegated yarn mileage without really losing the variegated effect. For the record, I actually like Jaypond and did not do this to tone it done. It's not garish and the colours are far prettier in real life.
Posted by atu at April 5, 2005 10:56 PMGreat sock! I really like the patrern you used. I just have not been into knitting socks lately. I used to be obsessed with it!
Thanks for the compliment regarding my new site! :-)
Posted by: Eilene at April 7, 2005 03:33 PMI Love the colors together. What a great idea!
Posted by: Jenn at April 7, 2005 03:17 PMPatternworks had a Lorna's grab bag?!!
Posted by: amy! at April 7, 2005 02:48 PMYour idea is great ! The socks are beautiful. The colour is gorgerous !
Posted by: Eva Shiu at April 7, 2005 01:56 AMI second the request for a little more detail about the "spiral" method. Is it just a matter of knitting in thr round, alternating rows?
The sock is beautiful, by the way. Wish I was your lucky sock pal! :-)
Posted by: Beth S. at April 6, 2005 05:05 PMWow. Beautiful. I love this toning-down idea. Wish I had thought of it for my Easter Egg yarn. I've got plenty of solids of the Cotton Classic. xoxo Kay
Posted by: Kay at April 6, 2005 04:01 PMVery nice technique!
I'm still thinking the sock is making a detour via, oh, San Francisco. But I guess you're not taking any chances.
great idea - shld help the problem people are having with lorna's lately where you get one sock w/ skinny stripes and one w/ fat. if you break it up mixed with something else the nonmatchingness would prob be a lot less noticeable!
Posted by: carolyn at April 6, 2005 01:39 PMIt looks great Polly. Using three colours didn't really appeal to me, but with two it looks wonderful. What a shame I've just started a sock...
Posted by: Mary at April 6, 2005 10:20 AMI Love them!! We are going to HAVE to talk about these techniques and strategies my dear :)
Posted by: stinkerbell at April 6, 2005 10:03 AMGreat colour, great sock - but what is this spiral method? Only spiral one I know is the ribby one used for bed-socks, no heel.
Posted by: Jill at April 6, 2005 08:57 AMlovely yarn, lovely colours, lovely sock!
Posted by: kris at April 6, 2005 07:50 AMHI, I read your blog regularly, but don't know if I've ever commented before.
I love how the new sock is turning out. I am in mourning with you over the missing sockapalooza socks. Yikes, that's terrible!
Very pretty! I love blue and yellow together, and never thought to replace blue with turquoise (at least, that's what the color looks like in the pictures)
Posted by: Jenn at April 6, 2005 03:02 AMThe varigated yarn is very suited to this pattern. Lovely knit!
Posted by: Colleen at April 6, 2005 01:54 AMBEAUTIFUL!! What a great idea.
Posted by: Jackie at April 6, 2005 01:05 AMIt looks brilliant Polly (colour and sock). I'm going to be using this striping thing again, but with two not three yarns. Makes me want to start a sock!
Dawn
Posted by: dawn at April 6, 2005 12:09 AMFantastic! The sock looks so beautiful, how can you bare to part with it?
Posted by: Louise at April 5, 2005 11:52 PMThe colour looks beautiful, please take da sock along to Liberty on Thursday so we can see!
Posted by: Jacinta at April 5, 2005 11:38 PM