Self-striping

I swear I didn’t intend for this to be a knitting-only blog, but I’ve been living a(n almost) knitting-only life lately, so that’s what you get. I’ve been wanting to try making some self-striping sock yarn, and I finally gave it a try:

I started by knitting a few 64st rows (since I tend to make 64st socks) with the original yarn — Lana Grossa Meilenweit in pale gray — and then unraveled it and measured the length of yarn needed to make 4-5rows. That length was roughly twelve feet, so I wound a forty-eight foot hank and tied off twelve-foot sections. It was very unwieldy! I dyed each section a different color, and I can’t believe I didn’t tangle the yarn any more than I did. The cake above kinda just looks like variegated yarn, but when you start knitting:

Stripes! I’m doing a basic sock with heel flap and gusset, though I did eye-of-the-partridge stitch on the heel flap because I think it looks so cool. I also did a longer flap (I think forty rows instead of thirty-two?) and gusset. I’m knitting the entire sock on US1 needles, which gives me the fit I like on the leg and foot, but if I make the flap the standard length, the sock winds up too tight over my arches. But I think these ones will be perfect! I’ve finished the gusset decreases and knit maybe an inch of the body of the foot since I took the photo, so I’m past the fun part.

It’s also worth noting (I mean, only to other knitting peeps) that I got a US1 ChiaoGoo cable needle for these socks — I like using DPNs, but they start to hurt my hands if I’m doing too much knitting. I prefer bamboo needles, but the cable on these is NICE!