So someone pointed out to me that it’s hardly fair to complain about my failures and not show them.  Evil I tell you, but I can see her point.  There is a certain train wreck aspect to knitting blogs, and I am foolish to try and stand in its way.

So first up, the initial attempt at the new cabled sock for The Boy.  It’s in Knitting Notions Classic Merino Sport in Stormy Seas.  As you can see, it’s just not working with this sock.  The light bits and dark bits are mashing up on top of each other with no rhyme or reason, and the contrast is just too harsh somehow.  Now there is absolutely nothing wrong with this yarn.  I love Knitting Notions yarn, have quite a bit of it in my stash, and used it for one of the book socks.  I will happily add this back into the stash where it will wait patiently for me to come up with a use that better shows off its charms.  This just isn’t doing it any justice.

The second attempt is a bit more promising.  This is Liberty’s Yarn Moby DK in Stream.  Unfortunately, Liberty doesn’t carry that particular base anymore, but her Sportmagundi is a close match.  I first found this yarn at Sock Summit and used it shortly after for Sybaritic.  Now I haven’t gotten far enough on these to be sure, but I have a feeling the colors are going to be a bit more blended and a bit less jarring. Of course I may work a few more rows only to find that it’s not suited either, but so far I am hopeful.

This is just the risk you run with variegated yarns.  To get it right requires that the yarn, needles, and pattern all align in some sort of perfect arrangement.  It doesn’t always work.  In fact it often doesn’t work.  But when it does, it can be just lovely.