Varied Emotions on Variegated Yarn

I have developed a love/hate relationship with variegated yarn.  When I see it in hank or skein form, wound or not, it thrills my heart.  I marvel at the lovely color combinations.  Visions of lovely knitted goodies from said yarns pass through my mind.  It really is a wonderful emotional experience.

And then I try to knit with the stuff.

On my trip to Indianapolis this past summer, you know I picked up several skeins of wooly loveliness, including a skein of Rowan Fine Art light fingering.  It’s one of those gorgeous variegated yarns with black, grey, and dark browns running through it.  I envisioned a lovely, sophisticated pair of socks. 

• Take 1:  I cast on a pair of socks and alas, by the time I’d done 10 rows of ribbing, the color pooling was awful. 
• Take 2:  I cast on again and tried knitting from both ends of the skein (I’ve read about this on some blog or other…or maybe it was on Ravelry) and switching which end I used every other row.  Somehow I managed to create icky pooling in an alarmingly similar pattern. 
• Take 3:  I tinked back to where I started the second end and tried to switch up the color patch where I began.  I managed to complete the ribbing in this mode, and then realized that although I’d tried to twist the yarns when I switched every two rows, there was a distinct ladder-gap-type thing running up the length of the rows where I switched ends.
• Take 3.5:  For the sake of the time I had into it, I continued into the main pattern of the sock just for kicks (read:  in complete denial about the ladder/gap), and I produced something akin to clown socks.  Well, with the neutral colors involved, I suppose clown socks for a very depressed clown.  The stripes that resulted were definitely not what I would describe as sophisticated.  

This was a really horrific emotional experience.

There’s your varied emotions right there.

I gave up on the socks and decided to make a shawlette instead.  Thankfully, the yarn makes a much better shawlette than a pair of socks. 

I’m using the pattern Holden Shawlette by Mindy Wilkes and I’m making it for myself.  Unfortunately, I was supposed to have used this yarn for a Christmas gift.  Now I’m short a gift, so back to the drawing board.  I’ve got some other sock yarn, but guess what.  It’s variegated.  Yay.

Also on my trip to Indy, I picked up a sweater quantity of Malabrigo Merino Worsted.  It’s variegated.  Since I seem to be disabled at switching the yarn up every two rows, I’m not sure how this is gonna play out.  I have a sweater picked out, but I’m not hopeful.  Yet, it’s Malabrigo.  Something has to work.

Love it.  Hate it.  But if you offered me a truckload of it, I’d still take it…

Lisa

xoxox