Oresund Test Socks

So when trying to figure out Copenhagen I knew pretty much what I wanted it to look like… but didn’t know how to get there. So I dyed a test skein. And since I had no confidence in my dying abilities and thought it would take a few tries to get right I only dyed half of the skein to start with. Luckily on the first try I got what I wanted:

So I had half a skein left to play with. I decided to make it an experiment in repeatable colorways and try to dye the second half exactly the same:

So close! Definitely within the tolerance of a dye lot. So that made me happy.

I also decided to make this an experiment in dye sequence. What I did was for the first half I started with a small skein and dyed that. For the second half I wound the skein into a larger circle and dyed it exactly the same. Everything else was a constant – the only variable being the size of the skein dyed. (my high school physics teacher would be proud of my use of the sciency-lingo there). So then of course I needed to knit some test socks.

Sock 1 – small skein:

Meh. The colors are pretty but the pooling not so much. The heel flap made me swoon, though:

So then I decreased an extra 4 stitches in the foot just to see what would happen:

Me likey.


Sock 2 – large skein:

Ooooooh shiny!!! It made stripes! Not like perfect Parisian stripes but fun swirly stripes!

It has a pretty heel, too.

I don’t know what will happen on the foot b/c I’m still knitting it but so far, so good. The pattern is the Dublin Bay Socks (Rav link here) – I figured that the lace panels on the sides would keep me from screaming with boredom but wouldn’t break up the color repeats too much….

I like my fraternal socks. I’m calling them the Oresund Socks after the strait that seperates Copenhagen from Malmo.

And because I liked the second one more I dyed all of the Copenhagen yarn for the shop the same way I dyed the second one. Obviously individual results will vary with gauge and pattern and all that but still…did I mention that there is another 3 skeins of Copenhagen available now at Destination Yarn?