Socks from Handspun

I had seen triple-plied socks from three different colors on someone's blog earlier this year. They used bright crayon colors. I liked the effect but wanted something no quite so bright. When we got together to dye in late Spring, I dyed one ounce each of Bluefaced Leicester in blue, pink and yellow, the three rovings here in the foreground. The colors are a bit Easter eggy and I kept telling myself that if I hated the final yarn, I could mute it down in a light black bath.

Twice before I have made socks from triple plied yarns from rainbow dyed rovings. Both times they didn't fare well with wear. For one thing, I spun the singles too thick and I wasn't careful with the washing - it only takes one mistake to ruin all that work. This time I accepted that I was essentially spinning lace weight singles and considered it practice for my newly acquired interest in lace. It took a month to spin and ply.
At the point of knitting, I was stricken with indecision. I couldn't decide if I wanted to do a traditional knit 2, purl 2 rib on the leg or just straight stockinette. I was knitting on them at the retreat and took a straw poll. Hands down, the rib was favored - except for Mim and me. We liked the confetti appearance of the straight stockinette, but I kept knitting the rib since most who favored it talked about the fit. As you can see I actually ended up knitting more than two socks to get my pair.
My socks are done and I couldn't be more pleased. I love the silky feel of Bluefaced Leicester and in spite of not using rib for the leg, they seem to fit just fine. Wear will tell. I don't have a very good scale so wasn't exactly right on my 1 ounce weights. Two of the three bobbins had substantial singles left, which I Navajo plied and inserted as corrugated rib at the top. They are blue jeans perfect and there is no black bath in their future.