Working away at the camo tee.  The striping has settled down somewhat:

Unfortunately, the need to keep precise tension in unstretchy cotton is tiring on my hands, and when my hands get tired the gauge (and in this case the flash ratio) wanders.  I find flash pieces and self-stripers to be easier in forgiving and somewhat self-correcting wool.  So to ward off fatigue, I’ve been alternating projects, working a pair of socks at the same time. 

Now the socks themselves are nothing special at all, being plain old stockinette with my standard figure-8 cast on toe and short rowed heel, but the colors of the sock yarn I’m using are particularly pleasing, and given the appearance of the skein – quite a surprise:

For the record this is Zitron’s Trekking XXL, color number 100.  It’s marked as 75% superwash wool, 25% polyamide nylon, at 420m for 100g (2.5 oz, 459 yards).  It’s very similar to the Skacel yarn of the same name, and to an older Socka yarn I remember using yearsandyears ago.  The striping effect here is serendipity, caused by a confluence of color change among the yarn’s four constituent, individually shading plies. 

I’ve used yarns that look like this before and had mixed results.  The Socka pair was a minor disappointment.  I bought two identical looking skiens of the same color number, in vivid fall reds, oranges, greens, and browns.  One striped like the pair above.  The other remained somewhat muddy, with no clear color sectioning because the tweedy bits never quite aligned.  I note that since just before the heel this skein has calmed down somewhat.  I’m hoping that it gets more demonstrative again on the ankle, and that the second sock (it’s a two-sock size ball) while not an identical match to the first, will display a similarly cheerful stripe effect.  From the size of yellow-red blob that’s peeking out just over the "TR" on the label, I supect it will.