For the lovely German Fish socks I am working on I am using some fine, but sturdy, coarse 75% wool/25% nylon yarn from a German dyer, Tausendschön. I got this and two other colorways from a rav trade a year or so ago. I loved the colors, but wasn't particularly impressed with the texture.
The German Socks natural base color is a fingering weight yarn of the same material mix from (gasp!!!) Red Heart, called Red Heart & Sole. It's got aloe in it. LOL. But red heart? Oh yes, my stranded fascination knows NO bounds. I had to start another stranded project, and it had to be the fish pattern, and I had no other base yarn. I never rav'd this yarn, so it was by accident I found it hidden in my yarn scrap bin when I went scrounging there in desperation.
Really, I feel no shame knitting with Red Heart. A year or two ago that may have been the case, but no more. I mean I love my Sundara socks, but they are knit at a gauge (maybe 6 or 7 stitches to the inch) which insures they are not that sturdy, as far as socks go. This conflict, my liking to knit socks in soft, two-ply merino at a loose gauge, and my liking to knit socks to last forever, has been percolating in the back of my mind for about eight or so months. The last pair of socks I knit for myself took eight months.
Yes, eight months!?!?! I thought it was the color that was stalling the project. That may have contributed to my ennui, but really, my inner utilitarian was stamping her gargantuan, impatient foot to a rhythmic, impatient beat that would only be ignored for so long before it asserted it's rightful place at the front of my consciousness.
My inner utilitarian found a great and happy solution in stranded socks. And it's a serendipitous perk I enjoy knitting them at a tighter gauge than my plain Sundara socks. The other joy is that I can mix all the fanciful multicolored yarn I love to own with a solid base. Stranded knitting gives them the perfect frame within which they can be showcased properly and are made useful. Win-win.
Does the fear that my new-found stranded love is but diaphanous and soon to be a victim of my capriciously evaporative nature come through in my prose?
LOL, gurgley purple prose. I just had to, I had to. Now I'm done. LOL.