Here is one pair of finished socks, which show some of the effects you can get with this method: spirals, vertical stripes, and a moire effect.

These socks also have color variations within the stripe: each vertical stripe is made up of two colors alternating, one each row.

The socks are actually pretty simple. First, you calculate the exact length of a row, by swatching the main body of the sock (knit in the round to make sure the gauge is correct). Then, if you wind a skein the exact length of a row, and space-dye it, the colors will line up as you're knitting, giving you a more-or-less vertical stripe.

For these socks, I used a variation: I wound a skein the exact length of TWO rows, so the first six colors are knitted in the first row, the other six colors are knitted in the second row. So there are six colors that "stack" on one another, every other row.

In this photo, the red on the far left stacks on the purple on the far right, the left-hand yellow stacks on the right-hand orange, the left-hand blue stacks on the green in center, and so on around the skein. This skein gives a total of six stripes: red-purple, yellow-orange, blue-green, red-orange, yellow-green, and blue-purple, in that order.

If this skein were one row in length, the colors would come out in exactly the same sequence as on the skein.

If you wind the skein with exactly even tension, and knit the sock with exactly even tension, just as was done on your swatch, you get vertical stripes, as in the center of this photo. However, this is pretty rare and takes a fairly experienced knitter. It's also less interesting.

When the color repeat and the row length differ by one or two stitches, as in the bottom of the swatch, you get a slowly drifting spiral with a lot more visual interest than plain verticals.

If the stitch length is "off" by multiple stitches (2-3 stitches around the sock), then you get a fast spiral, moving around the sock quickly, and narrowing the stripes. (Notice how thin the yellow and red stripes look towards the far right.)

If the stitch length is too far "off", the colors don't stack properly and you get colored static, not stripes. Here, in the center of the sock, the extra stitches for the gusset disrupt the pattern. It doesn't take much to do it, either--being even four or five stitches "off" will do it.

If you start getting static, try increasing or decreasing a few stitches--I found I had to "fudge" the stitch count to get the stripes to line up.

This was interesting: I think I must have wound parts of the skein at different tensions. The stripes start out moving to the right of the sock (top of the photo), then drift leftward (bottom of photo). A rightward drift means the color repeats are just a little shorter than the length of a single row; a leftward drift means the color repeat is just a little longer than the length of a single row.

I actually changed the stitch count a couple times on each sock, to give the stripes more variation. (I stuck the increases/decreases into the back of the sock, so they don't show.)

Finally, a look at different stitch effects. The left side is stockinette stitch, the right is 1x1 ribbing. I personally like the stockinette better--it gives a smoother effect--but of course ribbing is stretchier. Since I made these socks out of a not-terribly-stretchy silk-wool blend, I used 1x1 ribbing for the main body.

Anyway, I hope this has convinced you that space-dyed yarns can be interesting, especially in socks...I hope to knit up a couple more examples, but I really like these rainbow socks.

This trick also works with sweaters, but you'll get static anywhere you have shaping. It might be interesting to combine horizontal stripes (using different colored yarns) in the shaped sections with "ikat" stripes in the unshaped sections...if you try it, send me a photo!

This is my own design. The finished shawl is 68" across, and is a "ring shawl"--fine enough to be drawn through a woman's wedding ring. It contains about 2300 yards of 2-ply yarn,...

...handspun on one of the silver spindles from my travels.

I knitted this shawl to celebrate a return to daily life, after returning from my travels/pilgrimage, and knitted into it the things I felt were essential to a good life. It's a "prayer shawl".

It is a circle, a spiral in eight segments, with eight patterns in each segment. (On the left is shown one full segment.)

In Buddhism, eight represents the Eightfold Path; in Wicca, it represents the Wheel of the Year, the cycle of the seasons as they pass. So the eight-by-eight motif is, as they say, "an auspicious number".

Here are the first four patterns in each segment (leaf, star pattern, flames, ripples).They represent earth, air, fire, and water--the four Elements in balance. In Wicca, the elements symbolize not just the physical world, but also the mental and spiritual worlds. So if earth, air, fire, and water elements are all in balance, the world is as it should be--mind, body, and spirit.

The next two patterns represent light (plain stockinette stitch) and darkness (openwork star pattern). In Wicca, light and dark are not oppositional, but complementary: they follow each other in a cycle, day after day, year after year. Sometimes one is greater, sometimes lesser, but both are always present. The complete victory of one or the other would destroy all life.

So this section is partially about balancing the light and dark in our lives--remembering that joy and sorrow follow one another --but also about remembering that there is dark and light in all of us. To deny the darkness is to destroy the light. So one must accept that there is darkness--and light--in everyone. That prevents us from ever seeing another being as entirely evil (or entirely good). Light and dark, in balance.

The next-to-last pattern, which is a bit harder to see, is an AIDS ribbon, representing "right action". This is not simply activism--though it does include many kinds of activism--but more about "doing the right thing". First and foremost, it's about acting with compassion. Sometimes that means speaking out, and sometimes it means keeping your mouth shut. The essence of it is to act (in a balanced way) to help others and improve the world--not just sometimes but always, even when people drive you crazy.

The final segment is a heart, symbolizing compassion--the beginning and end of all things.

Getting metaphorical, the spiral shawl represents an inwards journey to enlightenment: the four elements in balance, then recognizing the balance between light and dark (good and evil, sorrow and joy). These are all external. The two internal values are action--the bridge between the outer and the inner--and then, finally, at the very end, the center--compassion. That we come to the center at the end, on the edge of the shawl, closes the Wheel of Life, beginning the cycle anew.

I spent a lot of time meditating on the components and values of "a good life" during the 15 months and 350+ hours I worked on the shawl....It is indeed a "prayer shawl", in every sense. I hope you've enjoyed the tour.

The very beginning of the shawl...back where we started. I'm starting a new design tomorrow.

(It never stops, does it?)