Decided I didn’t like the colour combination in this self-striping yarn, so I cut up the skein into blue/purple/beige bits, and beige/green/yellow bits, and ended up with 10 little hand-wound centrepull balls in the blue-purple.
Knit in alternating rows with the slightly duskier purple/beige remnants from the Meilenweit and with marled blue/purple Regia.
I knit the Opal yarn in both directions of the skein, i.e. pulling yarn from the center or from the outside of the balls, whichever way I wanted the colours to go. For instance I combined two balls at the black&white part to get a noticeable 3-row high stripe, to echo the B&W stripe that formed on the short rows of the toe.
Having the yarn in all these little balls allowed me to make the striping pattern run exactly the same on both socks, and to bulk out the Opal with the other 2 yarns to make LONG socks right up to my knees. After the heel, I didn’t always alternate every other row, but knit 2 rows with the same colour sometimes, or used 3 alternating strands to get the effect I wanted. This does make for a slightly bumpier place on the sock surface where the colours were changed at the end of the rows, but I hope to tweak the stitches to eliminate this, and washing and blocking will hopefully do the rest to minimise it.

Cast on 30 st. on crocheted temporary cast-on, knit toe-up TAAT on Addi turbo circs, short-row toe and heel. From about a hand’s breadth above the ankle, I increased 1 st. every 3rd row to accommodate my generous calves = from 60 to 72 st. total.
Started graduated ribbing patterning 3 rows above the last inc., first a K 7, P 1 for 20 rows, then a K3, P1 for 20 rows, ending with 20 rows of K1, P1 ribbing.
Rows 5-16 of this K1, P1 was knitted extra tight (I didn’t have smaller circs to switch to) to assure a snug fit to keep the kneesocks from sliding down with wear, knit last rows looser to make sure cast-off row would be roomy, used JSSBO.
I like them inside-out too, more of a woven tweed-look.

I now still have over 25 places where I have to weave in ends on EACH sock, and I need to even out the st. in places where I changed yarns, block and wash them, but I’m already VERY pleased with the result. It was fun to watch the striping patterns develop as I knit, and decide which colour to add in next.

Leftover bits of the Opal skein plus other yarn(s) will make a pair of striped greenish socks.

FINISHED !!! Took about 4 hrs per sock to tweak stitches and weave in all the ends… Didn’t block on sock blockers (don’t have ‘em), but after washing and spinning, they had a low heat tumble-dry for 30 mins., and then lay flat overnight (with heel sticking up), next morning (still marginally damp), I placed them sideways between two pillows to flatten out last traces of row-change bumps.
Have since watched jogless-stripes tutorial, sth to use for the NEXT project…

They are slowly pushed down while walking when they’re worn under long trousers, will see how they stay up when worn with a skirt = no friction then, just gravity ;)

(months later) Still haven’t worn a skirt, but threaded thin elastic through the cuff tops.
I do not wear these nearly as much as normal-length socks.

(2 years later) Contemplated frogging the top half to have normal length socks, and yarn for another pair. The 2-strand helix and lots of ends though…
Nowadays I’d needle-join them while knitting and have nothing to weave in.
See my ‘Tips, tools, tricks’ project for pics.