Meet Exhibit A — the highly acclaimed, highly coveted sock yarn. Her name is Opal.
So after knitting a few pairs, I thought I had gathered enough experience to splurge for a pair of Opal socks. You know, just to see what it’s like. So I bought Exhibit A, pulled out a few yards of the yarn, saw that it had two repeating segments, and pondered: “Hm, self patterning. That should be interesting.” 
I went about my usual routine - you know, the Sz 0 toothpicks and 60sts for my toe-ups, and knit knit knit. Holy crap. The stockinette looks like barf. Okay.. since it’s so crazy looking, might as well throw in a Chevron pattern to see if that helps any. Woah.. more barf. Okay.. maybe.. ribbing would help - you know, conceal the color changes. Knit knit knit.. ah shit, that trick is for self-striping socks. Duh. Then I thought: “Must be the toe-ups. It’s screwing with the patterning. Oh man.. does that mean I gotta do ‘em top down?” So, CO 60 sts and knit a few rows just to see if any pattern emerges. Do you see any? Well, yea, neither do I. Self-patterning my ass. Is there some kind of a magical CO # that I’m missing? Shoulda gone with the Opal Uni’s instead. Bleh.
