Autumn Socks

I like variegated yarn. I like it a lot. But it's usually when it's still in the skein that it's so appealing to me. Once I start to knit with it, I find it's not so pretty after all. There must be a trick to making it look as attractive in the project as it is in the skein. I'm wondering if that has to do with one of two things... or maybe both. The first may have to do with the actual stitch pattern. By that I mean some yarns fight with a pattern stitch and vise versa. A bobbly stitch does not look good in a variegated yarn. But if you do a plain stockinette stitch it will "pool" more often than not. And that's just plain ugly or homemade looking. The key is to find out the color repeat and find a project that corresponds to the number of stitches you have for a round or a row. If you can get the yarn to "stripe", you've won. I think I won.