Colorplay with Ingrid's Blues

Not long ago I fell in love with the colorway, Ingrid's Blues, from Claudia Hand Painted yarns, so I purchased four skeins from a fellow Raveler. The yarn made the trip from Minnesota to Boston twice (which is another story) and when I finally got it in my hot little hands I decided to make the basket check socks featured on the cover of Little Box of Socks by Charlene Schurch and Beth Parrott. Here they are:

(The sock on the left has not yet been washed & blocked so the color is brighter.)

And here's a close-up up the bird's eye slip-stitch heel.

And, a comparison of the skein and the knitted fabrics.

My reaction to the final product was only tepid as the colors seemed muddy to my eye. So, for a little fun, I decided to do some swatching to see if I could come up with a color combination that enhanced the colorway once it was knitted up. Here's what I have so far (shown during a rare moment of sunlight).

In the picture below it is combined with Gold Dynasty cashmere yarn from Zen Yarn Garden. The bottom is plain gold, the next section shows the two yarns held together, next is a section of alternating rows of gold and Ingrid's Blues, and finally, a section of just Ingrid's Blues alone. To me, the addition of the gold causes Ingrid's Blues to lose its essential color qualities that make it so appealing in the skein.

I also tried adding a brown, Autumn Leaves from Destination Yarn. I like the brown by itself, but combined with Ingrid's Blues it makes the colorway even less eye-catching.

I also tried adding Baby Ull in Lagoon and that seemed to really pop the colorway! You can see the alternating rows on the bottom and then the two-tone lattice stitch as described in Margaret Radcliffe's Essential Guide to Color Knitting (a really useful resource).

Maybe it's just because blue happens to be my favorite color that I like this particular color combination, but I do think I like it better than Ingrid's Blues alone. What do you think?

I'm not sure if I can bring myself to frog the socks and make them again with the Lagoon -- I'm not much of a frogger. I might make a second pair of the socks using these two yarns, but more than likely I will be moving on to other projects that are calling my name!