MBC> It seems strange as if insttead of making your own pattern MBC> you knit By order as if painting bu numbers ?????
It's a different sort of intent. I've done colorwork on socks before, and it's a pain to work with multiple colors of yarn at that small a scale. Working with self-striping yarns produces an interesting colored sock without all that complicated effort.
There's a place for complicated and involved knitting, and there's a place for simple knitting where the most complicated thing you have to do is count rounds.
Charlton