I need your input.
The reverse rib "bonnet stripe" idea didn't work, it just didn't make much impact. After 8 rows. Or so. I could have knit a little further, I suppose, but it just wasn't doing it for me. So I ripped back again (for maybe the 6th time? lots of adjustments going on here) and tried cables instead. What do you think?

No, no, I'm not concerned about my foot being on the kitchen counter. That's not what I mean.
I mean the striping, the cables, the sock. Something about it is throwing me off and I can't pinpoint it. I know the cables are a little obscured in the black areas. Does it hold together or shall I rip back again and try something else?
These socks are another case of "project knitting" similar to what I experienced during the Knitting Olympics. I am making them because they are the next step in the dyeing/spinning process. The dyed fiber was not "done" until I spun it. Now that it's spun it's not complete until I knit it. I don't feel this way about all my dyeing or spinning. Some spinning I feel no need to knit up; the spinning was the process and once spun, that process, that journey, is complete. I haven't dyed enough fiber to feel the same; I don't have a lot of fiber so I dye to spin.
Anyway, I'm not knitting these socks because I want a pair of striped socks (or even a pair of socks, necessarily, though it's a nice bonus). I'm knitting them to complete the journey begun with an idea.
...
Maybe I don't like the stripes. Though they're cool. They're just a lot wider than I expected. And if I continue the experiment with the other 4 oz and spin a 3 ply the usual, non-navajo-plied way, then the stripes will be even longer. It's interesting. The stripes look so similar to how they looked in the roaster: mostly red and black with a bit of white/pink/grey. I could probably use this information and get a different kind of striping to happen, no?