Birthday socks

Finally finished, and not a moment too soon! These socks have been a while coming, and I need to get them in the mail today for my sister-in-law's birthday.


Yarn: Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock, colourway Bucks Bar
Needles: 2.25 mm bamboo dpns
Pattern: toe-up, loosely based on Widdershins from Knitty.

I basically followed the patten for the heel and toe methods, but increased the numer of stitches to 76 (which required a bit of number-juggling to figure out the heel proportions), and added the cable rib pattern on the leg. I do love little 2-stitch cables. Oh, and I used the stretchy sewn bind-off, with instructions here.


This is my first time knitting with Lorna's yarn, and now I understand why it is so popular. It's such a lovely, springy texture and the gauge suits my preferences nicely. The yardage is also great. These are pretty big socks, and I had lots left over. I could certinly get a pair of men's socks out of two skeins. I will definitely buy it again.

It's also my first toe-up pair, and while I no longer feel intimidated by it, I don't think that this is going to become my favourite method. It just doesn't feel natural to me, as I've become so used to top-down that I hardly have to think about it. I tried a couple of different heels before I settled on this one - all involving a heel flap of some sort - and I still like this one, which is basically just a top-down heel flap reverse-engineered to work backwards. The sewn bind-off looks great on the feet, but it kind of ruffles and looks a bit odd on the socks when they are off the feet.

Anyway, off to the post office to get these in the mail. I can't wait until we're living closer to family, and I don't have to rely on the oh-so-unpredictable Canada Post to do all of my gift deliveries!