St. Paul Socks

I haven't been doing a whole lot of knitting lately, just a few pairs of socks. Two pairs for me, one for mom. Right now I'm in a waning phase, and that's OK, the waxing will happen again too. I don't see the point in forcing it.



St. Paul socks (because that's where I bought the yarn)
Yarn: Lana Grossa #1004
I'll use the leftover yarn to make a matching
pair, in toddler size, for my niece Katie


I changed a few things on this sock, deviating from my standard pattern.

First, I decided that I prefer the fit of a short row heel, specifically the "no wrap, no gap" heel from Queen Kahuna's Crazy Toes and Heels. I've tried a few different short row heels (Priscilla Gibson-Roberts, Charlene Schurch, Wendy Johnson, a couple others) and they all work fine, but this one makes the most invisible line slashing across the heel -- for me. It's fiddly but the end result is worth it. I'll miss making heel flap heels, they are my favorite heel to knit, but this is something I wear on my feet where comfort is paramount. However, I won't rule out ever using a heel flap heel in the future.

The second change is the toe. I've been wearing handknit socks for about six years now and I've noticed the most wear happens where the four decrease columns line up on the sides in the toe area. The yarn stretches and wears thin there before anywhere else on my socks. So for this sock I closed the toe up like the top of a hat, spacing out the decreases, to see if the yarn there will last longer.

And finally I continued the K1P1 ribbing down the instep stitches until they reached the toe, which isn't something I normally bother to do (usually I stop the ribbing before the heel). Oh, I also started with the tubular cast-on, my very favorite.