I love the Paton stretch sock yarn and I love wearing the socks. I only have one pair of socks I like as much, a Smartwool sport sock that fits as well as the socks I make for myself.
In the socks I’ve done so far, I’ve got two modified versions of the sweet tomato heel and a short row heel using the sweet tomato stitch pickup technique. This time I’m going to work a modified version of the afterthought heel. The single row of black yarn near the needles is where the heel will be inserted.
After three pair of socks, I think I’ve found my rhythm . . . sort of. The trick is to wear glasses strong enough for me to see the stitches. I’m no longer dropping stitches or inadvertently adding stitches. Who knew? Go me!
I’ve refined the pattern I’m using (toe up sock). My wedge toe has more of a pleasing curve (magic cast on 40 stitches, increase every row for 4 rows, every other row 2x and every 4th row 1x for a total of 68 stitches). Now that I’ve got the technique down and have wised up and started wearing strong glasses things are coming together nicely. I just need to test drive this heel technique to see which one works best for me (least number of holes and fits the best).
Because my feet are so short I can get a whole pair of socks out of a single skein of sock yarn if I don’t need tall socks. If you discount the ~30 hours it takes to make a pair of socks, these are a bargain at about $6 a pair. If I want the socks taller than a 3″ crew, I need just a touch more yarn, thus the black toes, heels and cuff.
This latest pair of socks show I can’t seem to get the quality of work paired with the pattern matching. Admittedly, this yarn is the left over from the very first pair of socks, so I’m cutting myself all kinds of slack. As I seldom leave the farm, the likelihood of anyone but me noticing the pattern doesn’t match is pretty darn small. And if they do notice, I’m pretty certain I won’t care.