Every year I try to start knitting and finish a hat or scarf or something and then stop. This year I wanted to try something with some more shape. I didn’t follow any pattern, but I read about different ways to do heels and toes. I found the various “sock recipes” you can find online to be helpful, like this one from Vickie Howell.

I ended up working cuff down: a few inches of ribbing with a 9” circumference (48 stitches), a heel flap, what I think is a French heel or similar, join and decrease the gusset back to 48 stitches, the foot until it fit my feet, decrease for the toe, then Kirchner stitch to finish the toe.

I did the heel flap in plain stockinette; most patterns recommend a textured stitch to improve durability, but I plan on wearing these around the house and not often in shoes.

I used the magic loop method, and got a bit turned around after finishing the heel, but figured out a way to proceed. I’m sure there’s lots of ways to handle socks on a magic loop.

They are comfortable! I like the self-striping yarn. No one believes me, but I intentionally did not start the socks at the same place in the striping.

Imperfections

• I used my smallest needle (US 3/3.25mm), but I think the stretchiness and durability would benefit from a smaller needle and tighter gauge. After wearing the socks a few times they are pretty stretched out.
• I had problems while decreasing the gusset: on one side of one sock I consistently decreased on the wrong side of my stitch marker so the decrease line goes the wrong direction; on one side of the other sock I used a decrease that leans the wrong way so it looks a bit messy.