June 2024: These lasted nearly 10 years before needing repair! I recently wore them to bed, as I sometimes do, and discovered the next day that the soles had worn out -- holes that I didn’t want to bother darning. So I frogged them to repurpose this lovely yarn.

Inspired by the Dead Simple Lace pattern (and others that look like it), but following the principles in Donna Druchunas’s Craftsy class “Knit Original Toe-up Socks.” Using a version of the lace st patt in the Dead Simple pattern that has 4 k sts between each set of 2 eyelets.

Short-row toe + heel using German double-stitch short-row turn. (Start tutorial at 0:50 to skip preamble.) (Another video from that same person says that when substituting German short rows for w&t, you should work one extra stitch before turning. I can’t decide if that makes sense, and I couldn’t find that instruction anywhere else, so I decided to ignore it and just proceed by turning at the same place where I would for w&t or YO short rows.) (Afternote: I think that instruction is right: work one more stitch before turning. I turned at the “usual” places while working German short rows, and I ended up not working all the stitches as expected. That one extra stitch would have made the difference.)

Used long-tail provisional CO. Worked short rows until I had 14 sts left. At that point, I marked the 2 outer sts of the 14 so I could work a couple of rows across before beginning the next set of short rows (getting longer). (This was something Donna mentioned in a comment in her Craftsy class, so I thought I would try it.) I worked across the row, knitting the double sts together. Then I worked all the way back, purling the double sts together, and worked back to where I was when I marked the sts. Then I proceeded with the increasing short rows: k 1 st beyond marker, turn, work st (double st as per German short rows), work to 1 st past marker, turn… Continue, working 1 st past each double stitch until done short rows.

Cuff: 2x1 ribbing with 2.25 mm needle. BO with JSSBO.