10/17/23
I have spoiled myself with hand knitted socks and hardly ever wear anything else on my feet. I have plenty of them in all kinds of crazy colors, but I lack the basic earth tones. My yarn stash is gigantic and the sock yarn alone fills 2 large bins. I purchased this particular yarn at a very charming yarn shop called The Fold, which, unfortunately, has recently closed down. In mid-to late summer the shop owner had a huge going-out-of-business sale on everything. Among other things I have bought several skeins of this yarn in different colors - all basic earth tones, such as gray, beige, black, navy, etc. The yarn is strong, yet very pleasant to handle. Great, no-nonsense sock yarn.

I am not using any pattern. I have knitted plenty of socks in my life and - unless i want to use some fancy stitch - I can pretty much knit a pair of socks blindfolded! LOL! This one is going to be constructed of simple 2x2 rib with a short row heel. I will use a reinforcement yarn for the heel and toes.

Cast on 73 stitches using size 2.5 needles - 1 extra stitch for joining in the round. Then switched to size 1.5 and continue in 2x2 ribbing till the leg was long enough - in this case 6” from the cast-on.
Did a shallow - slightly under 1” tall - heel flap on 1/2 of the stitches (36) using the slipped stitch “eye of the partridge” pattern to strengthen this part of the socks. At the time of starting the flap I also started small gussets, which eventually added 8 stitches to each side, that is 16 stitches to the top of the foot.
I used a reinforcement wool for the short row heel. The heel was started on 36 stitches and continued till 12 stitches were left between the short row turns - 12 +12 + 12 = 36.
After the first part of the heel was done I did 2 full rounds all around (without the reinforcement yarn) to combine the wraps and to set the base for the second set of short rows.
After completing the heel (somehow I ended up with 89 stitches, that is 1 extra) I knitted 4 rounds all around and then started decreasing the gussets on every other round.
I decreased to 67 stitches for the foot and continued with the 2x2 ribbing on the top and plain stockinette on the sole till it was time to decrease for the toes.
Toes - increased 1 stitch before toes to have an even number of 68. 34/34 (top/bottom). Kept 4 stitches intact b/w decreases.
Decreased every other row till had 18/18, then decreased every row till had 10/10.
Grafted using my favorite Kitchener method on the needles.
Used 44 g of yarn (not counting the reinforcement wool) for the first sock. This means i will have quite a bit left over after I am done with the second sock.

11/03/23
Just finished! Still have to weave in the ends. Have 14 g of yarn left. Will post pictures tomorrow. Half way through the heel on the second sock I ran out of the reinforcement yarn and had to continue with a different one. Oh well. I don’t think anyone will ever notice.