Anastasia on a Misty Night!

Anastasia knee socks
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

I love finishing projects. There are times when I get bogged down and I just have to do something small and quick in order to get something DONE. Completion makes my day.

So, now my day is awesome! I finished the last eight rows of 2x2 ribbing on my Anastasia knee socks and bound off. I think I might have bound off knitwise on the first sock, and purlwise on the second, but right now I'm not going to think about it!! I put them on and then fiddled around trying to get a good picture with my camera. It's harder than it sounds like, getting angles and flash and focus to come together. My poor little remote died on me and it makes it that much trickier. Right now I'm focusing on a chair, hitting the "10-second-delay" and running to swap myself in for the chair. Woo.

The details:
I did not use a short-row toe, but rather Judy's Magic Cast-on. I'll be trying a short-row toe soon for a Rockin' Sock Club sock, but I've really enjoyed Judy's and I'm happy I used it here. I also took the reinforced heel used in Knitty.com's Widdershins sock, and a couple of other versions of the same heel I found elsewhere, and recalculated it for a 60-stitch sock (50 heel sts after gusset). I didn't do it quite right, but knew there might be a gap and when I finished the heel I simply picked up a stitch in-between my heel and instep on both sides and knit it together with the following stitch. Viola! No gap.

Calf decreasing
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

Starting mid-calf I put in one stitch in each pattern-section (between eyelets). That's four stitches in a round and approximately 1/2" increase in circumference. I did that three total times, at the end of the last three pattern repeats. Each pattern repeat goes up the leg 2" so it was a nice gradual increase.

I brought 1x1 twisted ribbing down into the spiral, giving the ribbing a saw-tooth transition against the spiral. It looks VERY nice. Then I ran out of yarn. At that point I switched over to Koigu KPPPM and did another few rows in the 1x1 ribbing.

Project Mosaic
Originally uploaded by Project Pictures

To give the top a little extra bounce, I switched to 2x2 ribbing. I decrease two stitches every four rows, making for a pretty little pattern on the back of the calf. This countering of the earlier increases makes for a very shapely and well-fitting sock.

1. Anastasia knee socks, 2. Another pose, 3. Calf decreases, 4. Original Sock, 5. Foot detail, 6. Twisted rib cuff, 7. Hand-dyed "Misty Night", 8. Another glamour shot, 9. Knit Picks Bare Yarn sock-block