My first handspun socks! Also, my first toe-up socks. They’re not perfect but I’m still super proud of them.

My handspun sock yarn wasn’t very elastic, unfortunately. In trying to make them durable, I might have went overboard with the twist.

I always do standard 64 stitch top-down socks on size 2 DPNs. I had to change a few things with these, but I’m not sure if was because of the toe-up thing or my sock yarn.

I used method 2 of this pattern to CO the toes. I increased up to 60 stitches. Knitted the foot until it was a total of 6.5”, then did the heel. After the heel, I decreased a total of 8 stitches (2 stitches each row with a plain row in between each), ending up with 56 stitches. Then I knitted about 2-2.5” plain before doing 10 rows of ribbing.

Having never done toe-up socks before, I wasn’t sure how the heel was going to work. As it is, it’s pretty loose because I shouldn’t have made the foot quite as long. If I had made the foot an inch shorter, I think the heel would have fit properly in the right place. (Also, I probably shouldn’t have increased up to the pattern’s stitch count at the heel, since I knew the socks were turning out too big.)

So overall the socks are a little baggy around the foot and heel, but the fit is still pretty good. I was pleasantly surprised by how far the yarn went, and I actually had about 20 yards left so I could have made them a bit longer. (But I like having leftovers for my scrap blanket!)

Pair #4 of 6 for myself in 2015.