Recent Socks

OK, this time I added the photos first, hoping to get them inside the text. That didn't happen, so I better do some reading up on blogging so I can make posts that look as nicely laid out as everyone else's. This sock is from a new-to-me sock yarn and it's been so long since I wound the yarn I can't even find the ball bands. Bad Sande. Anyway, the cuffs are Horseshoe Lace


done on US3 (3.25mm) needles. My shoes have a high heel, so I've learned to leave a few rows of plain knitting between bottom of lace and beginning of heel flap. I've come to find that a plain garter stitch heel flap wears better and looks better longer on my socks than any of the slipped stitch heels. I like that Dutch square heel, so that's what I use on all of my socks (for a long time now). Since this is "regular" fingering wt sock yarn, I did change needles - size 0 for the heel flap and then up to size 1s for the foot. I used my brand new KnitPicks Classic circulars for these and the glare from the needles almost blinded me. :) That was the only thing I didn't like; I loved the points and the cables.
And here is the other pair of socks I finished in October - I call these slouch socks and, believe it or not, I made up the "pattern" myself. Just tonight I was cruising thru back issues of MagKnit online and found a very similar sock (well, the cuffs were similar) in the April 2006 issue. Honest, I didn't copy that pattern. :) Just a serendipitous accident. This yarn is KnitPicks Parade in the Gumball colorway. All I did to make the "slouch" cuff was to knit the color stripes and purl the spotted stripes, then turned the whole sock inside out on the needles to do heel and foot. These socks were knit on 3.25mm needles except for the heel flap. I did them on a smaller needle.

I tried something new on this sock, too. When I knit across for the first row of the heel flap, I did a wrap and turn with the next st (on the instep needle) on both ends of the flap. Then, after the flap was finished and I picked up the gusset sts, I knit that wrap with the first (and last) instep stitch. This is yet another "invisible" gusset corner and much, much easier than my previous method of picking up a st in the row below on first (and last) instep st. Try it, you may like it, too. :)
There doesn't seem to be any way to rearrange the photos once they are in the text/compose box. I'd sure appreciate one of you experienced bloggers letting me in on the secret of wrapping the text around the photos. And how to add buttons to the side bar of the blog. I'm sure there are other things I need to know, too, so all advice greatly appreciated.