Overall, I like the pattern. It fits the foot beautifully. I changed up the toe called for in the pattern for the garter toe from her book. I particularly loved the reinforced heel -- easy and fun to knit.

My only complaint is that I don’t like the yarn patterns/colors too much, and the feel of the yarn isn’t as soft as, say, the Malabrigo Sock or even the Zauberball I’ve used recently and would recommend more highly. But my sister picked out the colorway, and the socks are for her, and since she’s pleased with the self-stripiness and the colors, I must be nice about it.

Project Details

I cast on 16 stitches per needle and made the garter toe from New Pathways for Sock Knitters: Book One.

The garter toe is fun to knit, very thick and soft, and should be very durable, but I’m not sure how attractive it is with this yarn. I switched from the Upstream master to the Dove - Upstream to get some purling pattern on the sock in an effort to balance the garter toe.

I used Bordhi’s master reinforced heel from the “parts department” of the book, and it is my new favorite heel pattern. Among other heel highlights - no picking up stitches, a thick fabric, and nicely stretchy!

I’ve got 8 stitches/inch rather than the called for 7 in the pattern. Since I changed patterns mid-sock, I adjusted the diamond on the instep/shin pattern on the fly. Initial marker placements were at 15 - 3 - 15 for the start of the Upstream increases and purled row diamond outline.

I ended the sock not as instructed as the pattern, but with the cuff and bind off for the Jeweled Steps. Three repeats of P1 row, K3 rows, followed by Elizabeth Zimmerman’s sewn bind off. Bordhi’s instructions that the tail at the start of the sewn bind off should be 10x the circumference of the sock is too long. Theresa Vinson Stenersen’s suggestion (in her Knitty article on stretchy bind-offs) of 3x is a lot closer and less pulling too!

A=8, B=10, C=9, D=64, E=4.2, F=96, G=32, H=16, I=9, J=9

Potential Refinements for Next Time
Next time I might try Bordhi’s plain heel on the sole and then eye of partridge heel stitch on the back of the foot, but I’d definitely use her master heel again.

New Skills

• Garter Toe

• Arch increases atop the instep.

• Elizabeth Zimmerman’s Sewn Bind Off.

• Duplicate stitch woven ends