Am using this pattern and this delightfully gaudy yarn to try out 2-socks-at-once technique. Started out with 2-on-1-needle, magic loop-style, and didn’t enjoy the process at all … no trouble doing it, but found the whole process needlessly fiddly. Frogged, started over, and am finding the 2-on-2-circs approach to be far more practical and fun.

Update: Heels done and downhill to the toes! This no-picking-up-stitches heel is now my official favourite … such a sensible and practical re-engineering of the traditional method! :-)

Update: Got stuck AFTER the heels, because recommencing working in the round resulted in a hole at each side of the sock … the heel instructions in the pattern require knitting an extra row on the heel to get properly oriented to start working in the round again, which creates a jog in the row alignment of front and back and therefore the holes. No mention of this problem in the notes of any of the other Ravelry members who made this pattern. Tried different hole-avoidance methods (slipping first and last stitches on final heel row, picking up stitches) and still ended up with holes of varying sizes. Finally a little research turned up another pattern using a similar heel but with a slightly different finish that worked!

Heel hole solution: end Temptation sock with row 3 of the heel pattern instead of row 2 and start working sock in the round after the last SSK with one extra stitch still left on the heel (34 heel stitches left in medium size). Once the first row of instep stitches has been knitted and the heel stitches reached, knit the first two heel stitches together … this “replaces” the last purl 2 together that would have been in the final row 2 of the heel and brings the heel stitch count for medium size down to the correct 33. And NO HOLES!

That helpful sock pattern is pretty cool in its own right and I shall have to make it one day: Gusset-Heel Gansey Sock.

Edited to add: FINISHED!!! Love how heel fits … I’ll be substituting this method into future sock patterns that I work.

Further update (Sept.): The trouble with finishing wool socks in warm weather is that you have to wait a while before roadtesting. Today was cool enough so the socks got to experience the walking/trainriding combination that gets me from home to my hairdresser in another quadrant of the city (plus a side walking trip to the LYS that’s up there), in combination with a pair of fairly new shoes. They wore well … only a very slight fuzzing at the heel, which is only to be expected with my tough’n’calloused heel skin combined with the still-stiff leather of the shoes. And I think I should go down to a 2.25mm next time I use this yarn (something I’ve already gone to for other socks knit using this pattern). Now all they have to do is survive their first laundering (and I’ve no worries about that)