Using the MC (Beige) I cast on 14 stitches using Judy’s Magic Cast-On (7 on each needle), leaving a long tail, and knit one round. I knit the next round with the working yarn and the cast-on tail held double except for the center stitch on each needle (which I knit with one strand and carried the second second behind the stitch), bringing the total stitch count up to 26. (I wanted an odd number of stitches on each side for working the mosaic pattern on the instep without having to shift stitches.) I then continued the toe increases as given in the pattern until I reached a total of 70 stitches (35 stitches on the heel needle and 35 on the instep needle). I worked 2 rounds even before beginning the mosaic stitch pattern.

The stitch pattern that I used was Spearhead from Charted Knitting Designs, A Third Treasury of Knitting Patterns by Barbara G. Walker. The pattern is a multiple of 14 stitches plus 3, or just 14 stitches when working continuously in the round. I placed markers after the first 2 and before the last 2 stitches on the instep needle to mark the center 31 stitches for the Spearhead stitch pattern (2 iterations of 14 + 3 stitches). I joined the CC (Cadet Colors) and began the mosaic pattern, working the center 31 stitches of the top of the foot in the mosaic pattern and the remaining instep stitches and the bottom of the foot in stockinette. I began the gusset increases on row 19 of the 2nd repeat of the mosaic pattern to ensure that the heel turn would fall between two rows of the MC. (Rows 3, 7, 11, 15, 23, and 27 would all have also worked, but the foot measurement was closest to being right for beginning the gusset increases at row 19.) The heel turn is basically the same as in the pattern, adjusted for working with 35 stitches instead of 32 on the heel needle, with the heel flap being worked over the center 25 stitches instead of 24. I used eye-of-partridge for the heel flap.

After completing the heel I continued the mosaic stitch on the instep needle while knitting the first 2 rounds plain on the heel needle before beginning the mosaic stitch pattern all the way around the leg. This was to prevent slipping stitches in the mosaic pattern that were just slipped in the last round of the heel. I then removed the markers and shifted the 4 stitches on the outside of the instep markers and the +3 from the mosaic pattern repeat to the heel needle, which placed 2 repeats (28 stitches) of the Spearhead pattern on the front needle and 3 repeats (42 stitches) on the back. After completing the 6th full mosaic pattern repeat I worked the hemmed picot cuff option from the KnitFreedom pattern in the MC.

I began these socks 2@at, moving each sock to its own circular needle once the CC was incorporated, and then moving back to 2@at for the cuff. This gave me the advantage of 2@at to get perfectly matching toes and cuffs while eliminating the tangling that tends to happen when working with multiple colors on two socks at once.