These socks are primarily based on the KnitFreedom faux-heel-flap pattern. The only element of the Ugly-Duckling Socks pattern that I used was the mosaic stitch pattern chart.

Working 2-at-a-time by Magic Loop I cast on 24 stitches of the MC using Judy’s Magic Cast-On and increased the toe until I had 68 stitches total (34 on the instep needle and 34 on the heel needle). This is 4 more stitches than I normally use for this size, but I wanted to allow for the reduced stretch that would be afforded by the mosaic stitch pattern.) I then moved the first and last stitch on the heel needle to the instep needle so that there were 32 stitches on the heel needle and 36 on the instep. I worked 2 additional rounds even of the MC before joining the CC and beginning the mosaic stitch pattern. I worked the mosaic stitch pattern on the instep while the sole of the foot I worked in plain stockinette until after the heel was completed, at which point I worked the mosaic pattern all the way around the leg. In order to ensure that the heel turn would occur between 2 MC rounds I started the gusset increases on round 7 of the mosaic pattern. (Round 3 would have also worked, but round 7 fell closer to the appropriate measurement for the size I was making.) I used the eye-of-partridge stitch for the heel flap, worked 14 repeats of the mosaic pattern after the heel and then 8 rounds of 2x2 ribbing in the MC finishing with Jeny’s Surprisingly Stretchy Bind-Off.

I had initially been working the socks 2@at on one 47” circular needle, but once I added the contrast color to the mix, I found I was spending more time untangling myself from all the working yarns than actually knitting, so I separated the socks placing each one on its own circular and worked them one at a time, but more-or-less simultaneously.