RSC #6 20125

Leftover yarn: 35g Specs: 6” cuff/9” foot

I named this pattern ‘Split the difference’ because I knit the eyes as well as the rivers (that represent the splits in the bark) in the grey as aposed to the magenta suggested in the pattern.

I really felt excited about this pattern from the minute I first laid my knitterly eyes on it and I mastered the German cast on at last yay!!!

I did not pick the magenta for the eyes though, I thought that the grey should be the star as it has more contrast in that silvery grey would stand out much better in BOTH the eyes and rivers so that is what I set out to do!

Maybe I was lucky, straight away it worked out really well and it behaved itself according to my rules:)

I think as long as you want it to be evenly repeated the keep to the same set of our own rules or you might get in a muddle. The other thing you may want to look out for is not stacking your rivers and eyes, the pattern tells you how to get around this. Also the more groups of yarn overs the more yarn used so keep this in mind :)

I cast on for the XLarge rib then decreased down to 60sts. and continued the rest of the sock for the Large size.
I wound my yarn accidentally in the reverse direction to the pattern instructions, whoops! As it turned out it worked for my plans! I think it does matter which way round and also which colour you need to highlight in the rivers and eyes so I think its worth taking time out and swatching all your ideas!

I Cast on 68sts.
I decreased to 60sts. for the main body of the sock.

1. I started knitting stockinette stitch and as soon as I hit the darker of greys (in my skein) I knit an eye.

2. In the following round I knit the lighter grey, which placed itself nicely over the dark grey eye (dropping all the yarn overs as set) highlighting and exaggerating them nicely!

3. On the following round the reds were then in play and I knit all the lighter grey that was placed over the eye (about 4 or 5 sts) THEN purled all other remaining light grey sts to form a line river stitches.

I continued this way throughout the leg continued in the same way after the heel section making sure that as soon as I came to the dark grey it became an eye and the rest followed quite nicely repeating itself as it did on the leg.

The toe:

I reversed the toe shaping on the second sock so that it was a mirror image of the first meaning that I started off each quarter with an ssk instead of ending with a k2tog.

Toe point:
I decreased down to 8 sts. instead of 4 sts. to give a less pointy tip :)