these socks were finished ages ago, back in june. they were never properly documented because of my unplug and various other stuff. many many many requests have come back for the pattern i used, but frankly it’s a kludge of many patterns which i will document for you here. i really liked the lace pattern of hedera, (which is a top-down sock) but i wanted to do toe-up knee highs. when you knit them top-down the lace pattern “arrows” point toward the toe and i wanted that same look. so i redesigned the lace pattern for the sock and with cookie‘s permission i am posting the “almost exact opposite of hedera” stitch pattern here below:

i was inspired by the sodera sock mod of hedera, but i wanted a more traditional looking toe-up gusset. i also am a huge fan of the simplicity and look of the magic cast on for toe-up socks. so the “instructions” go a little like this:

1. cast on with magic cast on 16 x 16 (16 on each side of the magic cast on, total 32 stitches) or fewer on each side if you want a longer, pointier toe. increase every other row as described in the magic cast on technique until you have 60 stitches. i knit using magic loop on a 2.5mm addi turbo circular, but you can use dpn’s or two circulars if you prefer.

2. knit foot as for sodera socks, but substitute the chart above.

3. when you are about 3.5 [<– edited to correct this] inches away from the length of your foot, start the gusset increases as described in baudelaire, following the 60 stitch size (smallest). continue and then follow the heel pattern from baudelaire.

4. for the leg of the pattern and cuff follow sodera but stay with the chart pictured here above.

5. choose a nice colored ribbon (i usually wear one that is bright blue, shocking i know, blue and black, who could have guessed that from me?) and use some flat elastic (sold as underwear elastic) in the cuff as described in sodera.

these are a long project but work wonderfully in dark solid colored yarn. i used an inexpensive black superwash sock yarn that came in 100 gram skeins (mondial ciao), but i really wanted to use regia silk. none of the local yarn stores had more than two 50 gram skeins of black regia silk from the same dye lot. one sock used 62 grams and the other 63, for a total of 125 grams. i wear them quite often as i tend to wear black knee-length skirts almost as often as jeans. the ravelry link for this project is here and all the project photos are here. Viel Spass!