Two Toe Tuesday: Brother Socks

Really it's late Monday as I write this, but "Two Toe Tuesday" is much catchier than "Sad Sock Monday" so I'm post-dating the post! I started them this weekend, and I'm not sad about them at all.

I have three older brothers. In our family, we draw names for holiday gift giving, but the brother who is closest in age to me is always angling for a side-gift arrangement, or the rigging of the name drawing. He may try to defend himself later in the comments, but he's largely responsible for the Christmas my mother returned a large portion of our gifts because there was some detectable snooping. Depending on how these socks turn out they will likely go to him, drawing or not, and I may attempt socks for the other two brothers as well, although men-feet It's hard for me to judge the size of the socks (they seem gigantic compared to my relatively dainty size 9 feet), but the sock recipe should work out. Right? Right?

The yarn itself is lovely, it's XXL Duet Sock Yarn. I've started toe-up so that I can knit as high as possible, and if there's enough of the toe-heel yarn I'll add some of it to the top. The sock recipe is pieced together from Sensational Knitted Socks, using my brother's alleged shoe size and gauge measured from the Sailor Girl Socks which use the same type of yarn. It's a simple 2 x 2 rib on top, and stockinette on the bottom. The ribbing should be stretchy enough to cover up any sizing issues, but it won't compete with the lovely striping. This is the first time that I've used anything other than a short row toe for toe-up socks, and I think that I prefer the Simple Toe from SKS to the short row. I have a hard time figuring out which was the last wrapped stitch on the short row heel, it's a lot easier for me to see the increases and just increase every row. Plus, I like the neat lines that develop between the increases.

I really like to knit two socks at once using the Magic Loop, although it's really fiddley at the start. Instead of messing with it, especially on toe-up socks, I worked the toes & a few rows of pattern individually and then put them both on one long Addi Lace needle. Now they're perfect for the car (or waiting for Wilco to go on, as I will be on Tues. evening). One issue I had with two socks at once with Sailor Girl was that I didn't mind the yarn carefully enough and it got very twisted at the end. This time, I'm using two separate balls of yarn instead of one ball knit from both ends. So far, so good.