Faux Fair Isle Socks

I finished these socks last night.

They're the 8th pair I've knit this year.

And again, they're identical twins!

They were easy to twin except when I was finishing the toe of the second sock, I was also visiting with some family members and enthusiastically cast off and grafted the toe. I then realized the toe did not match that of the first sock so I had to pick out the woven-in tail, pick out the grafting and frogged back to before the decreases.  Once back on track I capably finished the second sock to match the first. I did a Russian join where I had to re-attach the yarn to finish the toe.

You can see a little 'fluff' on my right toe near where the join is which I will reinforce with some duplicate stitch, just to be sure.

These are for me as I wear a lot of black in the winter.

Here are the deets:
- 68 sts
- 2 x 2 ribbing for 7"
- then 1" of stocking stitch before starting the 'eye of partridge' reinforced heel flap
- stocking stitch foot
- for the toe: decreases every other round down to 32 sts (16 on each magic loop needle)
- then decreases every round to 16 sts (8 on each needle)
- graft (kitchener) the 8 sts

I immediately started another pair of socks with Lang Jawoll Color Aktion yarn from my stash. I didn't realize there were so many rich colours until I saw the yarn in natural light this morning - brown, rust, orange, white, grey, purple. There are far too many colours to do any kind of slipped-stitch pattern - my original intention and attempt. It just wouldn't show.

I started by casting on 68 sts in a tubular cast on.  After trying a 4-stitch slipped-stitch pattern and realizing it just wasn't going to be worth the trouble, I ripped it back to the 2 x 2 ribbed cuff and just switched to a 3 x 1 ribbing for the leg which I'll continue for the instep.

I have some more sewing to do which I'll try to work in over the next couple of days. I'll be using some nifty fabric I purchased on my first ever visit to the Len's Mill Store in Guelph on Tuesday. I wasn't that impressed with their selection of yarn (mostly commercial acrylic or acrylic blend) nor the prices, so instead, spent most of my time looking at fabric. They were in the middle of reorganizing that department so there really was no rhyme nor reason to it. I did, however, find two coordinating fabrics for another set of travel accouterments and I've set a deadline of this Sunday to finish the projects.  All will be revealed soon.