FO: Toe-up knee-highs

I can finally say I've finished a pair of socks.

I feel confident that my next pair will be more beautiful, though these are certainly functional!!

These languished for the entire summer after I made good progress during my one giant lecture last academic year. I came back to them recently thinking that I would just frog the first sock back to the length of the second sock, since it was 75% finished, but when I looked more closely at them again and tried on the first one I thought, nah, I'll just go for it.

I'm not really into the pink any more and it looks too busy for my liking, but this yarn is nice and stretchy - Patons - and I bought it on a two for one sale, I think, so I wanted to use one ball per sock, which is pretty much what I did. Size 0 needles. I used Wendy's toe-up sock pattern, and changed it just a little to do a three stitch wide faux cable at the back, mirrored ones, so it looks a bit like a seam which kept these slightly more interesting.

So for the center back 12 sts:

p2, k3, p2, k3, p2 for three rows

p2, sl1, k2, p2, k2, sl 1 for two rows

p2, holding slipped stitch to the front, k2, k slipped st, p2, work over next 2 k sts to k slipped stitch, then without dropping it (because 2 other k sts are in the way) k the 2 stitches coming up next, and drop that slipped st off when you come to it, having already knit it, p2.

I'm sure there's a better way to explain that, but when you're working it it makes sense. Repeat these six rows until the sock is as tall as you like and then do a couple of inches of k1p1 rib.

My next pair will be shorter and have a more interesting pattern. And also I learned that it's a pretty good idea to increase a few sts as you progress up a calf, since the knitting needs to cover more ground. Oops. Hindsight is 20/20, right?