Auntie Debbie (also known as “Uncle Debbie” due to Lily’s inability to remember people’s names) (it seems she’s married to “Uncle Dave” who usually answers to Bryon, although Lily has fully got the hang of the “blame Bryon” culture which Debbie likes to perpetuate, possibly because of the alliteration) gave me some sock yarn recently. One of the balls was pink stripy yarn which I thought would be ideal for Lily.

At Christmas santa gave her some over the knee red and black stripy socks which she seems to like a lot, so I thought some over the knee socks were in order, and as she only has thin legs, I thought a skein intended to make normal-length adult socks should do the deal.

I got this season’s issue of sockupied, partly because I’ve always wondered what it was like (well, since they started publishing it) and also I was attracted by the claim of having instructions for a naive gusset for toe-up socks. I really like to knit socks toe-up. That way, if you are cutting it a bit fine with the yarn, you can adjust the leg length to mean you have 2 socks the same length, OR carry on so that you use up as much of the yarn as possible. The drawback I’ve found is that so far I’m not great at the short row row-end for short row heels, and I haven’t taken the time to work out how to do flappy heels in reverse. Don’t get me wrong, I have the skills and I have the guideline instructions I got from an iKnit workshop with Yarnissima – it’s the number of stitches and how soon up the foot to start that I need to ponder/get a calculator out for. I’m at the point with short row heels that I can knit them without a pattern, so sitting down with a calculator and ruler feels a bit regressive. BUT the real disadvantage to short-row heels is that by themselves, if you have a bit of an arch to your foot, the sock can be a little snug around your heel. Which is where the naive gusset comes in.

So, I looked at these instructions and they make quite a lot of sense, and it was recipe-like enough for me to decide that I could work with it…

These are my plans.

As you can see, I kept it nice and simple. So, the ribs on the foot divide in the middle and for one iteration disappear into the side. Then they stop disappearing into the side which gives the extra stitches for the gusset. Then you work a short row heel. Then, working up the leg, I decreased a stitch each side on each row as I was still creating new stitches every other row in the centre front of the foot.

I carried this on until I had (or so I thought) 40 stitches again, then just did straight 2×2 rib until the leg measured 46cm then did a Russian Bind-off (k2tog, slip stitch back onto left hand needle, continue to the end) – I wanted it to be flexible but not so that the socks will fall down.

Other than having 44 stitches left on the leg, which I only realised when I was doing the second sock *deep sigh* having turned the heel too early, and so having to do it twice, these seem to have worked out pretty well.

They fit OK.

…and Lily got to stand on the table, which is always a welcome thing to do…

Just please try to ignore how high she’s letting her skirt ride up and appreciate that I’ve taken the photo from *this* angle and not another one!

The only downside is that immediately after this photo she realised the socks were itching her legs and so they came off immediately. Keep your fingers crossed that a quick wash does the magic, or they may never see daylight again!