Remember these from my yarn along post? They're finished! I love how they turned out, I love the colors, and they actually fit my feet just right. I call them my Pippy Longstocking socks, but I could call them my Frankenstein socks, too, because I didn't follow one pattern but took bits from several. I did them toe up, two at a time on two circular needles. Two at a time because I am exactly the kind of person who would fall victim to second-sock syndrome. "I just did that, you mean I have to do the exact same thing all over again?" I get bored too easily. Toe up because I can't stand the thought of wasting yarn. I would agonize over the length of the cuff if I started top down. Make the cuff too long and you run out of yarn before you reach the toe, make it too short and you have leftover yarn, horrors. I did save a little yarn for future repairs, but I saved exactly the amount I intended to. I also like that with two up it's easy to try the socks on as you go.
I used Judy's Magic Cast On for starting the toe, which is marvelous, so easy and completely seamless. I also followed her instructions for adding stitches until the sock felt like it was a good circumference for my foot. When I got to the arch in my foot, I added some ribbing on the sole to draw it in and guard against bagginess, inspired by my Smart Wool socks. Then I followed a free pattern from Knitpicks for turning the heel. Once those danged heels were turned, I did 2x2 ribbing all the way up for the cuff, because I just like how snugly it fits that way. I used Jenny's Surprisingly Stretch Bind-Off to bind them off, and it definitely lived up to it's name, you couldn't ask for a nicer, stretchier bind off. So there, now you know why I called them Frankenstein socks, I couldn't follow a pattern all the way through to save my life. I've been wearing them as much as I can possibly get away with, and lovingly handwashing them in the sink then hanging them to dry each night. At this rate I may wear them out more quickly than I knitted them!