Golf Stockings: Finished

At long last! I began winding the yarn for these on Thanksgiving evening. (I should just be happy I finished before Easter, I suppose.) Lots of Christmas knitting, then the toys, and...life...intervened.

The socks pattern is one from Sensational Knitted Socks, with calf shaping added. I used a toe I came up with that's a variation on a simple toe usually finished with Kitchener stitch; one round of decreases, five knit rounds, decreases every other round until twice the number of ending stitches is achieved; then, k2tog for the first half; SSK for the second half. Cut the yarn, and run through snugly two times and weave in the loose end. No grafting required, and it's a round-ish toe that fits very well, even on my narrow feet.

The tops are afterthought. The pattern is from The Big Book of Needlecraft, ca. 1927, from the look of the patterns inside (Odhams Press, Ltd Long Acre, London W.C. 1). It's a hardcover from England. I first saw it at the Providence Athenaeum, and decided I wanted a copy for my own. It covers quite a bit, and also gave me the embroidery pattern I used for the Caroline Cloche I made a few years ago.

In order to furnish enough ease, I picked up the same number of stitches with a #4 needle. (The socks were made with #2s.)Then I resumed knitting with #2s, and bound off, after six rows of 1x1 ribbing, with the 4s, but with a small picot (one stitch added after every bind off stitch as I was binding off).

They're a good fit, but next time I will definitely begin with the stocking tops!