Feets don't fail me now

The first of the sunset socks is finished. And yeah, as soon as I'd finished casting off the last stitch of course I put it straight on. It feels lovely.



I'm really happy with everything, except for the big area of blue near the toe. I love the general flecked effect and the way the colours have mixed together. There are some other smaller areas of solid colour which I do like.

I put the pattern to one side when I got to the heel and used the short-row heel technique I like, but probably made the heel a bit pointy.

I've never found a way to cast off ribbing which is very elastic. This pattern recommends the tubular cast off, which I've not seen before, and works a treat! It's really stretchy, and lets the ribbing do its stretchy grippy job properly. It looks tricky to start with, but once you've done a few stitches and get familiar with it, it's very quick. One word of warning - when you cut the yarn to thread your darning needle, you'll need more of a tail than you think! I only just had enough.

Here's a confession - I've never blocked anything before - perhaps it's impatience, but I usually just put things straight on. Because of the lace pattern I'm going to do it properly. Below you can see my new sock blockers home-made from wire coathangers.