All Socks, all the time (or not)

I feel pressured to write another post to this blog, even tho all I wanna do is have some fun knitting and designing socks. Unfortunately there's relatively little time for knitting this week, since I'm being Bird Mom while The Spouse is out of town. Can't knit around the Princess Bird, because she loves playing with dpns and would want to chew on the yarn too. Sigh.

Luckily the bird goes to bed early, so I have evenings to knit at least. I've started a toe-up sock from Wendy Johnson's new book, Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits - Ribbed Ribbons Socks, in Yarntini merino in shades of yellow. I'm thinking of entering it in the September Sockdown! Haven't done a Sockdown before...

I had to rip my first attempt at this sock because it was way too big for me. The pattern calls for 66 sts with size 0 ndls, but I want to use my Addi Turbo size 1 circ + dpns. So I revised the pattern down to 60 sts and it looks like it will fit OK. I'm still a newby when it comes to toe-up socks. When I get to the heel I'll have to figure out sizing issues again.

Everybody says that the advantage of knitting socks from the toe up is that you can try on the sock as you go along, but I have no problem trying on cuff-down socks. Usually I put the instep sts on a circular needle temporarily for fitting. My main problem with toe-ups is determining where to start the heel expansion, and if it's a short-row heel I have to make it wider and deeper to fit my ginormous heels.