Jay-Walking Ankle-Biters

I finished Rhiannon's socks last week. This may be the fastest I've ever knit a complete pair of socks. I began them late in the evening on Aug 24 (right after I finished the last of my Ravelympic socks) and cast them off on Sept 10. That's right about 2 and 1/2 weeks.

Although, before I get too excited I should probably point out how short the things are. She really did want ankle socks, and ankle socks is what she got.


As I noted on my Ravelry Project page, I made the following mods:

Cuff: Since she wanted anklets, the cuff is very short (two full repeats of the stripe sequence).

Heel: I decided that I wanted a “bull’s-eye” heel effect, so I experimented with Charlene Schurch’s forethought heel. I knit the first sock that way, and am knitting the second with an afterthought heel (as it seems less fiddly). Either way, the striping is preserved, and it looks pretty cute, if I do say so myself.

Toe: In order to decrease the instep stitches to the same number as the stitches on the bottom of the foot, I continued the DD from the jaywalker pattern. The first two rounds went like this:

Round 1:

Top of Foot: K1, SSK, K5, DD, K16, DD, K5, K2tog, K1
Bottom of Foot: K all.

Round 2: Knit All

This puts the same number of stitches on both the top and the bottom after one row.