FO: and all at once summer collapsed into fall

I finished up a pair of socks yesterday.  I knit these pretty much everywhere I went for about two weeks - during lunch breaks, on conference calls, on the couch after work, in the car (when I wasn't driving - don't freak out).  If I was sitting down and near these socks, odds are I was working on them.

I've been experimenting with my basic sock recipe lately.  Something (stress) has tightened my gauge back up.  This summer I frogged the better part of a sock knit on my standard US 1.5/2.5 mm needles and a 64 stitch CO.  I felt sorry for myself and my fat ankles for about ten minutes until it occurred to me to check my gauge.  I was clocking 9 sts/inch, and no dang wonder 64 stitches was too small.

Anyway, rather than go up a needle size, since I like a sock to have a firm fabric (I mean, not kevlar-firm, just regular sock firm) I decided to add a few stitches to see what would happen.   And then I thought, let's get really crazy and get a new heel up in here.  Yeah, I know when you experiment you should only change one variable at a time, but I do what I want.

So, 68 stitches cast on and a Fish Lips Kiss Heel later, and I have a perfect fitting sock.  Four perfect fitting socks, actually, since this is the second time I've tried this recipe.

I know, I know, how have I knit so many pairs of socks but I'm just now getting around to the FLK heel?  I have two reasons, neither of which, in retrospect, were really worth the delay.

1) The pattern is a million pages long and has you trace your foot onto cardboard.  That sounded like a lot of commitment.  (I solved for this by knitting top down and skipping to the good parts.  The foot model is actually probably really helpful for a toe-up sock--I'm not casting aspersions, I just never got around to it.)

2) My previous short-row heel experiences had all been disappointing.  The didn't fit and they looked like butt.   This one fits, and it looks fine, so go figure.   Now, I will grant you my previous short-row heels were knit back in, what, 2011?  I'm a better knitter now, so that's probably a factor.  But this pattern is also pretty darned cool, so props to the designer.

Anyway, I'm a convert.  It won't be the last new heel I ever try, and it probably won't be my forever-default heel, but for right now, I'm digging it.

Seriously, these things are so comfortable.  I'm still wearing them.

The name of the project, "and all at once summer collapsed into fall" is a quote from Oscar Wilde.  I'm working on making my project names more interesting.  More interesting than "Autumn colored socks, #16" would have been anyway.

Project Notes

Pattern:  Regular old socks + Fish Lips Kiss Heel

Yarn: ONline Supersocke 4-fach City Color, colorway "1486" (it was an excellent vintage)

Total Yardage: 354 yards

Needles: US 1.5/2.5 mm 32" Knitters Pride circulars, magic loop

Started: September 14, 2018

Completed: September 28, 2018

Ravelry Project Page: here