I finally got around to taking a picture of my Becoming Socks, which have, indeed, fully become something wonderful. In the past 10 days, since I wrote about them, I have finished them and am almost finished with the first sock in another pair.





My original plan had been to make the spiral on the second sock move in the opposite direction to that on the first sock. But, when I started on the patterned part of the foot for the second sock, reversing the stitch pattern, I didn't get the symmetry that I wanted. So I ripped back and made the second sock the same as the first.

I'm getting better and better at using Cat Bordhi's New Pathways, thanks to cogitation, experimentation, and consultation with other Ravelers. Nonetheless, these are still too loose in the foot, although they fit better than my previous experiments. In particular, the heel is a little shorter on this sock, now that I re-read the instructions! For the earlier sock, a reasonable amount of negative ease (making the sock small enough that it has to stretch a bit to fit your foot), led me to use 68 stitches, a number that I've used before. Yet the socks could be snugger.



So, for this next pair of socks, I incorporated a little more negative ease, and based the sock on 64 stitches, and, indeed, they fit better.

The neat thing about the New Pathways is that you can vary how you place the increased stitches that let the sock fit over your heel. On a conventional handknit sock, these increases (or decreases, depending which end you start at) run along the sides of the foot. (Commercial socks are structured differently, incorporating a conical parabola for the heel to fit into.) But Cat has demonstrated that socks will fit, wherever you put the increases. You can put them on the top of the sock:



Or you can put them on the bottom of the sock:



(The faint diagonal lines converging at the toes are, on both socks, where the increases occur.)

Either way, it's all good.

Project details:

(1) Becoming socks
Pattern: My own, based on Cat Bordhi's Riverbed Master Pattern
Yarn: Phoenix Fiberworks Silken Fetish (a wool/silk blend that was absolutely luscious to knit), Slurpees colorway
Needles: 2.5mm circular
Gauge: 9 stitches/11.75 rows per inch
Stitches: 64
Stitch pattern: k6 yo ssk (8 stitch repeat), on the sole spreading to incorporate gusset increases, then on the cuff, based on 63 stitches; picot cuff; Eye of Partridge heel
What I would do differently: incorporate negative ease in length as well as width


(2) Kaffee Cat socks
Pattern: My own, based on Cat Bordhi's Upstream Master Pattern
Yarn: Regia 4-ply Design Line Kaffee Fassett, Landscape Caribbean
Needles: 2.25 circular
Gauge: 9 stitches/12 rows per inch
Stitches: 68
Stitch pattern: stockinette for foot, k3p1 rib on cuff, regular reinforced heel
What I would do differently: more negative ease; fewer heel rows; add about an inch of k1p1 ribbing before binding off (k3p1 is enough like stockinette that it has a tendency to curl a bit)

For those of you on Ravelry (and, if you knit, you should be; it's the greatest thing since sliced bread!), there are more pictures and project notes at here and here.