Retro Rib Done, Anne's Socks

I've made quite a few work-in-progress shots of these socks, but it's only to keep me pressed to finish them. I do like them very much, it's all the other projects needing completion that I feel compelled to hurry and get the second sock out of the way (the first one was finished last summer!). The Regia Bamboo was a sturdy and cotton-like yarn to work with so there was less give than an all wool yarn. Now I'll have to see how it wears. I received the yarn from a secret pal swap, along with Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks. I had a hard time settling on a pattern for the Bamboo yarn, I ended up trying needles from 0 to 3 and found I liked the fabric best with US 1's and went looking for a pattern with the same gauge, or at least work in the pattern in some way. I've been meaning to do Interweave Knits Winter '04 Retro Rib socks for some time, so I settled on this with side cables to allow for the extra stitches I needed - not sure I like the cables with the rib pattern, though. I'd do this pattern again without it. I wanted to use as much of the yarn as possible, so I made them toe-up with short rows, leaving a long tail for a sewn bind off. No yarn left over, which I'm thankful for as my stash of scraps and left-overs is taking up a lot of space in storage.




I've found good use for some of these left overs: baby socks. I am fed up with the store bought socks that pop off my daughter's feet. They either fit in the foot and spring off the leg, or they fit in the leg and are too big in the foot so no matter what, they fall off. She measures 4.5" around at the ankle quickly increase to 6.5" below the knee. 34 sts for the foot and ankle, then increase 2 sts every other round up the back of the leg 11 times to 56 sts. They may look a bit funny, but they fit much better than the springy white socks that jump overboard at every chance. I'll be finding little white socks around here for months. The yarn is Regia Cotton Surf 5411 worked on US 1 with a bit of the purple shade in the toe as I was playing with reinforcements, but she doesn't really need it now.