Lucky Green Socks

Ten years lucky! Ten years ago today, I married the best man in the whole world. These are the socks I made for him.

Pattern: My own concoction. See pattern notes.
Yarn: Felici in Arugula
Yarn Source: Knit Picks
Gauge and Yardage: 8 stitches/inch, 101 grams of yarn. I ended up needing 4 skeins of yarn because I wanted the striping to match. I could probably have gotten away with just the two if I wasn't concerned about that.
Needles: Size US 1 (2.5 mm) Knit Picks circulars
Estimated Time to Complete Project: 20 days (including the wait time for more yarn)
Pattern Notes: I couldn't believe it when I looked up the yarn to put the link in my post and saw that one of the patterns Knit Picks has on the their website featuring this yarn is the same stitch pattern I picked when I started these socks. The stitch is from Charlene Schurch's book More Sensational Knitted Socks and is called Stansfield 16 (page 95).

This is what I did for these toe-up socks:

Cast on 40 stitches using the Magic-8 Cast-on. Increased every other round up to 80 stitches. Then I started the Stansfield 16 stitch pattern (it's an 8 stitch repeat). I worked until the foot measured 7" long, then increased every other round on the sides for the gusset for 2.5" more. I had 70 stitches on the bottom of the foot (still 40 on the top), then I turned the heel.

To turn the heel with 70 stitches:
K 41, ssk, K 1
Sl 1, P 14, P2tog, P 1
Sl 1, K 15, ssk, K 1
Sl 1, P 16, P2tog, P1

Basically you knit to 1 stitch before the gap, then work the decrease over the gap and knit one stitch after. I continued this until there were 40 stitches left, then continued up the leg for 5" more. Then I did 1.5" of K2 P2 ribbing and used Peggy's Stretchy Bind-off.

The things I would change about what I did are: 80 stitches were a little too loose. I think he might be okay with it because he didn't want them to be tight, but they could have fit a little better for my taste. Maybe somewhere between 70 to 76 stitches for the next sock. Also, his ankle is very slender and I think I'll decrease for that after I turn the heel next time. It's kind of hard because each time I measured his foot to figure some of these things out, it changed. But for future reference, here the general measurements for his size 13 foot. Don't laugh at the drawing, it helps me visualize.
Happy Anniversary my love!