Pattern: plain vanilla toe up socks with an afterthought heel. 64 stitches, 2.5 mm dpns. Based on Wendy's pattern.
Yarn: Yarntini Self Striping Sock in a colourways chosen by me as part of her 'Create Your Own' sock yarn Club.
Historically, when knitting socks I have never, ever worried about making them match. I am all about fraternal socks. For some reason, and I have no idea why, I decided to make sure that this pair was identical. And frankly, it really wasn't that hard. I think that it the past I was always more worried about yarn conservation, I couldn't bare the thought of having to cut out a few stripes from the centre of a skein just to make sure that I started my second sock at the right spot. I guess I'm over it, there was really very little waste. And having perfectly matching socks is kinda nice. :)
I usually always knit my socks top-down, but I can see myself starting to favour toe-up. I've been doing toe up for heavily striped socks recently because it seems easier to manage the stripes that way. I love the afterthought heel for stripes too. I've tried and struggled with lots of other heels for toe-up socks, particularly any short row heel, even the Fish Lips Kiss Heel that seems to be so popular these days. (I talked a bunch about afterthought heels here and went on about the Fish Kiss Lips Heel here.) Even though I keep saying I'm not crazy about the Fish Lips Kiss Heel, I'm still definitely going to give it a try for a pair of non-striping socks. Also, the pattern includes instructions for how to measure your foot and make a template so you know exactly where to place your heel, and for me, that was a game changer. I've always thought that short-row or afterthought heels were less comfortable than a good old fashioned gusset, but that's because I wasn't placing the heels right! The template alone is worth looking up the pattern for in my opinion.
I have one last pair of striped socks on the needles and then I think I'll have to cast on for something a little less vanilla. Maybe... I have more striped yarn in my stash and it can be hard to ignore!