Embers Socks

While working on my shawl design, I wanted something mindless to knit on. I pulled some Knit Picks Stroll out of my stash and began one of my usual striped toe-up socks. The grey (Basalt Heather) actually has a bit of red heathered through it, but that's not so obvious when it's next to the red (Firecracker Heather) yarn. They knit up fairly quickly (mostly since I've been enjoying the simplicity of knitting them more than I've been enjoying the complications of charting out a lace shawl.)

I did an afterthought heel on them, since that makes them as mindless as possible, and the regular stripe pattern makes it easy to make the two socks match - the heels went on the 20th stripe up from the toe. Simple. I also did a three-needle bind-off on the end of the heel; it's a bit less fussy than kitchener and adds a sort of cool-looking 3-D design element.  Or maybe I'm just telling myself that.

I used almost every inch of the grey yarn, making them nice and tall, but I had a fair bit of the red left over. I could make the toes longer or make a longer ribbed cuff, if I really wanted to use up all of both colours. Even now, this pair is taller than my usual socks, so I am very happy with them. The colours, like burning coals, will surely help to keep my feet warm on a cool cloudy spring day.