"TOE-UP!" (Or: my current obsession with 2-at-a-time toe-up SOCKS)

Bill looked up from his desk with a curious and surprised look on his face. "What's 'tore-up,' baby?"  "No no no!" I tried to explain excitedly,  thrusting one foot in the air to demonstrate my meaning. "Look!" I shouted, gesturing wildly at my toes (which were now wiggling). "Um...oh! Sock! It's very pretty," which is always Bill's patient response to my inability to use my words when I'm excited about knitting ("pretty!"). 

Essentially, I had knit my first "toe-up" sock, and it fit like (shall I say glove? No, I'll say SOCK), well it fit like a good sock should fit. My life had changed. I was able to modify the pattern (written for women's size 8 feet) to fit me and my needs (tiny, tiny feet, and seemingly toddler-sized ankles--well, comparatively speaking). Anyway, I had been reading about toe-up socks for about a year, but I was (and still am) so in love with Cookie A's designs, most of which are "top-down," that I thought to myself, "maybe I'm just a top-down sock knitter." 

I can modify top-down socks as well, but toe-up designs also come with the calm of knowing that you have enough yarn. 

I designed my own little toe-up socks, and knit a few pairs of knee socks in a few days. I quickly realized that I get melodramatic and melancholy when I am forced to face the I'm going to have to KNIT THAT SECOND SOCK). 

Thanks to the KnitPicks.com 40% book sale that never seems to end, I have TWO books on 2-at-a-time sock knitting...one of which has a TOE-UP focus. 

I finished a sweet little lacey pair of socks in one day thanks to this pattern ("Summer Slice" by Cassandra Dominick), which is absolutely wonderful (very detailed, step-by-step narrative, written pattern). There isn't a chart for the lace pattern, and I'm very spatial and visual, so I started to make my own in excel, but it's easy enough without one. 

I ended up with these:

See this project on my Ravelry page here

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I LOVE knitting toe-up two-at-a-time socks! So quick! So genius! Hooray!