Socks #5 and #6

Here, finally, is a pic of my bf modelling his new socks! I tried doing the purl bind off on these toe-up socks, and it was way too tight! I ended up doing the sewn cast off, and it worked great! Some day, I'll do the kitchener bind-off, but for now, it seems so fussy to me...


I loved working with this Fleece Artist merino sock yarn, and I had a good amount left over (he wears men's size 10-10.5).

Oh, and I was also knitting some mindless plain vanilla socks during concert intermissions last week...

I used an afterthought heel because I didn't want to disrupt the pattern too much. These socks were toe-up as well.
Yes, I am one of those crazy people who has to have the stripes match...
The yarn is Regia self-patterning. There were a couple of annoying things about this yarn:
1) there was a knot, and it didn't reconnect in the same color sequence...I undid it and found the right place to re-tie it, but luckily, I finished the socks before I got to the knot. *whew*
2) the sections where the stripes are supposed to be solid colors (especially the orange and pink parts) were peppered with white chunks of undyed yarn (looked like a printer running out of ink).

I do like the colors a lot, and I've knit with other Regia Jaquard that didn't have these problems, so I hope the skein I had was just a dud. Again, I had a ton of yarn left over, which is good (I'm size 9.5 narrow).