A finished candy sock

One finished sock, not quite how I had imagined it but there's a good reason (or several) why it's ended up like this. I have wide feet that tend to swell a bit when I spend all day sat at my desk, it means I don't like anything patterned on the toe of my socks, it always feels as if it's going to rub. Because I made the whole sock bigger than the basic Opal pattern I wasn't going to have quite enough of the pink to do the toe, this would have meant that I'd have had a plain toe half in patterned yarn and half in plain and I didn't liek the look of it when I tried it out so I decided on a plain toe with no pattern and no pink, If you make a standard cuff down sock on 2.5mm DPN's casting on 60 stitches with a 30 stitch 30 row heel flap I'm pretty sure you'd easily have enough yarn for the toes, I was working on a 72 stitch cast on and a 36 stitch/row heel flap which was how I ran out of the pink.
Here we can see my miscalculation, the stitch pattern I used was 2 rounds stocking stitch and 2 rows K2 P2, that worked fine on the whole leg but when I split it in half I've ended up with one side ending on a block of 4 K stitches including the gusset decrease, and P2 K2 on the other. If I'd realised before I started the second sock I could have moved the heel round by 2 stitches and had mirror image socks but I didn't suss it out until I'd done the whole heel flap. This picture also illustrates what happens when you can't count to 2, if you count backwards from the toe, the first 2 pattern repeats are fine, then the third repeat I only did one round of stocking stitch instead of 2!
Anyway, I've tried it on, it fits and is comfortable, it isn't perfect so I may get more of this colourway and have another go sometime as I do try to make things as right as I can get them, or at least so they reach my mental image of what I was trying to achieve. I do like the slight bobbly pattern, it is most definitely candy coloured!

As further proof of my anally retentive streak I've just frogged my wild foxglove sock back to the start of the toe decreases, I've decided that I haven't made the foot quite long enough so I'm going to lengthen it by about 4 rounds, it will definitely fit better than and I'll be happier with it, I used to fudge things for me and only try and make gifts as close to perfect as possible. I've decided this year I'm worth having good stuff made for me. Last year of the 40 things I made only 3 pairs of socks and 1 jumper were for me - I'm planning on redressing that balance a little in 2006.

PS. I lied - it isn't really finished as it has ends that need weaving in!