Hand-knitting socks/hose

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Reporting back on some of the topics touched on earlier in this thread:

Son-and-Heir moved back home and was much taken with Papa's kilt hose, so I guess I'm making a couple more pairs. Might enter the whole lot in the craft competition at the Kenny Lake Fair next month. Anyway, Son-and-Heir likes the same 3D braid, so I'm doing another rendition of that. As we discussed previously, I hadn't liked the reverse stocking stitch in the original design because it tends to curl. I thought moss stitch would be a good alternative, and it is. BUT - I'm going to have to undo some rounds and finish the edge off with about 4 rounds of ribbing, because knitting moss stitch all the way to the cast-off edge makes the piece flare! Sigh.

For specifics - I picked up 5 stitches per repeat of the braid, knitted one round plain (so I didn't get any nasty bi-coloured stitches on the right side), then 3 rounds moss stitch in the ground colour. Then three rounds of garter stitch in dk green, and returned to the ground colour with one round plain before resuming moss stitch for 7 rounds - which will now have to be 3 rounds moss and 4 rounds rib.

When I have done a matching panel on the other side of the yellow, I will move my 'centre back' stitch marker about a quarter of the way round the circle of stitches, so all the joins and row changes of the fold-down top will be on the inside of the leg. I'm working on the other stocking at the same time, so I can be sure I'm doing the same number of rows, etc, but I will have to move the centre back stitch in mirror image so I end up with a right stocking and a left one.

I'm going to do the leg in the same fascinating V-shaped decreases from Ryder's book that I used for some of my husband's hose, but I plan to add a damask pattern to the broad part of the rib.

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Also, I found my (work in progress) rendition of the stag's head. I always draw my patterns on graph paper. I'm not satisfied with this one yet; it's 15 sts wide by 19 sts long, so it will have to be in very fine yarn to fit inside a lattice pattern such as the Gairloch. Maybe I should remove some of the tines. Clearly there's too much antler at the top to fit neatly into a diamond.

Sorry this image is upside down, I can't seem to figure out how to rotate images on this device.

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