My first sport-weight retro rib sock is done. Woo hoo!

Anyhoo, here are the numbers I'm using just in case there's anyone else out there who, like me, just is not up to knitting these socks on teeny-tiny needles! With Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport on US4's, I cast on 56 st., did 4 repeats of the cuff ribbing and 14 repeats of the leg ribbing pattern. (Oh how I love that ribbing pattern!) I divided for the heel, working 28 st. for heel, and keeping the remaining 28 st. on needles for the instep. To divide the stitches without disturbing the pattern, I completed the round and worked 4 stitches from the new round - the last 28 stitches became the instep stitches and the next 28 the heel. My heel shaping was pretty standard: on the first row, slipping 1, purling 28, then P2tog, P1; the next row is always K5, K2tog, K1; and then continue working K2tog and P2tog rows as usual until all heel stitches are incorporated into the heel. I picked up 15 st. on the sides of the heel flap and in the gusset decreased back to original number of stitches on each needle in the usual manner. For the toe, I followed the instructions from the original pattern, decreasing every other row to 32 stitches then every row to 16 stitches.

(Update: I think it's going to take me about one and a quarter hanks of the Shepherd Sport to make these socks.)

If you ever want to fiddle with sock numbers, check out Teri's great page outlining a basic sock formula.