The first pair of Embossed leaves socks is all done. I am much happier with the second modified sock so I’ve cast on for the "real" Sockapaloooza socks now and will hopefully knock them out fairly quickly. In the side view you can see one of the problems I was having- I didn’t realize there are 4 different ways to do a yarnover depending on the flanking stitches. On the first sock one of my leaves has only 3 holes on a side instead of 4 because I needed to do the yarnover differently in that spot of the pattern- in the second sock you can see I fixed that. You can also see a difference in the spot where I picked up stitches  and it definitely feels more comfortable on the inside of the second sock. Lastly, there are purl stitches that complete the image of the bottom leaves on the toe and as written those are also knitted on the bottom of the toe. On the second sock I omitted those because I thought it a bit silly looking. I couldn’t figure out a way to easily change the decreases that also occur on the bottom of the toe so I’ve just left those as is.

I knit this on size 1 DPN’s with Taj Mahal yarn, a cashmerino/silk/cashmere blend that’s like knitting with butter.