This is a great example I pulled off the net, somewhere....shows nice shaping for the calf muscle.
And another off the net. You can see the diced hose on the left must be for a child, as a)it's smaller, and b)there's no shaping for the calf. But the Tartan hose on the right shows definite shaping.
These...I knit. I started w/ 1/3 more stitches at the top than I did at the ankle...you can see three full diamonds at the top, down to two at the bottom. I think the diamonds were 29? or 31? stitche across, and I was working w/ 60 stitches at the ankle?
And another view....
Hope you are able to get something out of these....most of your shaping for the calf muscle should happen in the first 3 inches after the line for the turndown cuff....like every other row? or every third row? Depends on the gauge of your knitting and yarn. Then you can taper off to every 4th or 6th row to a point several inches above the ankle. You really should be finished w/ your decreases several inches above the ankle...unless you have a short, wide lower leg.
On the tartan...your diamonds are just going to taper....there's no avoiding it, and that's part of the charm of the tartan hose.
Oh - and I added the overcheck (the diagonals) after the knitting was complete. I didn't knit them in. I used the duplicate stitch.
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