Happy feet

When I first learned how to knit, the one thing I swore I’d never be caught knitting was socks. What was the point, I used to wonder, of spending time creating something so utilitarian, so workhorse, that no one was ever going to see?

But my sock stance has changed. Because now socks are:

1. A cosy comforting knit when it’s grey and cold out. Your feet almost start to feel warmer while you knit them- could it be pschosockosis?
2. Small, perfectly formed and portable enough to travel with, but densely packed with knitting interest so there’s never a dull moment.
3. A chance to let your imagination run wild with crazy patterns you wouldn’t want wrapped round your head, neck or torso.
4. An opportunity to buy and actually use those exciting and wacky coloured sock yarns that look great in a skein but you can only get away with wearing on your feet.
5. A lesson in looking after something. When these get holes I’ll be darning them. Then I’ll be darning them some more.
6. A happy moment when they get pulled out of the sock drawer in the morning and smoothed onto the feet, and a joyful reminder during the day when I remove my shoes and they hit the carpet like a spilled drink.

I’ve written up the pattern here: charybdis-socks1. Nothing in it is especially new or ground breaking- my socks have a basic toe up construction with a simple stitch pattern that winds across the foot and spirals up around the leg. There’s a very simple short row heel with no wrapping and turning.  I hope it’s helpful- if you come across any errors, please let me know. (This is my first attempt at writing up a pattern.) It’s on Ravelry here.

I’ve called this pattern Charybdis, after the sea monster in Greek mythology who belched out water in a menacing and deadly whirlpool. Originally a beautiful sea nymph, and daughter of Poseidon, the God of the Sea, Charybdis flooded land to enlarge her father’s underwater kingdom until Zeus turned her into a monster as punishment. Homeric myth tells us that Charybdis lay on one side of a narrow strait of water, while upon a rock on the other side sat Scylla, another equally grotesque and dangerous sea-monster. The two sides of the strait were so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. (Even the legendary hero Odysseus was almost destroyed by Charybdis after narrowly surviving Scylla.)

The yarn I used for these is Socrates Merino Supersock by Violet Green, in colourway Kew.

If you make any socks from the pattern, do send me a pic- I’d love to see them! And watch out for those sea monsters…

 

Happy feet! I’ve got those happy feet! 
Give them a lowdown beat 
And they begin dancing! 
I’ve got those 
Ten little tapping toes, 
And when I hear a tune 
I can’t control my dancing heels, 
To save my soul! 
Weary blues 
Can’t get into my shoes, 
Because my shoes refuse 
To ever grow weary! 

Cab Calloway- “Happy Feet”