New Design: Midnight Sky Socks

Late last year I fell instantly and unaccountably in love with a skein of sock yarn. Not just any sock yarn. This one was in what my style columnist friend calls "Prada blue" -- known to the rest of us as a very dark midnight blue -- with a delicate strand of silver running through it. Yes, that's right, actual sterling silver thread.

Look how beautiful it was, just in the skein.

I knew it wanted to be something special, something out of the ordinary.

I spent ages combing my stitch pattern books to find just the right thing. I wanted it to have both some knits and purls on the right side, to break up any stripes, and I wanted there to be some texture, so that the silver would catch the light and sparkle from various angles.

I found something called "Twilled Stripe" in one of the Barbara Walker books. It's a nifty slipped-stitch mock-cabley sort of thing.

And then because I have a sick sense of humour, for the second sock I decided to reverse the direction of the cable.

And here's what resulted.



I'm pretty happy with them.

The patterning looks good with plain yarns, too!

The pattern is available on Patternfish, Ravelry , and also at The Purple Purl.

(Thanks to Melinda for the great photography!)