Nothing new under the sun

Recently I knit a pair of socks for myself, without the aid of any pattern other than my own understanding and acquired knowledge of how a sock is knit.  This is nothing ground-breaking or particularly clever of course. It's just simply a by-product, an accumulation, of the construction of the hundreds of patterns I have knit over the years and held within my mind and hands. Regardless of all that, it does still give one a pleasant sense of achievement, knowing it can be done.

The motivation came as I unexpectedly finished the project I'd brought into work that morning, so at lunchtime I grabbed a skein of Colinette Jitterbug in Vatican Pie (oh, that saturated red!) and some needles and cast on ready for the train commute home.

Granny's Lucky Red Longjohns
Colinette Jitterbug - colourway: Vatican Pie

To alleviate boredom I added a 1x1 garter stitch rib, which pleasantly formed a lovely snug sock that fits my foot beautifully.  It's also rather warm as garter stitch rib has a waffle-y texture similar to that used in thermal underwear amongst other things.  

I took a calculated risk and cast on many less stitches than I would normally for socks - 54 on 2.5mm needles, instead of my usual 64.  This decision was influenced by my experience of Jitterbug as a "hefty" sock yarn and the anticipation of stretch in the ribbed stitch pattern.  Turns out it was a great decision - go me!  

As I finished the first sock and started the second, I thought to myself "these are such great socks, how could it be possible that nobody else has ever written it up before?"  They are simple enough to knit whilst other things are happening like conversations, meetings, TV-watching, and I discovered they are also an excellent choice for gift knitting as the rib pattern is very accommodating when you are working with unknown foot and leg dimensions.  

Knowing that there was an excellent chance there probably was this very pattern out there, I had what I thought was quite a thorough look on Ravelry and was surprised that I couldn't find one that was quite the same. There are many patterns utilising this stitch pattern, socks included, but none in the specific combination of 1x1, gauge and yarn weight that I could see. 

a gift pair, for Mum (photo credit: Mum!)
Colinette Jitterbug - colourway: Caramel

So I got excited to share. I wrote down my notes into a more coherent format, made a couple more pairs, and was just about to upload them as a free pattern....when I started reading my copy of Sock Architecture which was given to me by a friend recently.

And lo and behold; there they were!  Strie socks, by Lara Neel.

Photo credit: Lara Neel

Reading through the patterns they are not exactly the same, but close enough to make me laugh out loud right then and there. 

As the saying goes - there's nothing new under the sun!