The silver lining to working intensively on a pattern (thanks for all the nice words about the Warren Johnson Jacket, by the way! I'm going back and revisiting them whenever I hit a snag with sizing) is that I give myself "permission" to work on some little projects designed by other people.
I've had my eye on this pattern ever since I first saw it: Sabine Riefler's Snicket pattern. These are worked in Sundara Sock, colorway Arabian Nights, with some modifications. I changed the short-row heel to a regular flap-and-gusset construction, and massaged the twisted stitch columns so that they would flow out of the leg and into the heel.
I also cast on more stitches and knit at a smaller gauge than most folks I've seen work this pattern, with the result that my cable motifs are slightly smaller and closer together. But you know, it's the same general idea.
I adore the look of twisted ropes sitting atop a sea of purl stitches. Riefler writes that this pattern was inspired by a dress in the steampunky A Series of Unfortunate Events, but it also makes me think of sailing tackle. The combination of Victorian-inspired costuming and marine imagery is tried and true, and I think it's a great one. I'm almost tempted to make these socks again in a deep, ocean green or blue, to more properly evoke scenes like this:
They're the ideal kind of thing to be wearing when you alone have survived to tell the tale, and you return to be feted at the fancier type of down-at-heel swillhole.
Oh, and anyone thinking of making these would definitely do well to learn to cable without a needle, if you don't already know how. It wouldn't have occurred to me to make them any other way until I looked around Ravelry and noticed that people have been making them with a third needle - and then, inevitably, complaining at their fiddly nature. Yes, unbearably fiddly with a cable needle - yet quick and enjoyable without one! Trust me: it's worth the learning curve.
