Inspiration, as so often happens, comes from many sources, the Araucania mittens being the first. Looking at the stocking stitch, I realized that the wool would make a lovely, thick sock. I had also been pondering the garter rib in Charlene Schurch’s Sensational Knitted Socks for some time, and Googling "araucania nature wool socks" led me to the discovery that since the Nature Wool felts so readily, socks made from it would felt and conform to the wearer’s feet — a fascinating idea. I’m glad I didn’t see these,
Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton’s Taltutten socks from her "Transitions" Nature Wool Collection, until after I’d finished writing up my own pattern. I’m not the only one thinking about knee socks these days — see Gabriella Chiarenza’s gorgeous Clessidra knee socks in the Spring ’07 Knitty, too!
The Nature Wool is lovely to work with, thick and wooly but still soft with a pleasant rusticness. I love the way that the kettle-dyed colors shift here and there, sometimes markedly but very subtly here, in this dyelot.
There are a fairly endless number of ways for incorporating leg shaping into a pattern. They don’t always turn out they way they look on paper, though — this, for example,
turned out like this,
which is okay, but not what I had in mind. In the end, I opted for a simple V-shaped gusset,
which is easily adaptable to different calf sizes. You don’t really realize how long your legs are until you knit yourself a pair of knee socks — I ended up adding two full inches more because of the horizontal stretch of the fabric once it was on my leg!
And it’s a bonus that they look really good with my new shoes!
A Bluestocking Knits 
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