A braided river is one that flows over a relatively flat area, often with a sandy or gravelly bed, whose streams meander and move and shift with the seasons. The islands between the braids, often called braid bars or eyots, may be big or small, verdant or barren, saturated or dry.

Then there are anastomosing streams, braided rivers whose braids are separated by sufficient materiel that they do not shift as quickly. Anastomosis alone is a word from the Greek for communicating opening, and can refer to any path that diverges for a time and later reconnects, as blood vessels, veins of quartz, or rivers.

The singular term for the parts of a braided or anastomosed river is anabranch. An anabranch can be big or small, separate for a few hundred meters or a few kilometers. What’s important is not that it separates, but that it comes back.

The Anabranch Socks are ribbed the whole way down, an orderly procession of straight lines. At the back of the ankle, though, the ribs meander through each other wandering left and right, in and out.

All’s well that ends well, though, and in the end they do come back.

This cable design is based off of a knot similar to the one here. Celtic and Islamic knotwork is a really fun place to start if you’re feeling adventurous with your cables.