Charybdis by Fiona Bennett

Charybdis

Knitting
February 2009
Fingering (14 wpi) ?
8 stitches = 1 inch
in stocking stitch
US 1½ - 2.5 mm
360 yards (329 m)
medium
English
This pattern is available as a free Ravelry download

In Greek mythology, Charybdis was a sea monster who belched out water in a menacing and deadly whirlpool. There’s nothing menacing about the toe up construction of these socks or deadly about their simple short row heel, but there are whirlpools- a simple stitch pattern winds its way across each instep and spirals up the leg of each sock.

Originally a beautiful sea nymph and daughter of Poseidon, God of the Sea, Charybdis flooded land to enlarge her father’s underwater kingdom, until Zeus turned her into a monster as punishment. Homeric myth has Charybdis lying on one side of a narrow strait of water, while upon a rock on the other side sat Scylla, another equally grotesque and dangerous sea-monster. The two sides of the strait were so close that sailors attempting to avoid Charybdis would pass too close to Scylla and vice versa. Even the legendary hero Odysseus was almost destroyed by Charybdis after narrowly surviving Scylla. Talk about being caught between a rock and a hard place…

Thank you for your interest in my designs! If you’ve defeated Charybdis, why not tackle Scylla, Ogopogo, or Jabbersocky…?

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