This cozy, comfortable toque and cowl set in bulky-weight yarn uses a unique ribbing-based texture that is quick to knit and warm. The elongated stitches in the texture help highlight the subtle colour details in handpainted yarns.

This cozy, comfortable hat and cowl set uses a unique all-over texture that is both beautiful and warm. The twisted strands in the pattern are easy to work, and they help highlight the subtle colour details in handpainted yarns.

Vanilla Beans is a collection of three toe-up vanilla sock recipes in five foot circumferences with formulas to accommodate any row gauge and any foot length. Calf shaping guidance, video tutorials, and sizing support are included. These patterns are perfect for new sock knitters as well as more experienced ones who are looking for help making any toe-up pattern fit them perfectly!

The Crosslink Socks are inspired by molecular biology. In university, I specialized in genetics and evolutionary biology, so I spent a lot of time looking at molecular diagrams of DNA, RNA, amino acids, and proteins. In biology, “cross-linking” is a bond between two chains of organic molecules. Some chemotherapy drugs target rapidly-replicating...

The Friendship Bracelet Socks are inspired by the simple expression of friendship embodied by brightly-coloured threads intricately woven together. Learning to work a complex pattern in thread was a rite of passage for many of us as young tweens, and may have led to an interest in other ways of using string… like knitting!

The Slipper On Socks are the heavyweight companion to the Slip On Socks, and they are a great way to have fun with minis, sock sets, and wild yarns! Grab that busy skein of DK weight sock yarn, choose a couple of minis that go with it, and work this fun and easy slipped-stitch pattern to bring them all together. Excellent for using up impulse-b...

The Slip On Socks are the fingering-weight companion to the Slipper On Socks, and they are a great way to have fun with minis, sock sets, and wild yarns! Grab that busy skein of sock yarn, choose a couple of minis that go with it, and work this fun and easy slipped-stitch pattern to bring them all together. Excellent for using up impulse-buy sk...

The Dizzy Diamonds Socks are a fun, slightly-eye-bending way to jazz up an otherwise-vanilla pair of socks! Grab the brightest contrast mini you can find and splash that colour on the leg of the sock for an exciting burst of graphic colourwork. Why make another pair of vanilla socks when you can make something that makes people say “WOW!”

Got leftover sock yarn to use up? How small are those scraps in your scrappy socks bag? I mean, probably not actually “yoctometre” small — as the third-smallest named SI unit in the metric system, one ym is 10^(-24) m (meaning, you would write zero-decimal-23-zeros, then the one), which is so small that around eight hundred fifty million of the...

This pattern was the High-Octane sock for Lap 4 of Supersock World Championship 2023! You can find chat, answers to questions, additional tips from me, and FO photos for this pattern in the SWC group forums!

The Quaviver Socks are inspired by Phycodurus eques, the Leafy Seadragon. This relative of seahorses is found in the waters surrounding southern and western Australia. Its beautiful and unusual leafy projections are not fins and cannot propel the seadragon through the water; instead, they are camouflage to suit the rich undersea vegetation in t...

The Sunglasses At Night Socks are inspired by the song of the same name by Corey Hart. Now, before you decide that I’m an 80s-synthesizer-music fan, I’m definitely not! I wasn’t even born when this song came out. But where I first heard the song was on my first day at the University of Guelph. On your first night of O-Week at Guelph, traditiona...

This was the Round 5 pattern for Sock Madness 17! You can find chat, answers to questions, additional tips from me, and FO photos for this pattern in the Sock Madness Forever group forums!

The Hapax Socks are inspired by one-of-a-kind hand-dyed yarns. In literature, a “hapax legomenon” (Greek, meaning “said only once”) is a word that appears only once in an author’s body of work. For example, in Shakespeare’s plays, the words “questrist” (a person on a quest to find another person) and “facinorious” (extremely wicked) are hapaxes...

The Just Jealous Socks are inspired by that wild, ridiculous, beyond-amazing yarn you just adore! Need something truly unique and over-the-top for that skein? This is it! Pooling, speckled, both… doesn’t matter. With these socks on your feet, people might stare… but don’t worry, they’re just jealous!

The Vastness of Space Socks are inspired by… the vastness of space. (Sorry, this one was pretty literal!) When I bought this fantastic solar system yarn, with accurate sizes and distances to scale, I knew it needed a pattern that suited it; something that was as nerdy and unique as it was, without losing the integrity of the striping. So I deve...

The Bass Sonic Texture Socks are inspired by layers of sound coming together to form a composition with depth and feeling that could not be achieved by a single sound alone. Like a piece of music with multiple instruments, these socks have a layered effect with multiple colours to show the whole set off to its best advantage.

The Sonic Texture Socks are inspired by layers of sound coming together to form a composition with depth and feeling that could not be achieved by a single sound alone. Like a piece of music with multiple instruments, these socks have a layered effect with multiple colours to show the whole set off to its best advantage.

The Arctic Front Cowl is inspired by the most frigid and unforgiving winds of winter. The temperature might look only somewhat bone-chilling, but on some winter days the wind chill blasting between the buildings of downtown Ottawa is downright inhumane. That’s when you need your warmest knitted items, like this bulky-weight cowl!

The Arctic Front Toque is inspired by the most frigid and unforgiving winds of winter. The temperature might look only somewhat bone-chilling, but on some winter days the wind chill blasting between the buildings of downtown Ottawa is downright inhumane. That’s when you need your warmest knitted items, like this bulky-weight hat!

The Pictum Socks are inspired by Dactylotum bicolor pictum, the Painted Grasshopper. Native to the dry North American grasslands, it has wild, distinctive colour patterns all over its exoskeleton. This is aposematism, where animals use colour to warn potential predators that they are unpleasant to eat. After all, it’s easy to remember a bad mea...

The Cedar Sparks Socks are inspired by the beauty of a lakeside bonfire. In the forests around the Great Lakes, Eastern white cedar (Thuja occidentalis) trees are a common sight, and if you toss a sprig of cedar into a fire, it crackles loudly and creates sparks, like a tiny natural firework. This phenomenon is due to cedar wood’s high levels o...

The Star-Studded Socks are inspired by Nidorellia armata, the Chocolate Chip Star, a species of starfish native to the warmer waters of the Pacific Coast of Central and South America. They get their name from the large dark horns on their light-coloured bodies that look just like chocolate chips on the surface of a cookie. They can grow up to 2...

This pattern was the Low Octane sock for Lap 4 of the 2022 Supersock World Championship. Check out the SWC Ravelry group threads for questions, discussion, and FOs!

The Cloud Forest Socks are inspired by Gwaii Haanas, a National Park Reserve and Haida Heritage Site in the Haida Gwaii islands off the coast of British Columbia. It is primarily composed of temperate coniferous rain forest. This type of forest is sometimes poetically called a “cloud forest” because of the silvagenitus clouds that it produces. ...

The Nicobar Socks are inspired by Caloenas nicobarica, the Nicobar Pigeon, a brilliantly-coloured pigeon found on islands in the eastern Indian and western Pacific Oceans from India to Palau. Its iridescent feathers make the Nicobar Pigeon a truly striking and unusual bird, and it is believed to be the closest living relative of the infamously-...

This was the Round 2 Bonus Sock for Sock Madness 16. Check out this thread for chat, questions, and FOs!

The Spring Flurries Toque is inspired by the hardy flowers that can continue to grow even through frigid soil with a layer of snow on top of it. Did you know that tulips actually thrive under a blanket of snow, since that provides their new shoots with insulation as they grow? It’s always a beautiful sight to find lines of colourful flowers pok...

The Vanilla Bean Layer Cake Socks are inspired by one of my other creative loves: baking! I love the flavour of vanilla bean a lot, so I add it to this fabulous and simple recipe from a baking blogger I’ve been following for many years: Baking Bites. But who can resist also adding a rainbow flair to the batter? I definitely can’t, so I always k...

The Vanilla Bean Pound Cake Socks are inspired by one of my other creative loves: baking! I love the flavour of vanilla bean a lot, so I also love this fabulous and simple recipe from a baking blogger I’ve been following for many years: Baking Bites. But who can resist also adding a rainbow flair to the batter? I definitely can’t, so I often ge...

The Vanilla Bean Cupcake Socks are inspired by one of my other creative loves: baking! I love the flavour of vanilla bean a lot, so I add it to this fabulous and simple recipe from a baking blogger I’ve been following for many years: Baking Bites. But who can resist also adding a rainbow flair to the batter? I definitely can’t, so I often gentl...

The Pedestrian Scramble Socks are inspired by crosswalks. As someone who lives right in the heart of a city, crossing busy streets safely is a daily fact of life for me. In some cities, they try to help pedestrians get places more easily by having a phase of traffic lights know as a “pedestrian scramble”, where all vehicles are stopped and peop...

The Ochotona Cowl is inspired by Ochotona collaris, the Collared Pika. Pikas are distantly related to rabbits, so although they might look like mice, they actually eat plants, not seeds. They live in the mountains of northwestern Canada, collecting vegetation in a frenzy all summer, then staying active while eating from their accumulated “haypi...

The Ochotona Hat is inspired by Ochotona collaris, the Collared Pika. Pikas are distantly related to rabbits, so although they might look like mice, they actually eat plants, not seeds. They live in the mountains of northwestern Canada, collecting vegetation in a frenzy all summer, then staying active while eating from their accumulated “haypil...

The Isabellina Socks are inspired by Ahaetulla isabellina, Wall’s Vine Snake. It is one of several related small, venomous tree-dwelling snakes living in the rainforests of southern India and Sri Lanka, eating lizards and frogs. If this snake is disturbed, it spreads its scales apart, revealing a strange pattern on the skin between them. This s...

Cracked Glass is inspired by fracture lines on glass, like you might see if you accidentally stepped on a strand of multicoloured holiday lights. This combination of elongated stitches and bias garter stitch patterning is straightforward, but interesting enough to hold your attention as it distorts each colour in the sequence. Work a little bit...

This pattern was originally published by SweetGeorgia for the 2021 Soctober event.

The Curling Leaves Cowl is inspired by the twisted shape of curled-up leaves on the trees as fall deepens towards winter. This cowl will keep you warm as the chill in the air increases and the number of shrivelled leaves left on the branches dwindles, anticipating the upcoming depths of winter.

The Walk Without Rhythm Socks are inspired by the novel Dune by Frank Herbert. In this story, moving in tune with the natural sounds of the desert sands, or “walking without rhythm”, is the way that people from the planet Arrakis avoid attracting the monstrous “sandworm” creatures that live there. Roll the die and make your stitches also form a...

The Sand Gecko Socks are inspired by Pachydactylus rangei, the Namib Sand Gecko. This small reptile lives in southwest Africa and is an unusual creature — it is nearly translucent, with many of its organs actually visible through its skin! It has webbed feet for both burrowing in and walking on the wide expanses of sand in its desert habitat, a...

The Llama Tracks Socks are inspired by Hamish the llama, who was a treasured friend of his sheep and human companions on an Eastern Ontario farm. As the iconic “happy llama” of the Grumpy Sheep, Happy Llama fibre company, Hamish was a dedicated protector of his flock from his earliest days, and he particularly loved getting apples as a treat. T...

Kettle lakes are formed when enormous blocks of glacial ice separate from a melting glacier and are left behind as it retreats. They disrupt the flow of meltwater around them, then get buried in the sediments the glacier was carrying in the ice as it flowed. When the isolated block of ice finally melts, it leaves behind a shallow depression in ...

This pattern was the Round 4 Bonus Sock for Sock Madness 15. Check out the thread here for discussion, tips, and FOs!

The Alicorn Socks are inspired by unicorn horn — also known as “alicorn”. As early as 400 BCE, people believed that unicorns were real animals whose horns could protect people from disease and poison. In Medieval Europe, kings coveted items made of alicorn, and the King of Denmark even had a throne made of that mythical substance. Of course, al...

The Corallinus Socks are inspired by Marchandiomyces corallinus, which is a great example of the diverse and fascinating world of fungi. It parasitizes lichen, which consists of a different species of fungi that is in a symbiotic relationship with cyanobacteria. So, this fungus steals food from another fungus, which is getting that food from a ...

The X-pression Socks are inspired by people who just can’t help X-pressing themselves and making striped socks do something un-X-pected! Why not add a smattering of little Xs here and there to the foot and leg of your socks to take that sock from ordinary to X-traordinary? (Is that enough bad X wordplay? Are you getting X-asperated with me?)

The Azureum Socks are inspired by Uracentron azureum, the Green Thornytail Iguana, a brightly-coloured spiny lizard native to the northern Amazon rainforest. These small reptiles have bold stripe patterns and distinctive spiked tails. Like many rainforest species, they are not well-studied, and little is known about the details of their lives e...

The Pop Rocks Cheesecake Cowl is inspired by one of my other creative loves: experimenting with food! When I was a university student, I was asked by a friend to make a cheesecake with popping candy inside for a 90s-themed party. I did it, and although it is not fancy cuisine, it certainly tasted true to the theme. You can try my ridiculous exp...

The Wired Up Hat is inspired by electrical wiring. My child is constantly asking questions about electricity and how power gets from the switch to the light, or from the power plant to the house. This hat gives the illusion of strands of yarn woven in front and behind columns of stitches, just like wires running between studs in a wall. This ef...

Ah, the most dreaded of all Canadian winter weather reports: “mixed precipitation”! Flurries? Maybe. Freezing rain? Possibly. Sleet? Probably. Is it going to be icy? Slushy? Snowy? Wet? What is the appropriate outerwear? Will they cancel the buses? Should I put down salt so people can get to the sidewalk without slipping, or should I get ready ...

The Whitewater Rapids Toque is inspired by churning river rapids. This hat reflects the water’s turbulence and irregularly-interrupted flow with deliberately twisted elongated stitches offset from each other in a disorderly pattern. No unusual techniques are required to make this visually striking effect!

The Tundra Solstice Socks are inspired by the beauty of the Arctic landscape. In the depths of polar winters, the twilight makes the white landscape glow an eerie deep purple, against which the white-furred animals like Arctic Foxes (Vulpes lagopus) and Polar Bears (Ursus maritimus) look like ghostly, glowing figures in the frigid landscape, ra...

Do you want a brand-new pair of socks with that pretty yarn you just brought home to be finished, like, yesterday? Did you promise someone in your life a pair of hand-knit socks but you don’t feel motivated enough to spend the next 2-4 weeks making them a pair… or maybe at this point you don’t have 2-4 weeks left before that gift-giving deadlin...

The MADvent Shawl is inspired by this crazy year of 2020. Who would have thought that 2012 would go by without a hitch, but 2020 would be nothing but disasters? The best word to describe this year, I think, is “mad”, since it has been both absurd and frustrating. I have felt mad a lot, in both senses of the word! I don’t know about you, but I ...

The Whitewater Rapids Fingerless Mitts are inspired by churning river rapids. These socks reflect the water’s turbulence and irregularly-interrupted flow with deliberately twisted elongated stitches offset from each other in a disorderly pattern. No unusual techniques are required to make this visually striking effect!

The Fade Out Mitts are inspired by the joy of mixing sock yarn leftovers in a new and interesting way! These unconventional mitts are constructed thumb-first, including a gusset, then the hand is worked, followed by the fingers, and finally the wrist and cuff. Watch these mitts transform as you knit them from just a few stitches into something ...

The Fade Out Socks are inspired by the joy of mixing sock yarn leftovers in a new and interesting way! These socks begin with a fade sequence travelling up from the heel of the sock, then they have divergent fade sequences going up the leg and down the foot. Watch these socks transform as you knit them from just a few stitches into something tr...

The Sidewalk Chalk Shawl is inspired by simple chalk drawings that all run into each other in a limited space. Even in these times of social distancing, sidewalk art is a way for children in a neighbourhood to connect with each other and work together, hours or days apart, as they each add their own contribution to the concrete canvas.

The Malachiticus Socks are inspired by Sceloporus malachiticus, the Emerald Swift Lizard, a brightly-coloured spiny lizard native to Central America from southern Mexico to Panama. Emerald Swifts are famous for the males’ bright yellow-green scales and blue underbellies, which help them attract a mate. They live in trees, eating insects and bas...

The Oblique Reflex Socks are inspired by geometry, angles, and bending light through refraction. In mathematics, “oblique” means an angle is not a right angle or a flat line, and “reflex” means an angle that is more than 180 degrees. I have to admit that physics was my worst subject in my university science program — I never got the hang of mor...

The Whitewater Rapids Socks are inspired by churning river rapids. These socks reflect the water’s turbulence and irregularly-interrupted flow with deliberately twisted elongated stitches offset from each other in a disorderly pattern. No unusual techniques are required to make this visually striking effect!

The Mesotherm Socks are inspired by the thermoregulation of dinosaurs. Vertebrates alive today are either endotherms (warm-blooded) or ectotherms (cold-blooded). Scientists studying fossil oxygen isotopes now believe non-avian dinosaurs were somewhere in between — so they coined the term “mesotherm”. These socks represent an abstract interpreta...

The Fire Rainbow Hat is inspired by the rare weather phenomenon of a circumhorizontal arc, which is caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals suspended in high-altitude cirrus clouds. Though the term “fire rainbow” may be inaccurate (since this is neither fire nor a true rainbow), it is certainly a poetic description of this unusual ph...

The Fire Rainbow Socks are inspired by the rare weather phenomenon of a circumhorizontal arc, which is caused by sunlight refracting through ice crystals suspended in high-altitude cirrus clouds. Though the term “fire rainbow” may be inaccurate (since this is neither fire nor a true rainbow), it is certainly a poetic description of this unusual...

The Tana Socks are inspired by Furcifer lateralis, the Carpet Chameleon, a species of chameleon from Madagascar. “Tana” is the word for “chameleon” in the local Malagasy language. Like all chameleons, they are famous for their ability to change colour in intense patterns, and in general, chameleons are very unusual-looking creatures. These sock...

The Chinstrap Heel Socks are inspired by Pygoscelis antarcticus, the Chinstrap Penguin. They are a very social Antarctic penguin with a distinctive black line under their beak. Though they are small and cute, they are surprisingly tough — in fact, they are considered the most aggressive of all penguins. These socks use a heel with three wedges ...

The Affluents Socks are inspired by the flow of small streams and creeks into a river. The word “affluent” is another word for “tributary”; a smaller watercourse flowing into a larger one. These socks were intended to have a feeling of easy flow by smoothly shifting branching lines asymmetrically from a central line with the fabric — no cables ...

The Iralai Toque is inspired by Antilope cervicapra, the Blackbuck (“iralai maan” in Tamil), a species of antelope from the Indian subcontinent. Its long corkscrew antlers are one of the most impressive features in the animal kingdom. They have unfortunately often been the target of poachers for this reason, so today in India they are protected...

The Iralai Fingerless Mitts are inspired by Antilope cervicapra, the Blackbuck (“iralai maan” in Tamil), a species of antelope from the Indian subcontinent. Its long corkscrew antlers are one of the most impressive features in the animal kingdom. They have unfortunately often been the target of poachers for this reason, so today in India they a...

The Sula Socks are inspired by Sula nebouxii, the Blue-Footed Booby, a marine bird native to the Pacific Coast of North and South America, concentrated in the Galapagos Islands. Blue-footed boobies are famous for their bright blue feet, which females examine to choose the best mate. Why shouldn’t your feet get just as much attention with a pair...

The PhytoFade Fingerless Mitts are inspired by phytoplankton, which is a broad group of organisms that form the foundation of ocean food chains. Phytoplankton are at their most visible and beautiful in algal blooms, where a large quantity of photosynthesizing organisms multiply in a small part of the ocean, providing a burst of food for ocean a...

The Undulatus Socks are inspired by Balistapus undulatus, the Orange-Lined Triggerfish, a species of tropical fish from the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It varies in colour, but is most commonly a dark green or blue with orange or yellow stripes. This striped pattern is distinctive and encourages other animals to stay away from this aggressive an...

The Ferox socks are inspired by Odontapsis ferox, the Smalltooth Sand Tiger Shark, which lives in the deep ocean all around the world. Although the large creature sports striking teeth, the Ferox is actually docile and harmless to people. Like the shark, these socks look intimidating but are actually a calm, laid-back project.

The Iralai Socks are inspired by Antilope cervicapra, the Blackbuck (“iralai maan” in Tamil), a species of antelope from the Indian subcontinent. Its long corkscrew antlers are one of the most impressive features in the animal kingdom. They have unfortunately often been the target of poachers for this reason, so today in India they are protecte...