In December 2010, The Socks That Rawk group in Ravelry started voting on patterns for the Q1 KAL. The STR KAL is a regular thing now but this time there was a twist. It was Tina Newton’s choice. She nominated 4 BMFA patterns with which to test the new PDF download feature of her site. It was a close call between The Solstice Slip and Winter’s Eve: 1 vote separated them when the polls closed. The Solstice Slip by JC Briar won.

I knew I wanted to use a semi-solid colourway to make the travelling cables of the pattern come out prominently. I selected Saffron Jungle in STR Lightweight, a purchase made in January last year. It feels good to have a pair of socks off the needles finally!


The pattern gives you the option to knit your socks from the cuff down or from the toe up. I chose cuff down and I also added a 3×2 ribbing to let it flow down to the pattern smoothly. I started doing these two at a time on one long circular needle but I could not tame the yarn ends, needles and cable loops well enough to knit without having to end up in tangles so I went back to my usual one at a time on 80cm circulars.

The garter stitch, short row heel is new to me. I was hesitant to follow the pattern and use a heel flap instead but I could not be bothered with figuring out the math for it. I like how the double wraps conceal the holes and yet gives you a nice textured heel.

The toe is done in a similar way but for the life of me I could not figure out how the toe would end up. I kept doubting it as I knitted thinking surely I missed something. It’s an interesting way of doing the toe but because of the odd shape I am most likely not going to be doing this again. Sorry.

I knitted this pair with my feet in mind, but because of the stretch of the ribbing and the garter heels and toes, they fit even my husband’s US11 feet! The short cuff is to his liking, and he has not even complained about the colour so this is good.

I can see him wearing these socks and his brown leather sandals, safari shorts and his usual collared t-shirt – he will look just like one of the many tourists in town and can blend in easily! Not that he’d want to of course.

I didn’t use up the entire skein of course so this little leftover ball will go to my pile of leftover sock yarn which I hope one day will be a nice linen stitch scarf. If I can find the patience for it!

Project: Saffron Zigzags (Raveled!)
Pattern: The Solstice Slip by JC Briar
Needle: US 1 – 2.25 mm
Yarn: Socks that Rock Lightweight, colourway Saffron Jungle
Cast on: 3 Jan 2011
Cast off: 5 Apr 2011
Notes: 3×2 ribbing for the cuff, 5 repeats on the leg, 7 repeats on the foot. I frogged the second sock twice, first time because I forgot to do the gusset decrease and I was already on the 6th repeat down the foot and the second time because I missed a plain row in between the cable rows. I won in the end. I have a finished pair of socks.