Anguipede

Star-gazers may be familiar with Serpens Caput, the snake's head, and Serpens Cauda, the snake's tail; gamblers know about snake eyes. Thanks to Susan Lawrence, now there are snake feet (??) as well.



I love these socks, knit from Susan's clever Horcrux Socks pattern. They're a lot of fun for HP fans and lace knitters. I particularly like the S-shaped lightning bolts (Z-shaped bolts just wouldn't do!). The 3x2 ribbing at the ankle and modest gusset give the socks an excellent, no-bag fit, and the square heel looks handsomer with the strongly linear lightning bolts and ribbing than a wedge heel. I used a finer weight yarn than suggested, so added a few extra repeats to give more width and length to the sock.



Untenanted, the ribbing on the sock draws in, making the cuff and leg look a bit like pineapple-shaped shortbread. (Surely Prof. Slughorn would approve.) The yarn is Crystal Palace Panda Wool (46% bamboo, 43% wool, 11% nylon), bought at the tiny Whitney Avenue Yarn LLC store in New Haven. The new-fangled stuff knits up somewhat like cotton, with outstanding stitch definition and a bigger gauge than might be expected, yet the resulting fabric is both cushier and much lighter than cotton. This colorway, 4108 Vine Green, has marled green and sage-blue-gray strands that sometimes look solid, sometimes look stippled, and sometimes gleam slightly – an appropriately Slytherine mutability.

Taking pix of one's own feet is quite a task – I fell over more than once, as neatly as if tripped. Which leads me to leave the reader with a question: What do you suppose would happen if one tried Impedimenta on Nagini?

ETA: To view more socks, see the Horcrux Socks Flickr group. Susan is currently adapting the pattern for sockweight yarn.