A few weeks ago, Cristi was looking for volunteers to test-knit her new sock pattern. I offered to do so and I’m glad I did.

These are the Calvin and Ripple Socks, named after Cristi’s two famous cats by the same names.

The design is modeled after the fact that Cristi’s cats are identical from the back, but from the front, they are totally different. In her pattern, one sock has a slanted slip stitch pattern on the instep and the other has a ripple pattern. The back of the leg in both socks is knit in mistake rib. You can choose to do a patterned or a plain toe. I went with patterned. I think it’s sooo pretty! Here’s a toe pic just for you, C.

Speaking of toes, I love how Cristi calculates the toe for the top-down sock (Ripple). It’s going to come in quite handy for other patterns as well. I didn’t do her pattern exactly as I didn’t do the ripple on the Ripple sock. I went with mistake rib over the instep as well as the back of the leg because my yarn was so variegated and dark that it was hard for me to follow the knits and purls.

The yarn itself was nice to work with and the color is very rich. This is the Neighborhood Fiber Co. Studio Sock I purchased at MDSW this year. It took me some tweaking in my picture editor to get these pix to as close a color to the original as possible.

By the way, one of the socks is knit toe-up and the other is top-down. Can you tell which is which?

Of course not, because Cristi managed to design a perfect replica of Cat Bordhi’s toe-up riverbed pattern in top-down form. You did well, my friend!! They are identical!

So for the price of one, you essentially get TWO sock patterns. And, you can, of course, mix n’ match them however you please. Knit two Calvins, or two Ripples, or one of each like I did. Either way, this is a very fun sock pattern to knit. And, no, I’m not saying that because I’m biased. 😉
Calvin and Ripple Socks
- Source: Cristi Brockway
- Size: Small, to fit my youngest daughter, Little Rosi, who wears a size kids’ 3 shoe
- Yarn: Neighborhood Yarn Co. Studio Sock (201 yds used)
- Color: Girard Street
- Needles: US 1.5 32″ circular (socks knit using ML)
- Cost: $10.58
- Started: July 2, 2009
- Finished: July 23, 2009
- Mods: I didn’t do the ripple stitch on the Ripple sock but, besides that, pattern knit as written.