Pattern Review: Shepherdess Socks

The Shepherdess Socks were the socks (from Tracie Millar) I was most excited about buying the pattern for during Sockvent 2019. An interestingly textured sock is my favourite kind of sock, especially when just knits and purls, without constantly changing the yarn from front to back.

The name of these socks is also great of course. While not a lot of us are actually involved directly with sheep, they sure are important to most knitters and crocheters! And my stash would suggest that I do have a flock, in a way. Because of the name I definitely think of each section of purls as being a little sheep (and it turns out that was the designer’s thought too!). I see lots of things as sheep, like these stitch markers, that are not even referred to as sheep!!! Total missed marketing opportunity there.

Aside from the “sheep” my favourite design element is the bars just before the toe decreases. I really appreciate that this provides the other book end for the sock, from the textured band just below the cuff. It really finishes it off.

This is the first fingering weight sock I’ve made that wasn’t a 64-stitch sock. It also calls for a larger needle than I would typically use, a 2.5 mm. (This was the first sock I did completely on curved dpns, review coming soon!) It doesn’t seem that this affected the fit, perhaps the lower stitch count plus the needle size counteracted each other nicely. The yarn I used (Ancient Arts Socknado, in French Lilac) is also a heavier fingering weight yarn, which really worked well with the 2.5 mm needles so that the fabric created wasn’t too stiff.

I have no notable tips for making this sock, though I think it probably does look better in a solid colour to really show off the texture! And because of the needle size you probably don’t want a light fingering weight yarn. To make sure you could of course swatch, but I have to admit to very, very rarely doing so with socks I’m not testing.