Discovering Stamets
You might have guessed: I'm a huge Star Trek fan. 🖖 A scifi fan in general but especially Star Trek. So you can guess my excitement when the brand new season of Star Trek: Discovery started this week. And with it comes the first new pattern of 2019: another pair of socks for the Sock Trek: Discovery series.
photo © CBS
The Stamets socks are named after Lt. Paul Stamets (played by Anthony Rapp), the chief engineer aboard the USS Discovery. He’s also the co-inventor of the revolutionary spore drive technology that allows Starfleet ships to jump instantaneously from one location in space to another traversing the mycelial network. Spores, baby!
These toe-up socks feature a stitch pattern that's made of twisted stitches and lace. This stitch pattern coupled with a sparkly sock yarn creates a truly stellar effect, and it reminded me of navigating the mycelial network on the show: it weaves and waves back and forth, seems impossible to come to grips at first but gets intuitive quite quickly the deeper and deeper you go (or the more you knit the socks).
And hey, you don't have to be a Trek fan to knit the socks! The stitch pattern is really pretty on its own, too.
The stitch pattern really comes to life in a solid or semi-solid, high-twist sock yarn, and light colors show the patterning especially well. Twisted stitches in general are best knit in a yarn with a round profile and a tight twist, such as merino/nylon or wool/nylon sock yarn blends.
And a little bit of glitter adds that extra something! For the sample I used a commecial fingering-weight sock yarn, Schoeller+Stahl Fortissima Disco Color, that's dyed in an interesting gradient effect and has a tiny strand of metallic running through it. A hand-dyed sparkly sock yarn would be truly lovely for the pattern!
The pattern comes with both written and charted instructions for the lace pattern. Right and left socks are mirror images of each other, and can be worked two-at-a-time. There are separate charts for both feet so you don't have to flip anything in your head as you knit! Foot and leg length are both adjustable — the pattern comes with two alternative gusset placement options so you can customize the socks to your (or your recipient's) measurements.
The pattern for Stamets' socks is now available on Ravelry. I'd love to see what you're working on — share your socks on Instagram with the hashtags #stametssocks, #socktrekdiscovery, and #talviknits.
photo © CBS
So... we've got Burnham, we've got Stamets. Whose socks do you want to see next? Vote for your favorite Star Trek: Discovery character to be included in the Sock Trek: Discovery series.
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