June

Rose Moon

Now that it’s June, the flower garden, and the lawn, are growing in leaps and bounds. While I don’t yet have roses in my flower garden, I do have some beautiful blooms right now. Old Celtic names for June’s full moon reflect this time of ardent blooming, with names such as the Flower Moon as well as Rose Moon. It seems that every week during this month a new set of flowers open in the garden, with an explosion of color and pollinators.
This sock design is becoming a very favorite of mine, with its soothing knit and purl alternating bands. Simple Seed Stitch and the gansey classic, the Betty Martin pattern, are popular motifs in fisher gansey sweaters and are perfect for socks. You have the option of a plain and simple stockinette foot or continue the banded patterns to the toe. Whichever you choose, I bet you will be making more than one pair!

Full Moon Sock of the Month Sock Patterns
Full moon folklore is a legacy of many cultures and persists today. These sock of the month patterns celebrate the Celtic themes surrounding the full moon. Many of the Celtic full moon names are shared by the Anglo Saxons and Native Americans. As the monthly patterns unfold, you will see how I was inspired by each moon’s theme and was also inspired by the incredible color range of Exmoor Sock yarn which I used exclusively for each month’s sample pair of socks. So inspired, in fact, that there are three bonus patterns to be released later in the year so I could continue to play with Exmoor’s luminous and nature-inspired palette, and you get more sock patterns!
As a designer who specializes in cabled knitting designs, most of these socks feature cables in some form. Designing an Aran at the miniature scale of socks is no easy task and I found that simpler is better to save myself from frustration and allowing me to offer more than one size of sock each month. Each month’s theme allowed me to really distill my ideas to a spare but emotive design. To offer a bit of respite, there are gansey inspired socks as well that are only knit and purl patterns to offer us a bit of a break throughout the year. I hope you enjoy knitting these socks as much as I have enjoyed designing them.

Yarn
John Arbon Textiles Exmoor Sock 4 ply
60% Exmoor Blueface Superwash 20% Corriedale Superwash 10% Zwartbles 10% Nylon
50 grams 200 meters per skein (218 yards)
Version A or Version B: 2 (2) skeins or 330 (350) yards or 300 (320) meters of fingering weight
Version A shown in Peggles (Red) in size Medium
Version B shown in Bell Heather (Magenta) in size Medium

Needles
US 1 (2.25 mm) or size to obtain gauge, double pointed, set of 5

Notions
Stitch marker
Tapestry needle

Gauge
32 stitches over 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette, blocked
30 stitches over 4” (10cm) in Seed St and Betty Martin patterns, blocked
44 rounds over 4” (10 cm) in Stockinette and stitch patterns, blocked

Finished Size
Medium (Large) 8”/20 cm (8 ½”/22 cm) circumference after blocking