This pattern was a design for the ‘warm up period’ of Sock Madness 11, a speed knitting contest. (See the Sock Madness Forever group for more information)

“Invitation to the Dance” (Aufforderung zum Tanz), Op. 65, J. 260, is a piano piece written by Carl Maria von Weber in 1819, also well known in the 1841 orchestration by Hector Berlioz.

It was the first concert waltz ever written and to date remains one of the most poetic of its form. Rather than being a tune to dance to or a piece of abstract music, it tells the story of the dancers themselves:
starting with a young man politely asking a girl for a dance; her evasive answer then her consent; a little conversation as they wait for the dance to begin, than they take several turns around the room; finally they part politely.

In the pattern of these socks you can see the dancers swirling, twirling round and round.

These socks are an invitation to make your needles dance with color (and give colorwork a try):
for anyone who might be intimidated by the idea of having to knit with 2 colors at once, there’s an option to only work 1 color per round – and nobody will be the wiser at the end: the result is exactly the same. (It’s a bit more time-consuming, though).
And if that experience emboldens you to try stranding with 2 colors, you can switch your method any round (- and back to working one color at a time, should you feel dizzy by the dance of the colors).
The socks then end with an easy knit/purl pattern for you to relax after all the excitement.

So give the pattern and its colorwork a whirl! You might discover that you actually like stranding
and will happily knit the night away!