A while back, an image triggered me to combine two of my loves: paleobotany and knitting and create a sock design with a textural pattern that resembled the fossils of an ancient extinct Coal Age tree called Lepidodendron.

This 350 million year old plant had trunks covered in diamond shaped leaf scars and large basal roots covered with small round rootlet scars in an alternating or spiral pattern. Hey, now! (I said to myself confidently) I can surely work that out in knitted stitches and still retain the botanical accuracy and thus knit a pair of fossil socks! (Well, socks based on fossils, not fossilized themselves actually).

So after a fair amount of swatch knitting, pattern editing and then more swatch knitting I came up with the stitch patterns and then worked them into these socks. The good news was that I pretty much nailed it in achieving the shapes and textures I was going for (if I do say so myself!). The bad news was that as hard as I tried, I couldn’t work these up in multiple sizes and still maintain the overall design. Thus, there is only one size given: L/XL. My apologies to the pixie footed.

Lacy diamond pattern for the trunk/leg complete with appropriate internal details. This stitch pattern turned out to have a LOT of stretch so I had to start over a couple of times and keep decreasing my circumference ST count. On the instep is a textured, holey pattern to represent the root and that stitch pattern is not nearly as stretchy so the overall ST count changes after the heel in order to produce a sock that still fits like a sock should.

The design of the ankle/gusset area is well suited to those with thick ankles/ high arches and/or wide feet (like me, oddly enough, lol). These socks are knit top down with a traditional heel flap and side gussets.

Yarn recommendations: a solid, light colored yarn is the best choice. Heavy variegations will obscure the stitch patterns.