Almost every afternoon I take an exercise hike at a large camp ground across the highway from my neighborhood. Near one corner of the property there is a gorgeous Tulip Poplar, scientific name Liriodendron tulipifera. As far as I’m concerned it is the most spectacular tree at the camp. It is tall and majestic. It has beautiful flowers in the spring. Underneath the tree there are frequently crops of shaggy mane mushrooms, scientific name Coprinus comatus, which are edible and have an interesting taste that almost remind you of butterscotch. The tree is also home to a colony of ants who have drilled tiny holes into its trunk - the holes and the look of the bark pattern are the inspiration for this stitch pattern.

This pattern is intended to take advantage of and manipulate self-striping yarns, however as long as you aren’t knitting the sock for a Sock Knitter’s Anonymous challenge that requires that you use self striping yarn it should work great in a solid yarn or by using several solid colors and knitting your own stripes.

The easiest to work with self-striping yarn for this pattern will have:

• Clear breaks between one color and the next. Gradient color changes are going to be harder to work with.
• Stripes that are long enough that they last at least 4-ish rounds before the new color starts. But, if you have a yarn that only has 2-3 rounds before the next color starts like you can define a “pattern stripe” to be two “3 round” colors. Longer color changes are fine, but you may not like what happens if your yarn has a really wide stripe.
• Stripes that are fairly even in width would be best. But, if you have a yarn that has, for example, a single row of black between each color you could define a “stripe” as being a narrow band of black AND the color that goes with it.

Note: This is a “mystery pattern” with clues posted on July 1, 8, 15, etc. 2017.