Welsh Pendragon Socks for Rachel

These special socks have the distinction of being the first of my UK Trip socks to be completed - which was entirely on purpose. I had found this pattern on Ravelry some time ago, and knew they were Arthurian-adjacent because of the "Pendragon" part of the title, so I kept them in the back of my mind for one day when I wanted to knit Rachel some socks. When the time came to start knitting projects for our trip together, I came back to this pattern and found that they were actually inspired by Susan Cooper's "The Dark is Rising" Sequence - which was one of the Arthurian-adjacent literary pieces we were going to cover on our trip! It couldn't have been more perfect. I chose a yarn that made me think of Wales (since Rachel had said Wales would have special meaning for her) and started knitting. I was reading the books at the same time and both pattern and story weaved together seamlessly - I finally turly understood the pattern and how it was tied to the books. The synchronicity here was amazing. My plan with all of my UK socks was to knit some part of them on site to try and imbue them with some of the local atmosphere, so I got these socks mostly done before the trip and then finished them in Wales so they could go home with Rachel. (The socks are seen here in close-up at home and in progress at Cadair Idris, in Wales.) Once I actually spent time in the Welsh countryside, it became clear that the colours were perfect and the atmosphere was perfect and it was all just perfect.
Pattern: Pendragon Socks [ravelry link] by Erica Lueder
Yarn: Cascade Heritage Paints in Grey