Inspiration Saturday: If the shoe fits, knit socks

Socks are one of the last bastions of projects I haven't tried to knit.  And I wasn't really planning on adding them to my personal portfolio of skills until the other week.  It was the Friday before going to Yellow Rose, and my regular trip to the grocery store was supplemented by a stop at DSW.  I wasn't looking for anything in particular, but I had a coupon.  Which is pretty much how every shoe shopping expedition begins.  I've even already had an Inspiration Saturday post about shoe shopping.  But this isn't just a story about finding another new pair of shoes.  This is a story about finding a pair of shoes that have convinced me that knitting socks is something I have to do.

I found these shoes in the same section I find all of my shoes: the clearance section.  I think at first I grabbed them as a joke, but once I had them in my hands I had to try them on, and once I had them on my feet I had to have them.  Because these shoes...are see-through.

Penny Loves Kenny Larisa - Green Patent 

They are oxford flats with transparent synthetic uppers, accented with pastel pink on the toes, gold on the heel and tongue, and a sort of minty sea foam green at the laces.  I love the style, I love the colors, and I love the fact that they show off handknit socks.  In the past, that's been my dilemma with socks.  They are awesome and they keep my feet warm, but unless I'm wearing them around the house, they are stuffed into shoes, unseen.  In these shoes, though, they can be admired for all of their beauty.

And so I bought the shoes, and immediately raided my small inventory of socks which have been knit for me in swaps to find a pair in a color which would coordinate.  I went with some gorgeously fuchsia sparkle ones I got in the last winter sanity swap.

Of course, this became the focal point for deciding the rest of my outfit for going to the fiber festival.

I know I still need to show off my purchases from Yellow Rose, and I'll get to that, but I had just as much fun showing off my crazy shoes as I did looking at the wonderful yarn and fiber.  When people realized that the hot pink was in fact my socks, they were amazed.  This event was obviously a mecca of exactly the kind of people who would love these shoes, so my initial love was heavily reinforced with at least a dozen people asking me where I got them and immediately plotting a trip to DSW when I told them.

So now that I have the shoes, I need to knit the socks.  Because the desire to knit socks debuted at a fiber festival, I of course already have a skein assigned to the task, from one of my favorite local fiber artists, Heavenly Fiber:

This is Stardust Sock in Titania.  See how perfectly the yarn matches the shoes?  It was meant to be.

The actual pattern I'll use?  I have no idea.  Taking suggestions now from anyone who cares to share.  Keep in mind, these will be my first non-yoga socks ever.  I've done lots of fingerless mitts and things, but never turned a heel or worked a toe.  I did knit a Kindle cosy last Christmas using magic loop, so I was considering using that technique again, but again, I'm open to advice.

Because I wouldn't be me if I was only thinking of knitting one pair of socks, I also ended up buying these shoes in black from Amazon:

Penny Loves Kenny Larisa - Black Patent

These will go with pretty much any color of yarn which strikes my fancy, right?

For more inspiration, visit Alicia at Woolen Diversions.