Apr 54 min read

Series Finale: Saru

The fifth and final season of the scifi TV series Star Trek: Discovery is premiered this week. It's only fitting, then, to bring Sock Trek: Discovery, a sock pattern series inspired by the show, into a conclusion as well. Here are Saru's socks.

The series began with Burnham on February 2018, continued with Stamets and Tilly in 2019, and five years later, finishes with Saru in 2024. Originally I had plans to release a new sock pattern to coincide with the season premieres and finales — like I did during Season 2 — but obviously I couldn't keep that up. Watching every episode became a weekly exercise in "do I have to?" rather than filling me with inspiration. Some of my favorite characters, like Lorca and Emperor Georgiou, never got the chance to be immortalized in sock form.

To be frank, I grew increasingly discontented with the series somewhere during Season 3 when, after a magnificent second season (which in hindsight turned out to be a de facto backdoor prequel to Strange New Worlds), the quality of episode scripts took a major nosedive. Which is very ironic: the time jump nearly a millennia forward was supposed to free the writing team of the burden of Treks past. Instead, they lost focus, made Discovery into The Burnham Show, and turned the rest of the cast into paper-thin bit players. It's quite telling that the most nuanced, most developed characters (like Lorca and Emperor Georgiou) all come from the Mirror Universe rather than Prime. Or maybe I just like villains?

Saru and his backstory were one of the most interesting aspects to follow unfold on the series. Besides Burnham, his character is the one given the most time and attention on the show so it's befitting for these two to bookend the sock series. And this is something I also wanted to bring into the sock design.

It's no secret that I'm a fan of twisted stitches, especially in sock patterns. Saru's socks are a pair of of toe-up socks worked in a textured stitch pattern made of knits, purls, and twisted stitches. Running alongside the outer foot and back leg is an ornate motif of traveling stitches that hearkens back to Burnham's pair: it's a similar design of criss-crossing cables that form smaller and larger lozenge shapes stacked upon each other.

While the insteps and front legs of right and left socks are worked as mirror images of each other, the backs are identical. The heel flap is worked in a rhythmic twisted-rib pattern. The heel construction is my favorite: a French a.k.a. round heel from the toe up following the Widdershins Revisited method.

Flowing seamlessly from the heel flap, the back leg is worked with two traveling-stitch motifs on each side and a panel of 1×1 twisted ribbing in the middle, representing the golden stripes on the early Discovery uniforms. The cuffs of the socks are done in an irregular twisted-rib pattern, then finished with a stretchy bind-off. I find Lori's Twisty Bind-off particularly suitable for twisted ribbing.

Another thing that ties two sock patterns together is the color. For Saru's socks I used an intense teal colorway named Malachite of Schoppel-Wolle Admiral Hanf, an unusual blend of wool (67%), biodegradable nylon for reinforcement (23%), and linen (10%). The semi-solid colors and the addition of linen into the fiber mix give a varied, slightly heathered look to the yarn. The linen content also produced little tufts of fiber protruding from the surface. As for the durability of the eco-friendly nylon, only time will tell.

As said, right and left socks are worked as mirror images of each other. The pattern contains separate, full-page charts for each sock. But no need to worry! Row-by-row written instructions are also provided for all stitch patterns.

Saru's socks can also be knit two at a time if that's your preference. Normally this would've have been my preferred way, too, but Admiral Hanf comes wound up into such a pretty ball I dared not to break it up. For TAAT knitters I've also provided a combined chart with left, right, and back charts presented side by side.

Saru's sock pattern comes in three sizes — 66, 70, and 74 stitches — to fit adult shoe sizes from EU 39/40 to 43/44 or US 7½–8 to 10–11. To knit the socks you'll need fingering-weight sock yarn, approx. 370 [400, 435] m or 405 [435, 475] yd, 2.5 mm or US 1½ double-pointed or circular needles (or size to obtain gauge), and an optional cable needle. I highly recommend cabling without a cable needle, though! All the twists in the pattern are one-over-one right/left twists or right/left purl twists that can be maneuvered without using a cable needle.

Saru the sock pattern is now available in my pattern stores on Payhip, LoveCrafts, and Ravelry (seizure warning). Share your creation on Instagram with the hashtags #sarusocks and #talviknits. For the rest of the series — Burnham, Stamets, and Tilly — check out #socktrekdiscovery, too!