Chestnuts Roasting On An Open Fire...

Jack Frost slurping at my Irish Coffee...

I don't know about you, but I sometimes feel that barmen are a little furtive when making an Irish Coffee... whether it's to make sure no-one sees their super-secret method of making it, or to make sure no-one sees their panic in trying to make sure the coffee and cream stay separated, who's to tell?  What I can say is that I am a fan of their end product!  I'm also a fan of the 'Baby Guinness' which in fact has nothing to do with Guinness at all, but is in fact a portion of coffee liqueur poured in to a shot glass then topped with a layer of Irish cream liqueur!  I happily class that as an Irish Coffee, too!

Inspired by warm cabled jerseys, roaring pub fireplaces on a frosty evening, and a snifter of Irish whiskey, this is a cream-liqueur-cuff-down, heel-flapped sock, with a coffee-bean cable leg, cosy enough to stave off the harshest of Winter chills!

Unlike the traditional bottom-up method of making an Irish Coffee, we start at the top with an Irish cream liqueur cabled cuff:

The cuff* is actually knit flat from a provisional cast-on, then the edges are grafted together (I used kitchener stitch) after the stitches for the ribbing section are picked up along the edge.  It sounds complicated, but it isn't at all, and makes for a very cool-looking (or should that be 'warm-looking') cuff.

Then follows the toasty coffee-bean cable leg... Truly delicious - I love how this yarn* pools in a way to create different flavour beans!  

And talking of beans - they come in a righ variety of colours!  Check out the Wikipedia page on Coffee roasting for some fabulous examples from greens and yellows to almost black!  Plus the coffee berry itself is a delicious pinky-red colour!

The heel-flap is actually a simple 'double' Eye of Partridge with the main and contrasting colours alternating every 2 rows.  I affectionately call this my Curdled Heel-Flap, because it looks like my attempts at making Irish Coffees for myself.  (I can never get them to layer like the professionals - they either mix for plain a boozy coffee, or separate completely, looking not unlike the example below!) You could, however, claim that the heel-flap represents the sugar grains you need to add to keep the layers separate!

The foot continues the with Coffee-Bean cable, then moves on to a plain toe.  A deliciously warm way to keep your tootsies cosy this Winter!

You can buy this warm and boozy sock pattern for $4.00 (€3.00, £2.58, A$4.12, ¥310) by clicking on this link:

and you can find the Ravelry pattern page HERE.

Go on!  You know you want to! ;-)

*BBKnits Prima Superwash Merino Nylon in colourway 'Innocence'

**Zitron Trekking XXL colourway 420