Uncover a Pair of Knitted Socks Inspired by a Mystery Novel

Have you ever thought of using double-pointed needles from a pair of knitted socks as a murder weapon in a mystery novel? Author Patricia Moyes did just that in Night Ferry to Death. The book served as inspiration for Mimi Seyferth’s “Windmill Socks to Knit” featured in the September/October 2016 issue of PieceWork. Here’s Mimi to tell us more.

In deciding on a companion project for the my article on author Patricia Moyes, I thought it appropriate to design a pair of socks knitted on double-pointed knitting needles, given that the crucial clue in Patricia Moyes’s mystery novel Night Ferry to Death involves an unfinished knitted sock and a missing double-pointed knitting needle. A Windmill Stitch pattern, found in the Japanese stitch dictionary 1000 Knitting Patterns Book (Tokyo: Nihon Vogue-Sha, 1992) and a Dutch heel seemed to be natural design elements for socks inspired by a mystery featuring a diamond theft in Amsterdam.

Mimi Seyferth knitted these excellent socks on double-pointed knitting needles as a nod to the crucial clue in Patricia Moyes’s mystery novel Night Ferry to Death that involves an unfinished knitted sock and a missing double-pointed knitting needle. Photo by Joe Coca

The Dutch heel, also known as the Square heel, is considered one of the easiest heels to knit because of the consistency of the stitch shaping in the heel turn. The distinctive feature is a heel band that continues under the heel into the foot. In her fall 2008 knitty.com article, “Socks 102,” Kate Atherley noted that because the width of the heel band can be varied without causing a significant variance in fit, the Dutch heel provides flexibility to accommodate different stitch patterns.

The Dutch heel appears to date back to at least the 1880s. Sophia Frances Anne Caulfeild and Blanche C. Saward’s The Dictionary of Needlework (London: L. Upcott Gill, 1882) includes instructions for knitting a Dutch heel. Blogger Kim Brody Salazar noted in a March 2005 blog that mention of the Dutch heel appears in an 1883 issue of the Girl’s Own Paper, a weekly British periodical, published between 1880 and 1956, intended, by its first editor, “to foster and develop that which was highest and noblest in the girlhood and womanhood of England.”

Looking for more delightful intersections of craft and mystery? This pattern, its companion article, and others are available in the September/October 2016 issue of PieceWork.

Also, remember that if you are an active subscriber to PieceWork magazine, you have unlimited access to previous issues, including September/October 2016. See our help center for the step-by-step process on how to access them.

MIMI SEYFERTH, a lawyer who lives outside Washington, D.C., was first introduced to Henry and Emmy Tibbetts by her mother, an avid mystery reader. Mimi, who now views Henry and Emmy as old friends, periodically rereads her dog-eared copies of Moyes’s mysteries, which are now, sadly, out of print in the United States.

Originally published February 28, 2018; updated April 14, 2023.