another book review, this time -- SOCKS!

I love hand knit socks, love them! They are easily my most favorite thing to knit ... fairly quick, easy, and very useful (and comfy too!). I love sock patterns, and figuring out a new way to make a sock is pretty exciting for me. I love all the colours available in sock yarn and have quite a stash ... which I have plans to whittle down over the next little while.

"The Sock Knitters Workshop" by Ewa Jostes and Stepahnie van der Linden is a well laid out book (with lots of top down patterns, and a few top up), that should be helpful in my goal ... the first half of the book focuses on sock construction, and the second half is a plethora of really unique patterns.

I've knit socks for a few years now, and figured I knew a lot about socks, but this book threw me a few cuff styles I hadn't seen or tried before (twisted garter cuff - which is like a spiral at the top of your sock? wow! cute! and I am going to use it next time I knit a pair of socks for one of my nieces ... so pretty!) ... they have 13 (yes! 13!) cuff variations. That hooked me!

I really like reading about how socks are constructed and figuring out the best construction for my feet (or whoever I am knitting for - T has a really big, wide, long foot ... and the toe I traditionally knit for all my socks does not fit him, so I was also exited to see a whole bunch of different types of toes, accompanied by charts with stitch counts for every size shoe from children up to large men ... here's hoping that I have knit and ripped and re knit my last toes for T -- these charts could be my salvation :)

The patterns are really unique with a lot of different techniques to try - entrelac, mosaic, cables, chevron, lace and interesting uses of ribbing. Nice patterns, pretty pictures, using yarns I have in my stash -- I am inspired.

Once my sore shoulder gets better (they think I have frozen shoulder - man does it hurt when I move it :( ), I am going to knit a pair or two from the book ... Ribs and cables and Anatomical Socks are on my to do list. Hopefully, my arm is back in the swing of things soon.