Confession: I’m a bit of a retrograde purist when it comes to socks. I like ‘em plain… your good ol’ vanilla stockinette kind of plain. Ribbed sometimes, maybe with a bit of stitch detail or some stripes… but certainly not fussy or too busy. And – horrors! – never lacy; lace socks in a northern climate are just pointless. Once sandal weather comes to Canada, my socks go away with the shoes and don’t come back out until my naked toes start to turn blue from the cold on morning dog-walks.
So, given my sockly prejudices, I’ve never been a big fan of Cookie A. Her designs are either too far out for me, or impractical for my needs. I greeted the news of her new sock book with a decidedly unenthusiastic “meh”. I figured it wouldn’t be useful for me, and a waste of money when there are so many excellent and suitable sock patterns in my stash that I haven’t even got to yet. However, I do admit I was vaguely curious at what sort of wacky weirdness might lurk between the covers of Sock Innovation, and when I saw it at the bookshop, I idly picked it up and flipped a few pages.
And that’s when Cookie A hooked me like a fish. The first 55-page section of the book is completely devoted to design, and the delicately convoluted process of making creative stitch patterns work within the size and structural limits of a sock. A dozen pages are spent working through the complexities and tribulations of charting, and converting different types of patterns and charts into different formats… and for those pages alone, I count my money well spent. The technical information on shaping and sizing is clear and useful. Her ideas on transitioning between stitch patterns to make the different sections of the sock flow naturally and gracefully into one another are subtle and brilliant.
The individual sock patterns are written in an open and sensible style, with suggestions on how to resize and change the fit to suit your own needs. The layout is outstanding, with lots of large photos of each side of the sock. The 15 patterns cover a satisfying range of styles, moving from the lacy patterns I’d expected through some wild cabling and out to a couple of nice masculine patterns that I’d bet even my husband would wear.
Maybe I’ll knit him a pair. After I knit a few for myself, of course – sorry, he’s just going to have to wait.
Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks, by Cookie A
ISBN: 978-1-59668-109-5
Post a Comment