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From the craft library: Getting Started Knitting Socks
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Photo copyright Jennifer Lethbridge
By Ann Budd
Published by Interweave Press
“I've developed a relationship with handknitted socks that's bordering on a love affair.” begins Ann Budd in the introduction. By the time you've finished with this book, you'll have realized that her enthusiasm is quite contagious.
I hesitate to write in first person, as it's somewhat unprofessional, but I think a bit of back story is due here. I learned to knit in 2005, and I've never considered myself anywhere near advanced. I've yet to tackle fair isle in any real capacity. I learned cables last year. The words “color work” and “kitchener stitch” cause hesitation when I'm deciding whether I want to tackle a pattern. I'm no more advanced in knitting than your average hobby knitter.
It had been a goal of mine to someday learn to knit myself a pair of socks, and when the opportunity presented itself to learn so that I could teach others, I jumped at the chance to finally scratch something off my list of goals. Knitting socks was, as many knitters will tell you, a daunting prospect. Many won't attempt it, and others put it on the back burner for many reasons, but they all boil down to one thing. Socks are intimidating, and less necessary than say, knitting hats and gloves. They aren't as easy to show off or appreciate, and it's quite easy to buy durable, comfortable socks in packs of 3, 6, or 10 that serve the purpose fairly well. As such, learning to knit socks is considered unnecessary.
If you talk to knitters that have tackled them, however, you'll see that gleam in their eye. That gleam hints at a secret addiction that's becoming more and more popular with better information and more access to sock weight yarns. I wanted to understand that secret, so I went on a quest to find the perfect beginner's book.
There are many books that teach the basics of sock knitting. Most of them include patterns and tips that will help you get through the pattern. They walk you through the parts of the sock, the tools, and the basics of yarn. They encourage you to dive right into production of your first socks because many people learn by doing. The problem with these books is that their instructional techniques are merely adequate for learning to do the patterns. They don't help you to understand socks from start to finish. They don't give you a working understanding of how socks come together, from your yarn choices down to adapting patterns and other methods of troubleshooting. Much like a coloring book, they don't encourage creativity and teach you enough to go out on your own.
Getting Started Knitting Socks does, and that's why it's being reviewed today. Not only does it offer 16 different patterns to keep you busy for a while, it teaches you how to adapt their patterns with included lace patterns. It offers easy-to-understand variations and helpful tips throughout the book, from start to finish. Getting Started Knitting Socks isn't just a starting point to get you through your first pair. It's a reference manual that you can use for years to come, either as you tackle harder patterns, or to help friends who need some tips.
Getting Started Knitting Socks offers contemporary patterns and ideas throughout the book with detailed pictures of many steps of assembly. It offers patterns for yarns from fingering weight all the way through chunky weight, and it teaches you what qualities to look for in your yarns when you decide to branch out into your own projects. It has instructions for different cast-ons, heels, and gussets, and then it tells you why you would choose each one. It has tips for reinforcing heels and toes, and tells you how to figure out exactly what size sock you'll be knitting for children's through men's sizes for a custom fit. It offers tons of information to help you avoid common sock-knitting pitfalls, and if all does not go well, there are tips that tell you where you went wrong and how to fix it in the future.
Once you've learned the basics of sock construction from top to toe, the book then goes in-depth into working with stripes and colors, including teaching you how to come up with your own colorways for color work. It does it with good pictures, clear instructions, and infectious enthusiasm. You'll learn about self-striping and self-patterning yarns for socks, as well as offering tips on using up your stash ends that are too short to make an entire pair of socks by themselves.
If that was all the information contained in Getting Started Knitting Socks, it will still be good enough for any knitter's bookshelf, but there's more.
It also includes 4-, 6-, and 8-stitch ribs and repeats that are stretchy enough for socks and it tells you how to use them. Then it gives you a couple patterns so you can try them out (or alter the pattern given with another in the book). Then it does the same thing (with patterns) for cables and then lace.
From trying these alone, any knitter would have socks spilling into the front yard with enough time and yarn, and they wouldn't even have made it to part 6, which teaches cuff and leg variations so that you can make anklets, ruffled cuffs,and knee socks.
If you're not completely proficient with top-down socks by the end of this book, then one can safely say that socks are not your thing.
In fact, there are only two negatives to this book.
The first is that there are so many tips and ideas that it can be hard to choose a project. Fortunately, socks are a small (and portable) project, so once you're proficient, it will be easier to tackle every pattern and idea you want to do.
The second is that it doesn't spend a lot of time on other methods for sock knitting that people might like to try. Though it has small blurbs on short circular needles and knitting on one long circular (the Magic Loop) and two circulars, it gives you no real information on how to do these things. This is disappointing because many people are intimidated by working with double-pointed needles. It also doesn't mention the other common method of sock construction. While socks are traditionally knitted from the top to the toe, many knitters are at least trying a pattern or two knitted from the toe up.
Getting Started Knitting Socks would have benefited from at least including this information, including the benefits of knitting socks each way.
Other than those two (rather small) issues, Getting Started Knitting Socks is an incredible resource for people learning to knit socks as well as people who want to branch out but aren't sure where to start. In fact, since I'm writing in first person today anyway, I'll say that I learned enough from this book to feel confident branching out, and I'm now easily learning more advanced sock-knitting techniques like the Magic Loop, toe-up socks, and knitting two socks at once. As I learn new methods, I often find myself reaching for my copy of *Getting started knitting socks to make sure I'm doing things correctly or to change things up here and there to personalize a pattern.
My purchase of Getting Started Knitting Socks was money very well spent, and (as an instructor) I recommend it to all of my socks students so that they can troubleshoot and branch out on their own.
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