Product Description

Socks are portable, fun to knit, and quick to complete—and they make great gifts. This step-by-step guide walks you through all the techniques used to knit beautiful socks—from buying yarn to working on double-pointed needles, from turning a heel to grafting a toe. It covers knitting socks top-down, toe-up, and flat, explains how to create various heels and toes, and gives you a dozen original patterns for everything from baby booties to knee socks. Whether you're new to knitting or just new to socks, you'll learn the skills needed for a lifetime of creative sock knitting.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #302631 in Books
• Published on: 2008-09-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780470278963
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Booklist
Why more publishers, even businesses, don’t adopt more pictorial ways to communicate (other than PowerPoint) is a mystery. After all, visual learning, step-by-step, accompanied by clear, up-close photographs and directions, is one of the best methods to retain information, which is precisely the point and success of the Teach Yourself Visually series. This series volume focuses on sock knitting. Chau immediately dismisses any reader misgivings by deconstructing every step, beginning with selecting the right yarn and ending with the care and repair of handmade socks. Content varies from simple to complex; the author details three different methods of sock construction—top down, flat, toe-up—then expands readers’ experiences with additional patterns, whether angora baby booties or cabled cuff socks.  There is a follow-up chapter on troubleshooting to fix such mistakes as dropped or twisted stitches. Boxed tips throughout the text provide “professional” hints to turn a perceived difficult task into a relaxing hobby. --Barbara Jacobs

About the Author

Laura Chau is a self-taught knitter, designer, spinner, and dyer. She works as a custom dyer and teaches numerous classes at Toronto's popular yarn store Lettuce Knit. Laura has had multiple designs featured on Knitty.com and sells her patterns on her Web site and blog, cosmicpluto knits! (www.cosmicpluto.com).

Customer Reviews

Really good for your reference shelf!
I give this product five stars. While not for the beginning knitter (it does include a brief instruction section, but the complete novice should consult a "how to knit" book), it's very thorough and covers many techniques for knitting socks. There are TONS of pictures so for visual learner it's obviously a good choice.
I haven't checked the patterns, but the point of this book isn't patterns. The point is how to KNIT socks. It teaches you how to do this by giving you the formulas - for example, how many stitches from your total you should use to knit the heel. It tells you the size you need for, say, a women's medium (so you can find your gauge, then multiply stitches per inch by that size), instead of telling you to cast on X number of stitches. However, it's not as complicated as the custom sock patterns I have found on the internet. And it includes other options like how to make a deeper heel, a larger calf, etc.
Also, it includes information on top-down, toe-up, AND flat-knit socks (find that in another reference book!), as well as different types of heels, toes, cast-ons, etc. for each one. Also included is a VERY handy reference chart of what sizes work best for the foot size you need. This is useful as many internet patterns say "Size: Custom" which is useless if you can't measure the intended recipient's foot. Here, you just need their shoe size and can then find the corresponding approximate measurements.
All in all this is a GREAT reference book, not for the complete beginner, and heavy on techniques, instead of patterns. I HIGHLY recommend it if you are looking for these things.

I wanted to love this book.
I debated between 2 and 3 stars for this book. As a fairly inexperienced knitter, I wanted to give this book a 2, but, I do think it has some good resources for someone who is a bit more experienced and can use it as a reference, so I gave it a 3. Maybe a more experienced knitter would even give it a 4, I don't know!

This book was most helpful for me in helping to understand the overall construction of a sock. The instructions though I found a bit lacking in some areas. And there is an error in the very first basic sock pattern, which for a newer knitter and a novice sock knitter is pretty aggravating. FYI, when you make the heel flap, the pattern says to K1, Sl1, but it should be Sl1, K1. I realized this when I ended up with a 4 row long slip stitch! haha

All told, it's a book I will keep in my library for basic reference in the future, but I'm going back to online tutorials for my first socks, and won't be utilizing this book until I get the hang of a couple of techniques which I still have problems with.

Sock knitting
It's an awesome book. It has almost everything I wanted in it. One thing missing was 2-at-a-time instructions for casting on toe-up. I have family with long feet & perfer to do ours that way so that I don't have to buy more yarn. But its for sure a book to have for sock knitters.

Other thing that's missing is spiral binding. That would make it easier to have the book open while working with the instructions.