As the Knitter in the family, occasionally I receive bags of yarn when family friends clean out houses. About a year ago I received two shopping bags of vintage yarn with “maybe it’s of interest to you”. It is. I’m fascinated by the ball bands and the patterns I found. What was more amazing was I found a sock in progress. I wanted to do something to honour the unknown knitter and the socks. You see, the sock was knit flat and a seam was planned down the foot and back. So I mounted it and this now hangs on my office/studio wall.


If knitting socks flat isn’t your thing, but you want to learn about different techniques for knitting socks, Sock Architecture by Lara Neel is now available. While I’ve not yet seen the book in person, I’ve heard lots of good things about it, including a fantastic review by Wendy Johnson! Not only are there many techniques, there are also 17 patterns, “most [of the included patterns] span five sizes, from women’s extra small through men’s large. And most of the patterns offer guidelines for an adjustable size so you can choose your own gauge, size, or both.”!
It’s a great value as is ($16.95 for digital download only/$26.95 for print & PDF) and this little tidbit astonished me making Sock Architecture an amazing value, based on the techniques and patterns in the book: “17 patterns + 1,156 possible combinations of 17 top-down toes, 68 top-down heels, 17 toe-up toes, and 26 toe-up heels. A knitter who could turn out one sock every day could spend at least eight years knitting all the possibilities in this book.”
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