First, the facts:
Title: Think Outside the Sox: 60+ Winning Designs from the Knitter’s Magazine Contest
Author: Knitter’s Magazine
Published by: XRX, Inc, 2010
Pages: 179
Type: Socks.
Chapters:
1. Think Outside the Sox: The Contest
2. Anatomy & Construction of Sox
3. The SOX
4. And the Winners Are…
5. Gallery
The In-Depth Look:
What happens when a well-known knitting magazine has a contest for creative sock patterns?
Well, in this case, you get 296 entries to be pared down by judges Cat Bordhi, Lucy Neatby, and Sandi Rosner. Then, after awarding prizes, you put the 61 best into a book and send it out into the world.
Yes, you heard me. 61 creative sock patterns in one book. That’s 60 great patterns plus the grand prize-winner Leopard socks (which are rightfully a show-stopper).
The book is organized by type of design–basic, lace, twisted-stitch, cables, color, and “outside the box”. Each design gets a difficulty rating to make choosing your sock patterns easier. And, did I mention how many patterns there are, here?
All in all, this is a great collection of patterns. There is a nice mix of techniques and construction methods. According to the text, about a third of the socks are toe-up, as well as a mix of using DPNs, 2-circs, or the Magic Loop method (though there’s a guide at the beginning to help you convert to the method of your choice). Sure, some of these socks I like more than others, but I appreciate the creativity even in the ones that aren’t favorites. I appreciated the gallery at the end, too, with some very creative socks (like the knitted, lace-up boots which I thought were hilarious).
I appreciate the quantity of patterns, too. So many sock books are filled with designs from one or two knitters, and there are only so many sock patterns one person can create and knit in a year, so often those books only have a couple dozen patterns. This has 61 patterns. Even if you don’t love every single one of them, the odds are good you will like a good portion of them. The fact that they’re the favorites out of several hundred contenders speaks well in their favor, too. It’s a good book to have.
This book is available from Amazon.com.
Want to see bigger pictures? Click here.
This review copy was kindly donated by XRX. Thank you!
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This book sounds so interesting to read. I know how to knit and I haven’t tried knitting a pair of socks. I might wanna try this. Thanks for giving me an idea for a birthday present for my little niece.