Book Review – Operation Sock Drawer: The Guide to Building Your Stash of Hand-Knit Socks

Knit yourself a drawer of beautiful socks with the Knitmore Girls

Inspired by the gorgeous sock drawers of Susan B. Anderson, Jasmin and Gigi of The Knitmore Girls podcast started the hashtag #operationsockdrawer in an effort to knit a collection of socks just as photo worthy. Tens of thousands of knitters have since joined the campaign to knit more pretty socks and the hashtag has grown to more than 200k tags on social media.

Think of Operation Sock Drawer as your sock knitting survival guide. In it you’ll find:

• 20 original designer sock patterns–more than enough to fill your first drawer.
• Great how-ton information on knitting a variety of toe shapes, heel styles, options for comfortable ankles, and more!
• Darn it! Don’t toss old socks, repair them with simple darning techniques.
• Bonus information on knitting socks two at a time, how to make great yarn to pattern matches, and how to overcome second sock syndrome.
Grab your needles and a skein of yarn, and then join The Knitmore Girls on their mission to expand sock collections around the globe.

A few years ago I wrote a post that was full of patterns for knit mushrooms, but I don’t think I ever did a post that was knitting patterns with mushrooms on them, so today’s the day.

I love the Fungi Beanie from Jacki Bean, which calls for worsted weight yarn and uses duplicate stitch to add the mushrooms and other details. I think the colors she used for the design are tonal/multicolor so it doesn’t use as many colors as it looks like, but you can use whatever red, green, brown and white yarn you have in your stash for those details.

How about some mushroom socks? The Magic Toadstool sock form Stone Knits includes a ring of mushrooms around the leg, contrasting heel and toe and a little more colorwork at the toe for extra cuteness. As shown it uses four colors and comes in three sizes.

Or there’s the Fairy Ring Socks from Katie Green, which have mushrooms of two sizes on the legs, plus a bit of wavy grass. They have a contrasting cuff, heel and toe and some colorwork flecks in the body of the sock as well. This one is available in eight sizes to fit everyone from a baby to an XL adult.

This trippy cowl from Hunt Hand Knits looks like a lot of fun to knit. The Fungus Among Us Cowl is shown using four colors of DK weight yarn, though you can do it with as few as two if you’d rather.

Stitch some mushroom mittens with this cute pattern from Holly C Watson. This design uses three colors, and it’s shown with a self-striping yarn on the mushroom caps, which makes the colors change without you having to do any work. The pattern is charted but it’s a pretty easy repeat. The mittens are one size.

If you don’t feel like knitting mushrooms but still want to give your project a touch of the forest, the Toadstools Cardigan from Julie Taylor may be what you’re looking for. It’s stitched as a plain cardigan worked in DK weight yarn and sized for newborns up to 4 years old. The mushrooms are added with embroidery and the pattern includes the design, which you can trace onto water soluble stabilizer to stitch the mushrooms onto your sweater. Or anything else you want. You can find this pattern on Ravelry.

Have you read?