Review: Easy Knitted Socks

I’m sort of doing a sock week over at About this week, so it seemed appropriate to review a little sock book over here as well.

Easy Knitted Socks, compiled by Amy Palmer, is a booklet containing 14 projects. It starts with tips on knitting in the round and making jogless stripes and then provides a nice variety of patterns for socks rugged and romantic, for kids up to adult men. Many of the projects have multiple sizes, though they don’t always say which size corresponds to what sort of foot, so you may still need to measure the foot you want to fit to find the ideal pattern and size.

Some of my favorites include the Ribby Retro Socks by Chrissy Gardiner, which look like classic athletic socks (but in a cute way); Jennifer L. Appleby’s Uptown Boot Socks, featuring a delicate allover cable pattern; Gardiner’s toe-up Wooly Toe Socks, worked in stripes and sized to fit kids and adults in crew length or knee high styles (they use an afterthought heel, too, which is pretty fun); the Tyrolean Stockings form Ann Budd, which are pictured on the cover; and the pretty, lacy Socks for Véronik by Mona Schmidt.

None of the patterns are rated by skill level, and there isn’t a plain Stockinette sock in sight, so this may not be the best book for beginner sock knitters. But if you have a couple of pairs under your belt and you’re ready to try something that’s a little bit more challenging but still not difficult, this book has a great collection for all sorts of styles and all kind of feet.

[Photo via Interweave/F+W.]

Looking for more knitted socks designs and patterns to keep you warm this winter? Check out these knitted sock patterns Etsy. And these Knitting Pattern books on Amazon.

Looking to buy your Yarn online? Check out these online yarn specials.

Over the years I have shared a lot of pumpkin knitting patterns, and I’ve knit and crocheted a lot of pumpkins myself. But it feels like there are always more fun things to try with knit pumpkins, so this year I wanted to look a little more beyond basic stockinette or ribbed pumpkins and share some pumpkin patterns with cables, bobbles and colorwork.

In the cable collection we’ve got these cute little basic cable and ribbed pumpkins from Elly Bear Knits. There are two sizes that make a wide, flat pumpkin and a taller round pumpkin. Both are worked in the round as a tube that’s cinched top and bottom when you’re done, and they use bulky weight yarn.

Another cute cable pumpkin knitting pattern comes from Gray Bear Akswokrat. This one is knit flat and it looks like a chunky yarn but you could use other weights to make pumpkins of different sizes. This one also has an I-cord stem and uses yarn to cinch up the sections of the pumpkin, giving it a more natural look.

Add some bobbles to your pumpkins with this design from Autumn Shelter Makes. Also worked in the round in a tube, it features a repeating pattern of bobbles and uses yarn wrapped around the outside to make segments. This one looks like worsted weight yarn to me.

Of course there’s nothing that says your pumpkin has to be a single color, so let’s throw in some colorwork. I love the look of the Cozy Fall Pumpkin knitting pattern from South Stitch Girls. The little leather loop adds a rustic touch but you could also just add a stick. These pumpkins have five colorwork options and are worked in worsted weight yarn in the round.

There’s also the Autumn Fair Isle Trio pumpkins pattern from Equestriann Style, which has three different sizes of pumpkins with four colorwork designs. They are worked in super bulky yarn in the round and look good with high contrast or more muted color combinations.

Have you read?