Review: Easy Knitted Socks

March 10, 2015 by Sarah White

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.

Have you read?

Knit a Log Cabin Blanket with All Your Scraps

I guess I must have had this pattern on my mind, because I had chosen this log cabin blanket recipe to write about, promptly forgot about it and a couple of weeks later started knitting a log cabin blanket using all my pink yarn.

It might stay pink if it makes it to baby blanket sized, or I might add in some pastel green and blue, too, to make a bigger blanket. We’ll see. I’m also holding several strands of yarn together to make a kind of bulky yarn, which means it’s deeply satisfying how much yarn is used even as the project is still relatively small.

In Kristen Finlay’s version, DK weight yarn scraps (or fingering/sock yarn held double) are used to make a simple scrappy log cabin blanket that’s lighter weight than my version. Log cabin is a great technique for knitters of any skill level because it’s worked in garter stitch. The only not completely basic technique you need for log cabin knitting is picking up stitches.

If you’ve never worked a log cabin knitting project before, this is a good introduction, and it is really nice to use all your yarn scraps in one big project you’ll use for years to come.

If you use a lot of DK weight yarn you can keep building on it whenever you finish a project, or if you use more worsted weight you can do the same thing with it, it will just be a little bigger starting out than the pattern calls for. How big it gets is totally up to you.

I have really been enjoying working on my log cabin project, and it’s my current sitting at my desk and need a break knit (do you have one of those or is it just me?).

Ready to start your own log cabin blanket knitting project? You can grab the free pattern from Kristen Finlay on Ravelry.

Need more log cabin inspiration? Check out more log cabin knitting patterns.

[Photo: Kristen Finlay]