Sockupied – Spring 2011!

Sockupied Spring 2011 is here. It’s great, even better than the last one. Along with the product reviews – all aimed at sock knitting, there are interviews and of course the patterns. But this emag is different. Along with the interviews there are videos. Interaction all over the place.

Little bits and pieces about the designers and editors, lots of links to references. Tutorials and videos of tips and techniques as well as ground breaking new ideas in sock knitting.

This emag, priced at $14.95 is different from the rest of the emags on the market. You won’t find any ads for cars, or laundry soap or even Trident gum. Nothing but knitting. All knitting all the time.

Read along as needles and yarns are compared and contrasted. Learn different ways to construct your heel, as well as the confidence to tackle your own ideas. The different cast ons and bind off tutorials are worth the price alone. There are 5 patterns, all with interactive links, tutorials, videos, slide shows, and designer info. There are reviews of the Knitting Workshop DVDs as well as Knitting Daily DVDs and video previews of the same.

Pretty enticing stuff, you can’t even imagine interactive features that these emags from Interweave don’t have. Of course, the heart and sole of any pattern book. 5 different patterns, with variations. One men’s sock pattern, one that could swing either way, and the rest for women.

My favorite? The Latvian Inspired socks, but I also had fun with the interactive argyle designing section. Did I forget to mention that? Do you like to mix and match colors? Yeah… that’s in there too!

Next Pattern:

Stitch dictionaries are a fun way to learn new-to-you knitting stitch patterns or to take a deep dive into a particular technique. Debbie Tomkies offers 100 cable stitch designs and thoughts on how to incorporate them into projects in her Cable Knitting Stitch Dictionary.

Each stitch pattern is shown in a large swatch photo and with written and charted instructions. Any special stitches are included on the page. The stitches are rated on a difficulty scale of 1 to 3, and the pattern notes also indicate how many extra stitches you should add to a project if you’re going to work this cable (since cables pull the fabric closer together you need to compensate for that) as well as how many stitches and rows are in the repeat if you want to design a project yourself.

The cables are arranged into sections: classic cables, combinations, all-over panels, creative cables, motifs and panels and cabled edges and borders.

It’s fun to flip through the designs to think about projects you can add a single cable or two to or make with an allover cabled design. Or you could make swatches of different cables and sew them together into a pillow cover or a throw.

At the back of the book there’s a section on general cable knitting techniques, reading charts, working swatches and avoiding errors (though it mentions working the wrong number of rows between cable turns, it doesn’t share how to count rows between cables to avoid this mistake).

It also talks about how to design your own cables, combine cables in a project, choose the right yarn and needles and determine how many more stitches you need to cast on when working cables instead of stockinette stitch. There’s also a glossary of symbols and abbreviations you may find in cable knitting and other patterns.

The book provides a good overview of things you can do with cables, as well as some fun things you might not have tried like infinity cables and horizontal cables. It’s a great book for a designer who likes to work with cables or a knitter who wants to play with different stitches in their projects.

About the book: 176 pages, paperback, 100 stitch patterns. Published 2024 by David & Charles. Suggested retail price $26.99.

Next Pattern:

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