Customer Reviews

Simple Socks Plain and Fancy

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As one who views socknitting as an engineering design challenge, I am always looking for ways to improve shaping and fitting the socks I make. I have never been happy with the way toes are shaped, and wondered why we couldn't use the "short-row" technique on toes just as we do on heels, then make a straight join on top of the foot, as commercially made socks do. I was delighted to discover that it is not only possible,but this author tells us exactly how to do it, and then goes on to give us an extraordinary variety of other ways to vary our designs. This is not a book of "patterns"; it is much more valuable than that! You can find the General Laws of the Sock-knitting Universe in this book and then you will become the master all all the socks you can knit. This book should belong to every person who knits socks. If you know a sockmaker, give them a copy of this book. You will be rewarded for years to come!

Until I got this book, stuffed it into my knitting bag, socks were tedious, livened only by color or a cable here and there. Whatever I did, fit was chancy, we won't discuss heels, and frankly, they were boring to make, not to mention time consuming and frustrating.

Then along came Simple Socks. Ahh. Instead of chancy fit, there's exact fit, including a chart so fitting son Brian with the size 13 needs is as easy as fitting my friend's size 6 feet. Instead of a week of intense work, 3 days. Toes fit, heels fit, I can zip up from the toe or down from the top with nearly equal ease. The techniques are amazingly simple to understand, once you get over the inclination to panic. Clear diagrams, charts, and instructions.

Then came the extra treat: the expansion of the technique to mittens--always a necessity in cooler climes!

I may never BUY socks again...

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts is a combination anthropological knitter and technical guru; if you want to know about Eastern European socks and stockings, she is the ultimate source. She also spins her own yarns and designs anatomically-fitting socks using the "short-row" technique.

For some knitters (like spatially-challenged little old me), the short row heel and toe method is hard to grasp, so if you long to do that kind of construction on your knitted footwear, this is a valuable reference book. The explanation of the shaping (it's an hourglass) and the description of what parts of the "hourglass" go where (front, back, top , bottom) are good. They are accompanied by ink drawings to illustrate the text.

There are schematics for various types of socks; toe up, toe down, short rowed, stripes vertical and horizontal, motif knitting in the round, and an especially good set of drawings on doing intarsia such as argyle, in circular knitting. Normally, intarsia is done flat knitting only.

The book has only line drawings with ink dots for shading. While it serves to put some dimension to the flatness of the sketches, I found the dot shading made the sock drawings look a bit strange.

If you are a sock knitter and want to advance your technique, this is a useful reference book and should be on the shelf next to Nancy Bush's Folk Socks. It's not as pretty a book as some, but I recommend it as a good technical reference.

I am THRILLED with this heel/toe method over the heel-flap method I learned in a class. I feel like I'm knitting >real< socks now. BUT-getting there via this book was tricky. Some important knitting illustrations are several pages ahead of the text they are supposed to illustrate. And some "aside" text in the steps for heel and toe get in the way of how-to flow, which I found myself working hard to read around so as to stay with the process. The page layout sometimes stymies: Some illustrations appear at the bottom of the >next< page instead of directly under the text they illustrate, something I found to be confusing as well. So, all the instructions are there, albeit scattered, which can be a deterrant for someone who's never knitted socks before or for someone who has trouble deciphering written instructions. (I must add that I looked at this book about a year before this latest read and eventual purchase and a couple of the illustrations led me to believe that the sock would be knitted flat and then sewn. Not the case, but I didn't know that and gave the book back to whoever I got it from because of the impression it gave.) I wouldn't have attempted this book again if someone hadn't recommended it to me recently, but now I'm hooked. Once you get the heel/toe thing, it's a wonderful resource book, and you'll want to knit lots of socks! In the class I took, I only learned how to knit socks, but now I am learning how to knit socks that fit feet!

If you like Elizabeth Zimmermann's conversational style of pattern writing, you will love this book. This is not a pattern book. This book teaches sock construction with simple formulas and diagrams. If you don't want to be tied to patterns, but wish to design your own socks that fit perfectly, this is the book for you.

Don't be fooled by the title into thinking that you can only knit simple socks using this book. Whether you wish to create textured, fair isle, intarsia, or the top-billed simple socks, the information to make socks to fit any sized foot are provided. A few textured and color charts are included to add some personality to your socks - or to use to inspire your own original creation. In addition to being a great primer on sock construction, this book also describes mending techniques to give your old socks new life.

I was happily surprised to discover her mitten formula similar to the sock formula to make perfect-fitting mittens for any size hand.

I knit socks constantly, using the techniques in this book. I made a few heels for practice, and then I was on my way. I never have to think much about the pattern, just figure out the number of stitches to cast on and then go for it.

Before I had this book, I always had to look up how to turn a heel. Now I have knitting on the go, all the time with out having to take a pattern along.

I've been trying to find a method for making socks that actually looks like the socks that you can buy in a store (no weird heel gusset), and this book is it. The socks turn out beautiful and they look "normal."

---BUT---

I'm an engineer, and I am usually really good at figuring things out from a written description.

I had a really tough time with this book. The instructions left me scratching my head, and the illustrations are rough hand sketched drawings that just aren't thorough enough. You're left wondering which drawing goes with which instruction AND why what you are knitting doesn't match the drawing.

This is an indispensable guide for knitting socks that fit great! I had been wanting to learn to knit socks for a while now, but was unable to make the class offered by my local yarn shop, so I picked up this wonderful guide instead! I am thrilled with the results. In addition to the basic sock-knitting instructions, the author offers great tips to make better-fitting socks, such as using a larger size needle on the ribbing portion of the sock.

Gibson-Roberts gives a method to knit a sock to fit any foot, based on just two foot measurements. I felt that the illustrations in the book were really helpful to learning the special heel and toe shaping techniques. Also, she explains how to knit the socks from either top-to-toe ( which is the method I used for my first pair) or from toe-to-top. Rather than purchasing a bunch of sock patterns, I would recommend picking up this book and letting your creativity run wild!

Priscilla Gibson-Roberts gives a very explicit, foolproof explanation of one of the best fitting, no wraps shortrowing techniques for socks. An experienced knitter may find her explanations too wordy but she leaves little to wonder about. For example, instead of simply saying, "correct the mount of the stitches", she explains how to do it. Better illustrations would have been nice.

I just read through my friends copy of this, and added it to my wishlist. This book describes, step by step, the theory of short row sock making.

As far as the sizing goes, it relies very much on careful measurement and knowing the gauge you are working. Doing test swatches to measure gauge is essential to figuring out how many stitches to cast on. Don't go by the gauge on the yarn package, what any given person knits often has nothing to do with what the yarn maker imagines.

The pictures could use some improvement. As others have said, it isn't always clear which step a particular picture belongs to, and not every step has a picture. I do prefer the line drawings to photographs, since it is often difficult to track where the yarn goes in photographs of knitting. But it would have been good to hire a professional illustrator with some knowledge of knitting, rather than having the author do the pictures, so that they would be drawn with more technical skill.

It would also have been good if she offered both left handed and right handed instructions, particularly for the cast-ons and bind-offs. I'm an oddity, I knit left handed continental style, and I can tell that interpreting some of these cast-on/bind-off techniques is going to be tricky.

This is a book for the foot of the sock, look elsewhere for interesting patterns for the cuffs and legs.