Customer Reviews

Simply Socks: 45 Traditional Turkish Patterns to Knit

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

 

 

Another reviewer has put the most important part last. This is a reprint of a great classic. Do NOT buy this book if you already have Zilboorg's Fancy Feet! Unless of course you want to make someone a gift or be sure you have copies at your beach house, the ranch, AND your Paris flat! I loved Fancy Feet and drooled on the pictures quite a while before making socks. Anna's instructions are clear, but you do have to take charge, chart out your design and *think* a bit. This kind of knitting becomes a meditation. The designs are wonderful, and anybody with feet can take pleasure in such happy socks, if only on winter evenings at home. I find that using the shortest 11-12" metal circular needles (Addi Turbo from Patternworks) allows me to do the two-handed color pattern knitting around and around without stopping to change double pointed needles. Once you figure out what size needles get you 6 st/in in the color patterns (or whatever gauge you please), the actual knitting is a joy.

This knitting book is doubly useful. You can learn to knit socks from the toe up. Normally, socks in Western European countries and the Americas are knitting from the cuff down. But you can knit a sock starting at the toe, increasing until the foot width is sufficient, and go on from there. The heel can be inset a number of ways, but is not turned as in cuff-down socks. The instructions Anna Zilboorg provides are about the best I have seen for doing toe-up designs. It isn't easy at first to negotiate the 4 needles and the few stitches on them, but it is worth learning because it is a fun and useful technique.

Eastern European socks are mostly knitted toe up. So this is something new for many knitters. Turkish designs are also something new; they have the property of balancing the "positive" and "negative" parts of the design, meaning that the design and background colors are about equal in importance. The repetitive nature of the Turkish patterns makes it rather easy to create some pretty complex looking designs. They lend themselves to gorgeous colors, as in this book. Designer Anna Zilboorg is particularly well-known for her color work and she dyes her own wools to get some of the striking color combinations.

Even if you are not a sock knitter, the Turkish patterns are very useful for adding to vests, sweaters and afghans. They are very pretty and fun to knit. So if you decide you don't want to make socks, you can use the color and patterns to spice up some other types of garments.

This book is reprinted from "Fancy Feet" which went out of print and looks very spiffy in its new cover design.

This is a great book but is word for word, page for page identical with Anna's 1994 "Fancy Feet: Traditional Knitting Patterns of Turkey". I was very excited to order a new sock book by AZ, but this is not new... If you don't have "Fancy Feet" and like colored knitting or sock knitting, it's a great work otherwise, skip the annoyance of buying a book that you already own.

It's true that "Simply Socks" is the same as "Fancy Feet". So if you have one, you don't need the other. But that shouldn't detract from the number of stars this book deserves.

Zilboorg gives traditional construction details in the early part of the book, then plunges into the exciting colorful socks, illustrated with beautiful color photographs and helpful charts. Zilboorg's use of color is rich and gorgeous, but not necessarily reflective of the original Turkish colors. One doesn't need to mimic her style, but use it to free oneself from rigid and limited use of color.

I wear socks like these daily. But one doesn't have to knit these patterns as socks, - one can adapt them for hats, purses, sweaters - whatever one's heart desires.

I just love this book. Fortunately, I did not have to pay the current price, but do love the designs. I am working on the "Apple" pattern socks now. If you love stranded knitting, colorwork, or chart knitting, and especially for socks, you'll love these designs. The next pair will be a simpler design that I won't have to watch every chart line.

Let your imagination go with the colors of these socks. Use close color gradations, or bright and bold contrasts, or dye your own, but experiement, and you'll love what you produce.

Again, if you are a first time knitter, you may find this a bit heady a project to start with. Try plain socks first. I keep my book and needles handy and work on this complex project each day for a little while, then switch to some simpler knitting. But the end product will be a pair of "doubly warm" socks to wear and show off with clogs for that cold day in February.

There are 45 different designs. Enough for a lifetime of wearing and gift giving. And yes, it's the same book as Fancy Feet which took me a bit to figure out.

This book offers some wonderful traditional Turkish socks. Incredibly colorful and interesting, but not something you would wear every day. I've found that I made one pair of socks out of this book (as a gift) - but I haven't made any others.

I may consider using these socks as Christmas Stocking Socks.