Customer Reviews

Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles: a Manual of Elegant Knitting Techniques and Patterns

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

I am a minority, a man who knits. More and more men are taking up this age-old art, though. In my office (I am an architect) two other men knit also. Centuries ago it was men, not women, who did the knitting. Anyway, I have been knitting socks for my size 14 feet for several years, laboriously following the traditional methods and using the same tools as those men did centuries ago: sets of double-pointed needles. They have certain small advantages, but nothing compared to the amazing speed and opportunities the two circular needles offer. I will never use double-pointed needles again.

It takes literally moments to learn Cat's method. So why do you need her book? It contains handsome patterns for both men and women, and explains clearly how to translate the old kind of pattern to her method. That way you can still use your favorite sock patterns (one of mine is a Nancy Bush design). It's so simple (Cat even says so) that you scarcely need the book. But you do--because of the vaariety of patterns she offers, as well as pages and pages of tips and tricks that you'll use later for socks and collars and sleeves and all kinds of other knitting.

One more thing--she is funny and gentle, and she understands that you need good explanations. The photographs are so beautiful you could frame them. Get this book, and your feet will have more socks!

I keep a list of "must-have" knitting books and Cat Bordi's "Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles" has SOARED to the top of my list. Here's why:

1. The technique of using two circulars to knit a sock in the round is easy to do, but rather hard to explain. Author Bordi does this with clear pictures and great step-by-step explanations. I was totally flummoxed by this technique until I read her book.

2. Knitting on two circulars rather than 4 double-points results in a smoother gauge. This is especially important for colorwork knitting.

3. The pictures are clear and show some beautiful technique. The cover is in color, and the photos inside are a very good gray tone that shows detail. The patterns are endlessly adaptable, using them as a template with your own colorwork or textured knitting designs.

4. There isn't just technique in this book. Bordi has a number of really lovely patterns including some textured work, color work and picture knitting. Charts are large and easy to read. Only the leaf-and-tendril is not charted (it's row by row.)

5. Here's a list of the sock patterns:

a. Simple Sock in three Sizes (easy)
b. Indoor Felted Boot (easy)
c. Gardener sock (easy)
d. Columbine Peak (intermediate, textured)
e. Two Alert Cats (intermediate, cat chart really useful!)
f. Cable Top (intermediate)
g. Alpine Meadow (intermediate, nice colorwork)
h. Bavarian Twisted Stitch (intermediate, lovely textured)
i. Leaf and Tendril (textured, advanced.)
j. Not mentioned in the contents, but there is a "fleet foot" sock with a design like Mercury's wings on the cuff.

There are only 44 pages in this book, which makes it seem a bit pricey, but every page is loaded with content. This is a book with NO fluff that I know I will be referring to, again and again. (Well, actually there IS some fluff--one pattern incorporates yarn made of an angora-like fiber spun from dog fur. It's pretty fluffy!)

Bordi mentions that when she teaches classes, the knitters sigh over two of the sock patterns-- the leaf-and-trellis and the alpine meadow. I had the same reaction when I saw them in this book. If you love to knit socks, you will be muttering "four needles good, two needles better" rather like the animals in Orwell's Animal Farm!

I would hesitate to recommend this book to an absolute beginner because Bordi assumes you already know how to knit socks. I was astonished at her lack of clarity in certain steps, such as picking up the gussets and closing the toe with kitchener. It takes just one paragraph to explain Kitchener clearly so even a child can follow it, why did she waste all that space telling us how to do an awkward grafting trick when Kitchener is so easy and superior? She tells us to look Kitchener up in another book! (Look it up using google, there are very clear directions for Kitchener, with photos, on the "Socknitters" -- one k -- website.)

There are also errors in the Basic Sock pattern, which I find almost unforgiveable. I know errors in knitting magazines and books are inevitable, but if I were writing a sock knitting book I'd go to extraordinary efforts to make sure the beginner's sock is error-free. Luckily you can find the corrections on the net, just go to google and search for "Corrections for Socks Soar on Two Circular Needles by Cat Bordi." (Use the quotes and type in exactly that, only one page will show up and that's the page you want.)

Another complaint I have is the lack of uniformity among the patterns. She sometimes uses different words to describe the same step from pattern to pattern, which could be confusing to beginners, and sometimes her directions slip into silliness, such as the "bloops" in the felted slipper pattern. However I do enjoy her overall conversational tone and it doesn't grate on my nerves (though I can easily understand why it would bug some people).

The two circular method is GREAT and very simple and I now knit all my socks/sleeves/hat tops/etc using it, but I learned it from the Summer 2000 Knitter's magazine, I didn't need to buy this book to figure it out. (There are also websites that explain how to do it, do a google search for: Joyce Williams two circulars.) One thing is for sure, I will never knit a sock or sleeve on double-pointed needles again.

I have no problem with the grayscale photos, they look great and I can use my imagination to color the socks, with the help of the small color photos on the cover and back cover. I also have no beef about the cost of the book, I appreciate and support independent publishers. I translated a dpn pattern to the two circ method on my own before I bought this book so it's rather easy to do in your head as you follow a dpn pattern, but Bordi takes up an entire page and explains how to do it in detail so I'm sure many people would find that information helpful.

Despite all my complaints above I do think this is a good book, especially if you already know how to knit socks. Also, please take the time to look up the corrections on the web (which is good advice for just about any knitting book actually). I certainly don't regret buying Socks Soar, I've referred to it many times and I like several of the patterns.

Socks Soar is one knitting book you simply must have! It will end up beside the Elizabeth Zimmerman and Barbara Walker classics on your bookshelf, because it is just about that revolutionary and wonderful. It has Elizabeth Zimmerman's humor, too. The book is about socks, but the techniques Cat teaches so well (she is a schoolteacher, by the way, and you can tell because she explains things in more than one way to be sure everyone gets it) can be used for any knitting you have ever used double-pointed needles for, like round necks, cuffs, even glove fingers! She seems to have thought of everything. If you want to change a favorite sock pattern to this method, she teaches you how. The appendix is chock full of tips and tricks no one else has thought of. Many of them can be used for things other than socks. There are beautiful sock designs in the book too, and one is the only really life-like cat sock design I have ever seen. I'm working on it right now, using some yarn I spun from my Bernese Mountain Dog's brushings (!!!) to knit the cat design on a cinnamon background. I'm probably going to use this cat graph for a sweater, too. People were fighting over the last copies of this book at my local yarn store. I had to laugh because the owner was complaining that she didn't even get a chance to read it before they were all gone.

This book is WONDERFUL!!! I saw someone knitting using this technique at a Knit Out last fall and just HAD to get the book so I could learn too. I have finished 2 pairs of socks since getting the book at Christmas (about 4 weeks).

The technique is described in complete detail. The section on converting "normal" patterns into two circular needles is almost unnecessary after making one of her pairs of socks, because the technique is so intuitive. This is MUCH easier than knitting socks on double point needles.

Complaints about the book? The author suggests making caps and other circular projects using this technique but doesn't have any examples. But, I've done some hats using the principles learned in this book and they worked up like a dream. Also, the book is pricey, but how much is it really worth to learn something new that gives you a new prospective on your favorite craft? One more thing -- the lady I saw was knitting two socks at once. Now this REALLY appealed to me because I HATE finishing that second sock. But, again, using the techniques in the book and some shuffling around with needles, I managed to get two socks going on the same needles and finished both socks at the same time. GREAT FUN!

Overall -- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!

As an avid knitter who avidly hates double pointed needles, this book made my day (year, decade). I'm not much of a sock knitter, but I was able to understand the directions for the basic socks and the leaf and tendril--both patterns knitted up quickly and beautifully.

The real gem of the book is the first 5 pages where the technique is explained. This technique works for any pattern where dpns are called for. I've used it on sweater sleeves, hats and purses. I'll never use dpns again!!!

This book definatly pays for itself--even if you never knit any of the patterns.

I bought this book fairly soon after learning how to knit socks. I have been knitting for over 30 years, but only recently got bitten by the sock "bug". I found the instructions confusing and frustrating, and her chatter to be pretentious at best. And that she has actaully copyrighted a knitting technique (turning the toe) is enough to make me gag. People have been knitting for thousands of years. Maybe she re-discovered something, but she sure didn't invent it. As I was trying out the circular needle technique, I found it was really cumbersome as the stiches kept getting hung up or snagged when I tried to slide them onto the circular needles. Well, after buying at least 10 other sock books and patterns, perusing the web and making several pairs of socks using dpn - top down, toe up, turned heel, decrease heel, etc., I decided to give the circular needle technique another try and I'm sold on it and will never go back. But it wasn't this book that helped me so much as other resources on the internet or in other books. It's really important to have a really good circular needle that the stitches don't get hung up on every time you slide them up onto the needle. Addi Turbos are about the best. I now make all my socks without a pattern, from the toe up, and they fit!

Ok, I'm finally coming "out of the closet" on this one-- I hated this book! I felt that it was expensive for a slim paperback. I am addicted to socknitting--especially knitting socks on two circs--and this book was no help.

First of all-- if you want to learn how to do socks on two circs, ask Google and you'll get more than the 6 pictures this book gives you. As for instruction, you get a whopping 20 sentences. Two pages are devoted to teaching you the two circ method-- the rest is her patterns, many of which brag about all of her inventions that came to her in the night.

The most interesting pattern I could see had to do with a particular cuff that twists. Of course, she doesn't tell you how to make the cuff--she sends you off to buy another book for that info--she just tells you how apply a twist. On *another* occasion, she says, "Use this method to do a such and such (see page 36)," and when you get to page 36, she tells you to go find the method in question in some other knitting book. HELLO? Why did she send you to page 36 if she wasn't going to actually provide you with any information?

The patterns are not listed/described in any useful way-- I know of at least two people who owned the book but never knew that any of the patterns were toe-up until someone else pointed it out. I was so excited to get this book, but I was ten times as disappointed when I actually realized what I was getting. I would sell my copy but I honestly feel like I would be morally wrong to accept money for something this worthless. I'm sorry to be so blunt, but there's just no other way for me to say it.

After years of being annoyed by dpn's and their little problems like losing one under the couch, getting stabbed, fiddling every few inches to change needles, etc etc, I finally saw this book and bought it. Am I ever glad it was written! Everything came through clear as could be on my first try and I am now knitting socks like a dream. This book is a work of genius. The author even explains how to take this method and use it on dpn patterns so you never need dpns again. I've already used it for a sweater on the sleeves instead of dpns.
I really like the way the author talks to you as if you are sitting beside her watching. It helped me understand and feel confident.

I knitted socks when I was a teenager more than a half century ago, mainly to impress boyfriends. Truth was, I hated knitting them because I had to contend with needles that stuck out at all angles always and with stitching up back seams sometimes. I gave up knitting socks by the time I was twenty, also more than a half century ago. Now I'm a senior citizen living in the northeast, and I can't find good quality warm socks at any price, anywhere. I had resigned myself to knitting some myself when I discovered Cat Bordhi's book about a revolutionary way to knit seamless socks on the circular needles that I have used for every knitting project I have made during the last 30 years. When I read the directions with no needles or yarn in hand, I thought there was no way I could understand, let alone master her technique, but when I sat down with two size 2 circular needles and a skein of sock yarn and followed the directions step by step, I had a EUREKA! moment. The method is so simple and so easy. I have had the book for less than three weeks and I'm working on my fifth pair of 9" high and 9 1/2" long 100% merino wool socks that fit like a dream. Bordhi gives a tip on the initial joining of rounds that I'll use for all of my knitting-from-the-top circular knitting projects from now on and another tip for eliminating that small hole that always appeared when stitches were picked up on the sides of the heel piece. I found one flaw in the book: nowhere could I find directions for the kitchener stitch to graft together the toe stitches. I had to hunt through several knitting books to find them. They may be hidden somewhere in Bondhi's book, but I couldn't find them. I still give it five stars, though. I just finished knitting a watch cap, and I used her two-needle method for the last few decrease rows when the stitches became too few for the 16" circular needle I was using. I just added a second circular needle rather than switching to four or five double-pointed ones. Heaven! The Bondhi method is not just for socks, so I suggest that every knitter add this gem to his or her knitting library. My only regret is that I didn't discover this method many years ago. Impressing those boys would have been so much easier.