Custom Socks

If aliens landed on Earth and were handed this book, I am fairly certain they could learn to make excellent well-fitting socks with no prior knowledge. It's a comprehensive yet approachable book that easily qualifies as the sock knitting equivalent of June Hemmons Hiatt's encyclopedic Principles of Knitting and it also benefits from a close read. As an experienced sock knitter, I was primarily interested in the patterns (Oh, Valencia! will be on my needles shortly), but quickly found myself engrossed in the detailed instructions - even if I gloss over the charts with specific stitch counts, I'll return to her ideas for fit and finish. After I've knit a few patterns, I'm almost positive this will become the book I recommend to people interested in knitting socks, “plain vanilla” or otherwise. I don't want to knit every pattern within, but that's not a reason not to make space on my bookshelf for this impressive resource.