Those of you who only knit socks from the cuff down, close your eyes! Or broaden your horizons, whichever suits.
“Once upon a time, I was just a girl who wanted to knit socks. I started knitting socks after I was seduced by the self-striping yarns that first appeared a few years back. Anything that appears to work by magic amuses and entertains me, so I was hooked after my first peek at some sock yarn that knit up into tiger stripes.
I decided then that I wanted to knit my socks from the toe up. The most compelling reason for this is that I have always loathed grafting. Another reason is that it’s ideal when you have a limited quantity of yarn. With a toe-up pattern I can knit until I run out of yarn, thus eliminating any anxiety about having enough to finish the sock. ” Wendy Johnson, Socks From The Toe Up
This book is pretty formulaic, a side effect of choosing only one method of construction, but it’s a joy nonetheless, especially for those times when you really don’t feel like being pushed to your knitting edge by a pair of socks. Wendy starts off with the basics we’ve come to expect, with yarn selection and the necessary techniques for toe-up sock knitting, then we move on to the patterns. After showing us a couple of very basic patterns, we move onto lace socks (her Butterfly Socks are calling my name), textured gansey (knit and purl combinations), cabled, and sportweight yarn socks.
I have to say, it’s nice to see a pattern writer that has to use smaller needles for socks. I sometimes feel like I have to adjust every commercial pattern I use to fit my large gauge, but she works the majority of her patterns on size 0 needles, with an average of 60 stitches at the cast on. I’ve always felt a silly little affinity with Wendy Johnson, mainly stemming from her first book Wendy Knits in which she describes knitting on the metro during her commute into Washington, D.C, which I did all throughout college. I don’t miss much much about that commute, and I definitely don’t miss the metro, but I do miss the knitting time!