Review: New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One
Cat Bordhi’s New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One (available both via her site and at Amazon, has broken the mold for sock books. Seriously.
In this, the first of a what will no doubt be a highly-anticipated full series, Bordhi has presented eight sock “architectures” with master patterns that can be infinitely customized for any size (both human and needle) or yarn. There are twenty-plus additional patterns, and each of the eight master patterns features a baby-sized sock you can test-knit to teach its basic principles before moving on to a larger size.
At TNNA, I can remember seeing everyone who’d taken Bordhi’s class running around with baby-sized samples in hand, crowing about how cool the class was. The book, however, takes it up another notch altogether.
My favorite sock (at the moment — it’s tough to pick just one) is the Coriolis, named after the Coriolis effect. It swirls and swishes around the foot, giving a whole new perspective on the effects of hand-dyed yarn in sock knitting.
How often do you hear — and I’m quoting — “This chapter empowers you to knit socks to fit anyone using your favorite needles, yarn and gauge. After some practice, I hope you won’t even need the book anymore.”? Not often. I think this attitude is why so many knitters treasure Elizabeth Zimmermann’s books — having learned the basic principles for something (such as EPS for sweaters, described in brief here) you’re free to knit as you please.
Bordhi not only gives you the tools you need to make a sock, but to make truly unique and beautiful socks that look much more complicated than they actually are. An amazing, entertaining book densely packed with solid and useful information, it’s worth every penny of the cover price.
Thanks so much for this review! I was _trying_ to wait for Christmas to get this — but I just cannot after reading this. I can’t be THAT far behind 🙂