Socks Books

Santa's Socks is not what I expected. From the beginning all the way to the end my daughter kept asking what certain words meant. Not only was she caught up in the spirit of christmas with this story but she was learning. I know Santa Claus means something different to everyone, but I trully fell in love with what the author is trying to do... Tell children a great classic story (with a twist) and educate at the same time. In honesty, this reminds me of the classic stories I used to hear when I was growing up.

Before I forget, one thing I noticed is that on Amazon it has this book listed as paperback. I've ordered two copies and both times I received a hardcover. I did call place a call to the distributor and they confirmed with me that this book is only available in hardcover, which makes it an even better value that what I thought I was going to get.

I read this book to my grandchildren and I know as time goes by they will be reading Santa's Socks to their children.

This is a cute make you own animal set. The body parts are velcro and can be changed easily. There are two bodies (each the size of an adult fist), several feet, ears, tails, wings, noses, and arms which make several different animals real or make believe. My daughter likes to play with these during car rides. Keeps her busy, and entertained.

My daughte loves this book but then again she loves all of the Klutz books they make arts and crafts so easy to understand and read on your own.

I purchased several Chicken Socks books for my kids to keep them entertained on a long road trip, and this was one of them. Both my kids loved all the books! The books provided many hours of fun.

My 7 year old and I enjoyed this funny book very much!

According to some theories, infants and young children eventually resolve a basic conflict between the desire to make things messy and to make things clean. According to some of my friends, there are adults who've never really worked this through. This might explain the prevalence of men (and some women) who don't change their underwear and socks daily, or who say they do, but lie (I reveal no names here). In any event, children and adults alike have a fascination with dirt, so I'm not surprised that the author's 3rd grade daughter suggested the basic idea for this story about a boy who wears the same socks for 30 straight days.

Timothy Cox has two motivations: Pure curiosity, and a determination to persevere no matter what the reaction. As he says to his constant companion, Walt the dachshund, "'...I'm the type who gets an idea and then follows it through." On day two, other kids are wrinkling their noses, and the next morning he receives an anonymous letter.

A registered letter came early next day.
It was brief. It was blunt. And it had this to say:
`Timothy, Timothy, Timothy Cox,
won't you consider please, changing your socks?
Your friends and your neighbors are getting fed up!'
`And it's only day three,' Timmy said to his pup.

He's ordered away from school, and, although his parents initially insist that Timothy can do no wrong ("If you really knew Timmy, that's not what you'd say"), they eventually banish him from the house. Author Robert Kinert's rhyming narration of the progressively wilder reactions to the increasingly smelly Timothy becomes a screwball comedy of one boy's determination to see things through. As the days go by the smell gets so bad that the police, reporters in helicopters, fire fighters, and the scouts judge try to get Timothy Cox to change his socks! Kinert's rhymes deftly convey both action and emotion, and the poetry is generally unstrained and clever. In concert with the progression of events, Stephen Gammell's illustrations begin restrained but get more and more cluttered and askew, highlighted for me by a high contrast black and yellow picture of three loudspeaker trucks racing down a hilly road. If anything, the book should have included more of these crazy scenes; the book has a bit too much white space early on and Gammell appears more skilled with them than with the faces we see earlier. The green, oozy splashes of green connoting the smell are very convincing and show his facility with color and technique.

It all ends happily, of course, with the socks on display (behind tightly locked doors) and the townspeople commemorating the perseverance of the now hygienic Timothy Cox. There's a mini-moral lesson at the conclusion, which I thought both an unnecessary bow to adult concerns, and a departure from the previous spirit of curiosity and individuality. Still, Kinert and Gammell convincingly tell this very tall tale, and the clean/dirty conundrum is explored in a very entertaining way.

What a great book...all of Cat Bordhi's books are great.
Two circular needles are so much faster than the traditional double pointed needles.
A fun book, you would enjoy it.

I so looked forward to this book; I had heard it mentioned repeatedly as a good book for working two socks on circulars, and I had been experimenting with that myself, but had some issues I thought the book would resolve.

First complaint; the book is printed on thin stock that is not going to hold up. I would consider this a glorified *booklet* as opposed to what I consider a BOOK.

Second complaint; the actual text. It is simply AWFUL. Obviously the author assumes you have time to read all her humor and drivel, because there is a tremendous amount of that. I want a book that is straight forward, to the point, and isn't telling me to go drink tea or do without to buy Addi Turbos. The writing is a joke. Of course, without all the excessive commentary, there wouldn't be enough text there to actually classify as a book!
The sad thing is there are some nice patterns in there, but I will never use them due to trying to dig through the author's blithering. Just the facts, Ma'am.
Purchase an Interweave Press sock book---you'll be glad you spent the money.

This purchase was a replacement because I totally wore out my first copy. Cat has a wonderful way to do toe up socks or cuff down socks using 2 circular needles which has really increased my speed and productivity. Highly recommended.

This book got me started, but I stumbled with the first join - makes sense but I could not figure how to manipulate the needles to accomplish it - then when I attempted to try some other patterns, especially those using Cat's invisible Cast-on, I could not decipher the instructions for same. There are no illustrations of the method, and illustrations in general are lacking - this book has some nice sock patterms, but (and I am not a knitting novice) more clarification of the methods is needed.

To me, knitting with double-pointed needles is like trying to knit with a pair of porcupines. I was thrilled to learn how to knit socks with two circular needles. It makes knitting socks easier and fun.

Unfortunately, this book does a poor job of explaining the technique. There are oceans of text instead of steps, photographs, and helpful headings. For example, I would have divided page 3 into headings such as: "Choosing Your Needles," "Casting on and Joining," "Knitting a Gauge Swatch," "Dividing Your Stitches," and "Knitting Around." Breaking text into small chunks makes it easier to digest and learn.

This book is poorly organized. The photographs on pages 4 should be on the SAME PAGE as the instructions for casting on and joining, or, at a minimum, the instructions should refer you to the appropriate photographs. I have no idea why the photos on page 5 were included.

The "Tips and Techniques" don't belong in an appendix. They should be in the front of the book, immediately after the instructions. I mean, shouldn't the reader know about "Gusset Gap" and "Gauge Checking" BEFORE starting to knit?

As for the patterns, they're okay. A bit too heavy on simple intarsia for my taste.

All in all, I HIGHLY recommend the technique and Cat Bordhi's creativity, but I do NOT recommend this book.

Author was very precise in explaining the knitting procedure for two socks at one time while using very good illustrations. This takes out the guess work from start to finish. Great sense of humor and easy to understand instructions!

I'm not thrilled with the actual patterns, but this technique can be used with any guage and pattern. It really works! No more double points,unless you make a mistake on one sock and need to rip. Then you can take it off onto double points and return it to it's mate on the single needle when it's fixed. You don't have to rip both socks. I HATE second sock syndrome, and now that's gone. Sweet!

I was excited by the method. It was very awkward to manipulate the 40" knitting needles. It is a great theory, which I feel will take a lot of practice to get it right.

I have been a knitter for 30 years and had yet to knit socks. I had been considering for a while. Then, I saw this book and thought it would be great to learn to do both at once as I had no preconceived idea about how socks are knitted.

I followed the instructions for the sample socks and had no problems. Yes, the technique does take a little bit of time to get used to and to not get confused with both socks, but that is it.

I then knitted my first pair of socks ever! I tried the Pitter Patter model for children as it was very simple. I have posted some pictures of my socks for those interested in looking. No problem with the explanations, they are very straightforward. I am now knitting my second pair of socks, another model from the book and very excited that I have become a sock knitter. :)

I strongly recommend this book!

I have to admit that the book itself is lovely--nice photos, good color, clear instructions, lots of patterns.

But that is where my happiness ends. I have been knitting long enough to understand the basic construction of sock knitting, but also have a tendency to never get around to my second sock, so I was excited to try this technique out. It's really not hard to learn, but it is just a mess! It's nearly impossible to keep your yarn from tangling up, and by the time I finished 2" of a cuff on a kids sock, I could have finished an entire sock on DPN's. (It just seems to take forever to move your socks around on the loop so that they are where you need them to be.) I love the idea, but hate the actual method. I'd rather live with second sock syndrome any day than have to deal with the tangled mess that resulted from my attempts to knit on one needle.

If you can use dpn's, I'd definitely recommend you stick with that.

Don't get me wrong...Penn is GREAT. I love his show, B.S., and I went to Las Vegas specifically to see their show at the RIO.

This book is smart and entertaining, it just seems to miss something. Is seems a LITTLE too preachy in places. And I know Penn loves to preach...and I mostly like to hear it. At some point in this book it just got to be too much...

I am a big fan of P&T and have enjoyed many of their prior books (How to Play in Traffic, et al.). I really like what Penn has to say even though I don't always agree with him. I also don't mind the way he says it, but I agree with some other reviewers that, in thinking about it, he could probably get the message out there as well or better by toning some elements down just a pinch (i.e., sexuality, language and blasphemy).

That said, I'm sending this book to my closest pals because I think that there are some incredible ideas in here presented in a magnificent way. The story was very good--a nice, simple taut thriller. The characters, however, were brilliant. Penn has tremendous insight into people and I feel like I learn so much by his observations and characterizations. Philosophically, the book is powerful and, by presenting itself in the context of characters and story, it is able to convey more complex ideas in a way that really gets to the heart of things.

Religion, sex, prejudice, love, faith--I mean, he covers ALL of this and then some. He peppers it with observations, pet peeves, and pop-culture that I really enjoyed.

You have to get past his brashness to see his point--well, he might argue that the brashness is part of the point--but I think this is powerful stuff. A neat book to read and discuss with lots of fun, self-aware moments.

I was already a fan of Penn Gillette and his musings, and I didn't expect so much of his personality to come through in a novel, but it's all there. If you already believe what Penn espouses, you will love this book even with its unique narrative perspective. If you don't know Penn, you will learn. If you don't like Penn, read this book and if it doesn't change your mind, go donate all your money to a church return to the rock under whence you came.

Penn is a multi-talented individual. Here is yet another example. It's a compelling read.

Yes, the author is that guy from Penn and Teller. It's a
loudmouthed novel told from the point of view of a "wammerjammer" sock
monkey belonging to a tall NYC police diver who finds his ex-girlfriend's
murdered body and then sets out to find the murderer. He is joined by his
gay hairstylist buddy in sleuthing and the whole ride is peppered with
philosophical riffs, rock and roll riffs and popular culture riffs. A
little over-the-top at times, much like the author's hairstyles of the
Eighties, but very enjoyable.

I was hoping this book was more "portable" (aka traveling) but in fact it's about socks named for travels. Nice format with the spiral binding but the patterns use charts and find charts harder to use. They are also not the simplest of patterns. I guess some people want the challenge but I was expecting a book of patterns to use WHEN traveling, not ABOUT traveling.

This is a good book with beautiful patterns for socks. The problem for me is that these patterns are too complicated for me at this time. I am a beginner/intermediate knitter and I am not ready for the stitches it requires to make these socks. I have made other socks but I don't feel that I am at the level it takes to tackle some of these projects. So for now the book will sit on my shelf until that day comes when I am ready.

Knitting on the Road is full of fun, interesting-to-knit sock patterns, with wonderful tidbits of travel information regarding what inspired each pattern. I am a huge Nancy Bush fan, and every time I flip through this book, I can't help but wish I could knit 24 hours a day to make most of these patterns--NOW!

I find most patterns easily adaptable to the Magic Loop method that I prefer, even though all of the patterns are written for double-pointed needles. They are also all top-down with heel flaps, which I also prefer, but toe-up and/or short row heel aficionados would have to adapt the patterns to their preferred methods.

New to knitting, I am rather reluctant to venture into new patterns. However, this book is well written and gives easy and clear instructions. Lots of information that helps untangle that skein of instructions that can often be so cryptic.

I just bought Knitting and I've already used it to help me design a pair of socks for my husband. I think it is great.

Simple Socks is a compendium of knitting and sizing techniques that the author has selected as her favorites, after years of study and experimentation. I've been knitting socks for years, so can't be certain, but it seems that this would be a good how-to manual for beginners, and also for knitters who want to design their own patterns. Adapting existing patterns that recommend other techniques to Gibson-Roberts' methods would be more time consuming than useful, IMO.

Avid sock knitters all benefit from owning this book. Gibson-Roberts presents a terrific method of turning a heel when knitting toe-up socks. It's a short-row technique that works every time. The book helps in sock design as well. I consider it an important part of my library.

I found the foot measurements very helpful in identifying how to fit a sock. The instructions for producing the short row heel and toe where very good. I haven't made any of the patterns yet, but they look very wearable.

First, if you're interested in simply sitting down and knitting a sock, this probably isn't the book for you.

However, if you're ready to learn *how* to make a sock, measure your foot and fine-tune the fit, this book is not to be missed.

Just about every technique is covered -- toe-up, cuff-down, etc. -- and the text is clear and easy to understand.

I'm lovin' this book!

I just read through my friends copy of this, and added it to my wishlist. This book describes, step by step, the theory of short row sock making.

As far as the sizing goes, it relies very much on careful measurement and knowing the gauge you are working. Doing test swatches to measure gauge is essential to figuring out how many stitches to cast on. Don't go by the gauge on the yarn package, what any given person knits often has nothing to do with what the yarn maker imagines.

The pictures could use some improvement. As others have said, it isn't always clear which step a particular picture belongs to, and not every step has a picture. I do prefer the line drawings to photographs, since it is often difficult to track where the yarn goes in photographs of knitting. But it would have been good to hire a professional illustrator with some knowledge of knitting, rather than having the author do the pictures, so that they would be drawn with more technical skill.

It would also have been good if she offered both left handed and right handed instructions, particularly for the cast-ons and bind-offs. I'm an oddity, I knit left handed continental style, and I can tell that interpreting some of these cast-on/bind-off techniques is going to be tricky.

This is a book for the foot of the sock, look elsewhere for interesting patterns for the cuffs and legs.

Astro Socks is a very creative book that keeps you inspired and motivated to read on.. I read it all at once, although I did not plan so. In a world of negativity and criticism this book inspires children to have dreams and hopes. It is the parents' job to help them to take the right actions to achieve their dreams and to make "the law of attraction" work for them. I do agree with former reviewers that not only thoughts, but also action is needed to be successful. However, if we make a book for children too realistic it will blow up their dreams. Books should inspire kids to be creative and imaginative. And that's exactly what this book does. You can tell that this book did inspire kids by all the nice drawings that children made when they heard the story. It is an excellent book for teachers to use in the classroom to help children with being creative in their drawings and paintings. I look forward to Leigh's next book.

Maddy Swinnen
Executive and Life Coach
www.HappineX.org

Leigh M. Le Creux did a wonderful job telling a story about a young boy who was able to make a difference at a young age. Children will take an adventure with Chris Smith as he looks for ways to improve his baby sister's socks and ends up making one of the biggest discoveries of all time.

Chris is an average ten year old kid. He has big ideas and dreams like any other boy his age. But what makes Chris different from other kids is he plans to one day turn his ideas into real inventions. His dad calls him "Mr. Intensity" when he gets the look that an idea is brewing. One day the look came across Chris' face as he watched his little sister bounce in her jolly jumper. Chris couldn't understand why every time his little sister bounced or moved around, she would lose one of her baby socks.

Chris is determined to understand why baby socks are different from his own socks. He studies how the two socks are made to learn the differences. He goes to the internet to search the world's greatest baby socks and comes up empty-handed. Chris even tries looking into different elastics. That's when everything normal in Chris' life changes.

With the help of Mr. Crosby and his parents, Chris not only makes the world's greatest baby sock, he also helps Mr. Crosby solve his problem with the spacesuits his company is designing. This is how Astro Socks are born.

Leigh M. Le Creux believes children can do anything so much that the illustrations in Astro Socks are by children who helped give feedback on her book. Creux also shares how the idea of Astro Socks came to her with young readers.

What's your most secret dream? When people ask you what you'd like to do when you grow up, what would you like to answer? Do you want to be a firefighter, a writer, or maybe you want to be an inventor like Chris in Astro Socks?

Chris had always wanted to be an inventor. He imagined himself inventing all sorts of great things. Then, one day, Chris got his chance.

It all started with his baby sister's socks, they just wouldn't stay on. Chris thoroughly analyzed the situation and came to realize that the elastic was the problem. After doing some research on the Internet, he came up with the perfect solution and the man who could make his dreams a reality.

I loved Astro Socks. It's a fun story that reminds us that dreams can come true. The illustrations are wonderful.

Written by educator and mother of two Leigh Le Creux, Astro Socks is an adventurous novel for young adults, following a young boy named Chris who sets out to transform his dream of becoming an inventor into reality. A handful of simple, child-drawn, black-and-white illustrations intersperse this story of confronting the hurdles on the road of making one's dream into reality. Faith, determination, hard work, and the love and support of one's family are all essential invaluable in the quest to realize his full potential. An inspirational and constructive story, highly recommended especially for children's school and public library collections.

Chris is a normal ten year old boy in the fifth grade. He wants to be an inventor when he grows up. In the meantime, life is a bit different these days since his baby sister arrived. Now, his mom has to stay home nearly all the time to take care of the baby and Chris isn't happy about that. They don't get to spend time together like they used to or go anywhere together. Now he has to ride the school bus or get dad to take him and mom isn't around his school during the day like she used to be. Still, all in all, Rachel is cute and he likes to play with her and he is adjusting to the new family dynamic. The real issue these days is that she keeps losing a sock and according to mom it is becoming a real problem.

Chris, intrigued by the problem gets to thinking on it as he tries to invent a solution. Despite numerous setbacks and his own tempter tantrum that mom helps him deal with; he finally comes up with an idea. An idea that leads him to e-mail correspondence with a very important person at NuPont, an issue aboard the space station, and a way to prove mom's point that anything is possible when one puts his or her mind to it.

Several years ago when my youngest was still in elementary school, the students were required to do a mandatory book creation project each spring. Each student was required to write and illustrate a story that would be bound in hardcover by some company and sent back to the family for posterity. While the first book was free, friends and family were encouraged to order extras to celebrate the achievement of seeing the child's work in print in a hardback book.

This book reminds one of those projects. After an acknowledgement written by the author thanking mom for being a spiritual agent as well as designing the cover, dad for his glowing reviews, husband for his support, daughter for hers, son for his, his fifth grade class and teacher Mrs. Monroe who provided illustrations and the back cover blurb quote as to how utterly fantastic the book is respectively, the author writes a forward as well as an introduction about the creative process and inspiration. The back of the book features more of the same from pages 69 to the end using quotes from child readers and a plug for other projects being developed by the author.

In between is the actual text of the story. A story that will annoy many adults because beyond the occasional typo and frequent punctuation errors, the premise itself is fatally flawed. Beyond the sheer unbelievably of the tale that a child asks a question via e-mail to the Lead Project Engineer that solves an engineering problem for a company trying to help astronauts aboard the space station or the fact that the plant gears up mass production for testing within hours of the signing of the contract between the family and the company among many other issues, the patent process doesn't remotely work the way described by the author. What would take months, if not years, is time compressed into a matter of a few days in this regard as well in nearly every other issue. The book, for adult readers, fails the plausibility test and will drive those of us who have engineers in the family crazy.

However, this book was designed and created for children and not adult readers. For the age group targeted, elementary school age children, this book tells an inspiring story at a fast pace. Because of their lack of sophistication they won't notice the flaws and instead will be captivated by the tale and illustrations. For that age group, the book succeeds in its mission even while making adults cringe.


Kevin R. Tipple (copyright) 2008

This an outstanding book. It starts with the history of socks/stockings and brings the reader up to today and how they've changed. The photos are wonderful and the writing is easy to understand.

I would recommend this book for anyone who really is interested in sock knitting. The book was not awfully expensive and it covers about anything you might want to know about socks. This will always be current for the who wants a simple sock to a very ornate complicated one.

As a unrepentant sock book collector I found this book to be very well put together and full of fresh new patterns. Another MUST HAVE for any sock knitter! It's got something for everyone from beginner to expert.

This book is self explanatory and additionally has a great section that speaks about the anatomy of a sock. It gives you detailed history of sock making and the biggest names in the sock industry! Impressive! Not only are the sock patterns attractive they are designed and charted out by some of the best designers. You definitely won't be displeased if you add this one to your knitting library!

I am an accomplished knitter and own just about all of Vogue's knitting books. I've successfully created many items from these books so why would I think that Vogue Knitting: The Ultimate Sock Book would be one of the worst knitting books I own?

1) No index - why would Vogue Knitting go to such lengths to write a book with "ultimate" in the title and not include an index? It's a reference book!

2) No up-to-date sock knitting techniques - you can't call yourself "ultimate" if you're only going to show how to knit a sock on DPNs. They should have included knitting on two circulars and the Magic Loop. There are many of us who would rather use those techniques. Also, they went into great detail about gusset heels but very little detail on short row heels and nothing on afterthought heels.

3) As mentioned by other reviewers, several of the patterns had errors. I teach knitting and I'm trying to encourage children and adults to find it fun and use it as a stress buster. Not going to happen with this book. It's obviously not for the new knitter but it should be informative enough for a knitter who has never done socks. Errors in patterns just make it frustrating.

This is not the "ultimate" sock book. When Vogue goes to a second printing, they should change the title. There are other sock knitting books out there that are so much better than this. On the plus side, I was able to use the history part of the book for my classes. Otherwise, it was a waste of my money. Go to the bookstore first and look through it before committing yourself to paying $29.95.

I was very impressed with the patterns and instructions in this book. I'd recommend it to anyone looking for more variety of sock patterns.