I Should Have Been Sleeping...

Well, between looking for patterns for my pal on the web, and looking for the box of spinning/knitting books that I can’t find (and that box includes Alden Amos’s spinning book as well as an old Mon Tricot Stitch directory and a sock book that currently lists as out of print and $290 in the used book trade, so if any of you have any influence with the universe I would be most appreciative if you could influence it towards sending me to the correct part of the basement or garage, but…) and looking at Favorite Socks by Interweave press, I thought I would do a little bit of an inventory of sock patterns that I happen to have around in various books, magazines and so forth last night, when I was a little too tired, probably, to knit.

This does not include any free patterns I have downloaded from the web, any individual patterns I have purchased, or any sock patterns from any magazines other than IWK and one from Spin-Off. It does not include any patterns from books I know I own but can’t find, or from half the books I do have lying around, because I have not gotten to them yet. It does not include anything I have designed and knitted myself or with Socker’s help.

So far I am at 213.

Even considering that there must be at least half a dozen patterns in there for your basic top-down sock that is still a LOT of sock patterns.

I thought I would use this information for the good of all sock-knitting kind, so today’s post will be one of a few to come here that attempt to inform in some meaningful way on the topic of sock patterns.

Sock Patterns in Interweave Knits.

Going through my copies of Interweave Knits, I came to the following two conclusions: I seem to own all but six issues out of the first eleven and a half years of publication of this magazine, and I seem to have every single issue between 96 and 2002. You can consider this, then, a fairly inclusive list. I will note issues I am missing – if you happen to have those issues, would you look in them, see if there is a sock pattern, and, if so, let me know in a comment? I will then update this list.

(Under the category “pattern” I have left out the word “Socks” if it is included in the pattern name.)

Issue Sock Pattern Designer Page(s)

Fa 96 no patterns

Sp 97 Meida’s Nancy Bush 70

Su 97 No socks

F 97 Evening of Falling Stars Roxanna Bartlett 22

W 97 Eesti Trail Hiking Nancy Bush 50

Sp 98 Mayan Jean Moss 26

Su 98 No socks

F 98 No socks

W 98 No socks

Sp 99 No socks

Su 99 No socks

F 99 Ute Nancy Bush 73

W 99/01 No socks

Sp 00 No socks

Su 00 Traveler’s stockings Nancy Bush 80

Up-down Spiral Sandy Cushman 84

F 00 Priscilla’s Dream* Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 76

W 00/01 Austrian Candace Eisner-Strick 66

Sp 01 Ilga’s 72

Su 01 Boudoir 44 , 48

F 01 Better Mousetrap Debbie New 98

W 01/02 No socks

S 02 Don’t have issue

Su 02 Don’t have issue

F 02 No socks

W 02 Don’t have issue

Sp 03 Dresser Scarf Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 94

Su 03 Merino Lace Anne Woodbury 74

F 03 Love Stamp Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 94

W 03 Eastern European Footlets Priscilla Gibson-Roberts 72

Uptown Boot Jennifer L. Appleby 100

S 04 Waving Lace Evelyn A. Clark 82

Su 04 No socks

F 04 No socks

W 04 Lace Knee-Highs Kristin Spurkland 100

Retro-Rib Evelyn A. Clark 110

S 05 Cable Rib Erica Alexander 92

Su 05 Padded Footlets Mary Snyder 44

Go With the Flow Evelyn A. Clark 96

Baby Socks 100

F 05 Don’t have issue

W 05 Embossed Leaves Mona Schmidt 96

S 06 Simply Lovely Lace Karen Baumer 64

Su 06 No socks

W 06 Cowgirl Slipper Ann Budd 132

S 07 Roza’s Grumperina 120

Su 07 Working toe-up* Ann Budd 24


On-Your-Toes Ann Budd 30

Spiral Boot Veronik Avery 48, 116

F 07 Tyrolean Ann Budd 41 and 78

Snowflake Chrissy Gardiner 56 And 124

* a basic way to make socks, including multi-size chart.

Have I reached any conclusions after this exhaustive little survey? Yes, and they follow, in no particular order:

1. What were they thinking, Summer 98 –Summer 99?

2. What was I thinking in 2002?

3. None of these are terribly complicated socks.

Most of the ones with stranding do not strand the whole sock.

One is a mosaic pattern

One is a cabled-Austrian sort of thing

Many are a simple one color stitch pattern

There are numerous ways to skin a sock represented, from direction to heel type

When compared against the table of contents for IWK’s Favorite Socks:

17 of the 25 are listed here.

One of the 25 is available as a free download on Knitting Daily (Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks by Ann Budd)

One of the 25 is in the Summer 02 Spin Off, which I also have (Two-yarn Resoleable Socks)

Therefore, there is no need for me to buy this book. Granted, I would have them all in one spot, but I would be making a working copy to avoid carrying the book around (Permissable under fair use) and I might as well just make that copy from the magazines.

If, however, you did not have the foresight or cash to start buying Knits in 96, you might want the book. At least 17 of the patterns seem to be from the magazine, so if you don’t own back copies there are a lot of patterns you don’t have. Still, like all pattern collections, look first to see how you like the individual offerings.