One Great Knitter

 

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Day 3 Topic: Write about a knitter whose work (whether because of project choice, photography, styling, scale of projects, stash, etc) you enjoy. If they have an enjoyable blog, you might find it a good opportunity to send a smile their way. (Tag code knitcroblo3)

Wow! Just one? Okay then. But this is just one of many in my book.

I call Cookie A my sock goddess. I have never, in my 40 plus years of knitting, had the visceral reactions to sock designs like I do with hers. There's just something about them. I get very excited when I see them. They fuel my creative fire.

For one thing, she likes to knit with lots of texture. She's not really one for a lot of color changes in her designs. Since that's what I prefer to do myself, well, we're kindred spirits.

Another reason why I love her socks is because she has an amazing talent for putting different kinds of stitch patterns together. She has combined patterns that I would never have thought would look great together. She knows just exactly how to place the patterns so they curve around, over, and/or up the foot and leg to maximize the attractiveness. The way she does this leaves me in awe.

Cookie A also has the ability to tell what sort of designs look best with what sorts of yarn colorways. What goes best with muted variegated, semi solid, bright hand paints, etc. or if you should stick with a solid color. For instance, a really brightly colored variegated sock yarn does not do a highly textured pattern any justice. In fact, it makes the stitch pattern a complete waste of time because the colors take your eye away from the texture rendering it almost invisible. And yet the Monkey sock looks amazing done in brightly colored variegated yarn. How does she know it's gonna do that?

I have found the way she writes her patterns and explains how to do things fairly clear and easy to understand. That is the hardest part about writing patterns, putting into words how to do the actions so people can repeat what you've done. 

Lest you think her patterns are extremely difficult, think again. I've found most of them to be considerably easier than they look. The first of her patterns I did was the infamous famous extremely popular Monkey socks. I really thought I was not going to be able to take that one for KIPing. I was quite surprised at how easily I was able to memorize the stitch pattern.

Cookie A has a web site where she sells her sock patterns. She also has free ones posted on various sites that can easily be found just by Googling her name.

Cookie A's first book, Sock Innovation, has 15 wonderfully textured sock designs for the sock knitting addict. I love every single one of them. I have but two complaints about the book. 

1) the socks come in only one size-womens medium. She mentions how to size up and down for other sizes, but not in any detail. Some of the designs are complicated enough that it is hard to resize them without very careful calculations. They would be more accessible to knitters who can't do this if she did more than one size. I kind of wish she'd go to the trouble, but I understand why she doesn't. It's a lot of work.

2) is not necessarily Cookie A's fault. Of the 15 patterns, 10 of them are full of errors. Who ever proofread the book failed miserably, or the publisher messed around with it (which happens more often than you'd know). So if you decide to purchase this book, please go to the Interweave Press web site and download the errata for this book.

Have a nice evening.


Edit to add:


I have just discovered that Cookie A has a new book coming out soon titled Knit, Sock, Love. I can hardly wait!