2008-08-02 Disappointing

As an obsessive sock knitter, I snapped up a copy of this book as soon as it was available. However, I have since passed it on as I felt it could have been far better than it was.

The book is divided into a brief historical knitting section, a basic guide to sock construction and ways of knitting socks, pattern swatches taken from the Vogue Stitchionary series for creating your own designs and then a section with designer sock patterns, some reprinted from Vogue Knitting magazine.

Ultimately, I think this book suffers due to not knowing what it is really aiming to be. It fails as a basic sock recipe book when compared to Sensational Knitted Socks and its sequel More Sensational Knitted Socks because these books have a far greater selection of stitch patterns and sock knitting methods. There aren't enough patterns to make it valuable as a sock pattern book like, say, Knitting Vintage Socks. In the end, it seems to be a case of taking a "little bit of this book and a little bit of that book" and ending up with a book that compares unfavourably to their own "Vogue Knitting": The Ultimate Knitting Book, which is a fantastic resource for knitting design and techniques. The Ultimate Sock Book is sadly nowhere near being ultimate, by any stretch of the imagination.