First Finnish, now German.
Knit. Sock. Love. is now available in a German edition with a new cover!
I was actually initially considering this photo (with Sake) for the cover, so it’s exciting to see it on the German edition. Google Translate tells me that the subtitle says “23 clever ideas for unique socks”. I know there are a lot of German-speaking sock knitters out there, and I’m delighted to be able to share these patterns with them more easily!
An astounding 58 members of the knit.sock.love group on Ravelry have completed all 19 pairs of socks from the book in their recent knitalong! All the members who completed all 19 pairs got a prize. I was able to contribute some patterns and copies of Shapes + Form… and a sock club membership to one lucky winner!
This group’s knitalong started almost two years ago with Hedera and Monkey and wrapped up with Sake and German Stocking. Over 300 knitters have participated in at least one month of the knitalong.
There is a really fun thread in the group where club members have stacked up all their socks or made photo collages of all their projects.
These are Sue from Wisconsin’s socks. Her Ravelry username is CO64… sounds like the perfect name for a sock knitter!
Ann from Boston knit up all the socks and made a cool photo collage:
Simone from Germany also made a cool photo collage to show off all her socks.
Debbie from Ohio knit all 19 pairs of socks and was the very lucky grand prize winner from the group: she’s won a free membership to next year’s sock club! Check out her project collection here.
Registration for the 2013 sock club is still open and going strong. You can see all of this year’s patterns and yarns to date here and catch up on what current sock club members are up to in the Ravelry group. If you’d like all the fine print on the club, be sure to visit http://cookiea.com/club/.
Lookie what I got in the mail. Knit. Sock. Love. in Finnish!
Knit. Sock. Love. – just like Sock Innovation – has been translated into Finnish and published by Minerva. I wasn’t involved in the translation, so I’m not sure what sukkia. rakkaudella. means. Google Translate says “Socks. With Love.” which makes me think of a James Bond movie. From Finland… Socks. With LOVE. Anyone fluent in Finnish want to shed some light? Every time I mention the Finnish edition of Knit. Sock. Love. someone will ask me “Haven’t you already finished that book?” Hee hee.
In any case, I’m tickled to be translated into Finnish.
I’ve been remiss with blogging updates on Knit. Sock. Love. which has gotten many lovely reviews and mentions. Here are some excerpts.
From page 30 of the spring/summer 2011 issue of Vogue Knitting:
In this impressive volume, Cookie A doesn’t just dip her toe in publishing, she jumps feet first. A production of the highest order, Knit. Sock. Love. presents everything from the photography and the styling to the socks themselves thoughtfully and beautifully. … a book that not only illuminates Cookie A’s architectural understanding of socks but also kicks the art of knitwear pattern book up a notch.
I made the cover May 2011 issue of the UK-based Knit magazine! Ok, my name, not my patterns. On pages 28-29, there is an interview and lots of embarrassing photos of me. And there’s a review of the book on page 17.
Q: What made you publish your new book, Knit. Sock. Love.?
My answer: Knit. Sock. Love. is my ode to sock knitting. I wanted to compile some of my individual pattern into an inspirational coffee-table-type book that really showcased how beautiful hand-knitted socks can be if you put your mind to it. There are 12 previously published patterns and seven new ones, which I believe represent my design approach and spatially oriented sock philosophy. It differs from my previous book, Sock Innovation, in that it focuses more on the patterns than explicitly on the technique, but I utilise more advanced techniques on the patterns in Knit. Sock. Love. that explore going off the grid with more angular elements.
From page 10 of the July 2011 issue of Creative Knitting which should be in shops now:
The artistic photography, layout and design elements make Knit. Sock. Love. a must-have addition to any sock aficionado’s library.
Way back from the January 2011 issue of The Knitter, Knit. Sock. Love. was chosen as the issue’s top title for the reading list:
Cookie A has been captivated by the opportunities [socks] have to offer – and she presents her exceptional creations in Knit. Sock. Love. While they may look astonishingly complex, Cookie’s patterns are based on a few simple geometric principles. … All of the patterns introduce something a little different and will provide their own unique challenge. Those who’ve caught the sock-knitting bug will be delighted to find so many patterns to stretch their skills.
And for the most detailed review of all, check out Clara Parkes’ review at Knitter’s Review.
If you’ve got the book, there are two wonderfully supportive knit-along groups on Ravelry, each with over 1000 members working their way through all of the patterns in the book! Both groups have a great sense of camaraderie and prizes lined up throughout the year. Links to both groups: knit. sock. love. — a Cookie KAL and knit. sock. love.
If you don’t have the book, you can still order a signed copy.
in time for the Knit. Sock. Love. book launch party at Bobbin’s Nest tomorrow.
Also testing blogging from my phone.
The books arrived quite a bit earlier than I was expecting! Unfortunately, I was in LA over the weekend and haven’t begun shipping yet. If you’re a local yarn shop owner in the US, you can order the book from Unicorn Books. They’ve already begun shipping. If you’re a shop owner outside the US, you can order from SearchPress in the EU (they also ship to Australia) and Gemini Fibres in Canada.
A word of warning to Canadians: I have no idea how Knit. Sock. Love. made it onto Amazon.ca. It’s possible that Amazon.com is shipping from their US warehouses to the Canadian warehouses, but I don’t understand why the product descriptions don’t match. I’ve tried to contact them to see what their source for getting the books is, but they haven’t responded. I am a bit worried that they won’t be getting the book and some Canadians may be left wondering where their order is. If you’re not in a rush to get it, you can wait it out and see what happens. (I’m very curious!) Otherwise, I recommend ordering from the CookieA.com shop or from your local yarn shop.
Here are the books in their boxes.
Neatly packed in boxes
I ran around and picked up as many of these envelopes as I could from nearby post offices. My order of envelopes shouldn’t arrive until later.
A bit short on envelopes
And to keep the books safe for their travels around the world, I got some padding. This pile is bigger than me!
Fluffy goodness I just want to jump on
Ok, I’m off to prepare books to begin shipping tomorrow. If you ordered the book from the CookieA.com shop, shipping details will be emailed 2-3 days before your book is set to ship, and if there’s an error you can follow the link in the email to give a corrected address. I’m shipping out books in the order they were received, and unfortunately I can only ship a small number per day until I get my shipment of envelopes from the post office. I didn’t expect the books to arrive so early!
You may wonder how Knit. Sock. Love. compares with Sock Innovation.
Knit. Sock. Love. and Sock Innovation side by side
The physical books: Knit. Sock. Love. weighs in at 1 lb 13 oz compared to Sock Innovation’s svelt 1 lb 1 oz. The extra weight comes from one extra inch of height, 32 more pages, and heavier paper.Â
The patterns: Sock Innovation contained 15 brand new patterns, all charted with one size. Knit. Sock. Love. has 19 patterns — 12 previously published and 7 brand new patterns, all charted, many with multiple sizes. The previously published patterns have been re-vamped, re-knitted in new yarns, re-photographed, tech edited, test knitted, and have additional sizes where possible. The patterns in Sock Innovation, with the exception of Kai-Mei, were what I consider column or grid-based, i.e. used a stitch pattern that was repeated around the sock in columns or in a grid. While some of the patterns in Knit. Sock. Love. are also column or grid-based, a larger number of them go off the grid.
Cusp goes off the grid
Content: Sock Innovation is technique heavy whereas Knit. Sock. Love. is more of a coffee table book that assumes you already love knitting socks. Knit. Sock. Love. doesn’t explicitly teach you how to design a sock or other techniques, but if you study the diagrams and charts you’ll learn a lot about sock construction and how pieces can fit together.
The photography: Both books have clear photographs showing the socks from different angles, but Knit. Sock. Love. also has beautiful photography from Laura Kicey that is just… beautiful.
The long awaited book, Knit. Sock. Love., is now available in the shop for pre-order or immediate pdf download!
