First, let me just say how THRILLED I was when I saw Knitting Knee Highs as a possible review book on the Book Sneeze page. How cool is it to be able to receive a review copy of a book about my favorite subject: knitting? Needless to say, I jumped on the chance (before Book Sneeze had time to re-think this book as a review offer) and here is the resulting review. The comments below are my honest opinion of this book.

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I LOVE knitting socks. I love wearing hand-knitted socks. There is nothing quite as nice as a well-fitting, hand-made sock. Trust me on this one … if you’ve never knitted socks, try it. The variety of yarns for knitting socks is only outnumbered by the sheer volume of luscious patterns to knit. This book, Knitting Knee Highs, will help you not only with learning how to knit socks but also have you drooling over all the choices. As the author, Barb Brown, quickly points out in the introduction, knitting a knee-high only adds about 4-6 inches of knitting to a shin-high sock so don’t be afraid to tackle as knee high!

I love the introductory material in this book: tips on knitting socks as well as tips for getting a nice fitting sock. She explains the changes necessary to making these “knee-highs” into crew socks, anklets or even leg warmers. The designs — 20 knee-highs — cover lace knitting, color-work, and cable designs. In addition, as mentioned in the introduction, Brown includes at least one secondary design for each of the knee-highs — socks that coordinate and use the same charts but look different. This more than doubles the designs in this book — a nice bonus! The directions are clear and easy to understand and each of the designs is also charted (making it very easy to see where the decreases are for the leg shapings). I really like the charts as it makes it very easy to swap charts, and drop a certain motif into another chart and make a completely new pair (or even use the charts to make matching cap or sweater!).

I’m impressed with this book from Krause Publishing, except for one small complaint — why, oh why, did they have the models in scanty dresses, short skirts or hot-pants? I get that they’re trying to show off the socks with no clothing in the way, but the juxtaposition of dresses that look like lingerie and heavy woolen sox is a bit disturbing. The socks could have been the focus of the photograph … showing the legs-to-toes and avoided having the models look so goofy (and inappropriate)!

Other than that complaint, the book is a treasure trove of wonderful designs that will sit proudly in my knitting library!