Head "Straight" to Your Local LYS

Another break in reading for the book award. It's always a treat to have some knitting eye candy if you don't have much time for anything else except browsing through patterns, magazines, or books.  Well, this week I've hit the jackpot because I have another excellent book to recommend.  This is one that you'll be looking at and making things from for a long time to come.

Knit Your Socks on Straight: A New and Inventive Technique with Just Two Needles by Alice Curtis (Storey Publishing, June 2013) presents the knitter with an updated and simple method for knitting socks on two straight needles instead of the cumbersome and challenging double pointed needles.  Curtis is a yarn shop owner and teacher.  In response to her students' quest to make socks more easily, Curtis goes back to the old-style straight needle patterns only to find them too complicated or with seams in a place that make wearing the sock uncomfortable.  In mastering the technique, Curtis also ended up with about 15 patterns to showcase the method.  All of the patterns are well-written, stylish, and looking like a lot of fun to make.  With sock names like "Cirque du Sole" and "Slainte," I just won't be able to resist putting down other projects to start these.

Curtis starts off the book with the usual knitting fundamentals such as casting on and swatching, which are illustrated.  She takes the usual one step beyond to give a really good mini-course in sock construction and the different styles of toes, something that I had not paid attention to prior to this.  Then there's the "secret" to using the straight needle technique.  While I didn't get to try it, the instructions are clear enough to read and understand without out knitting an entire piece.  For me that always deserves special mention.  If I can figure out a pattern without knitting it, chances are I'll be successful. The same kudos go for the patterns themselves.  They are quite understandable and easy on the eyes. The book rounds itself out with hints interspersed throughout, excellent lists of materials needed and gauges in boxes, and a quip or two at the start of every pattern description to entice you.

A unique technique and a great presentation make this a book that you should go straight to your local shop to pick up.  It's due out in early June so you can have some perfectly sized and fun projects to take with you anywhere you go this summer.  Enjoy!