In May 2011 my friend Shirley gave me the Cookie A book - Sock Innovation as a birthday present. After perusing the designs I decided I would like to knit the entire book, so set out on an odessy to do just that.
Just over 2 years, 15 skeins and many hexipuffs later I finished the final pair in the book - Villai.
This pair was knitted for Shirley as I promised her the last pair in the book, she chose a yarn, but didn't know the pattern she was going to get. I had decided on Vilai at about Pair 5-6 as I knew it would be a design she would appreciate.
The patterns were knitted in a random order to keep things interesting and because there were some I wanted to knit before others.
I found the book had a good mix of cables, lace and knit/purl patterns.
I particularly enjoyed knitting Angee as it was straightforward and easy to get set, Eunice mainly for the lovely yarn I used, but the cables worked so well on this pair. Kai Mei were interesting as a post op project as the cuff element was a straight rib, so low concentration needed and the sweeping foot pattern was straight forward and easy to follow as a pattern and you could see it moving across the socks.
My least favourite patterns were Devon and Rick, mainly because they involved a lot of open lace work and I felt my socks looked scruffy, some of this was due to needle size and at some point I would like to have another go at them on a smaller needle. The heavy cable designs of Kristi and Bex were challenging but once I got used them the socks grew quickly. Milo involved a lot of construction work and having to follow 3 charts in a special order, but the finished effect was stunning, especially the OXO design down the back of the cuff/leg.
More by accident than design I seemed to have knitted most of the designs in Laughing Yaffle Yarn, probably because I have so much in my stash as it is my favoured brand of hand dyed sock yarn. Sunshine were knitted for my mother in some yarn I had dyed myself and Wanida and Cauchy were knitted in commercially available sock yarn like Regia/Opal. Finally Bex were knitted in Wollmeise that I had purchased from a fellow online knitter. This was a semi solid yarn which is what the very dense cable pattern required.
This project grew in April 2012 to the concept of 100 pairs of socks which is why I'm writing this blog!
The initial Sock Innovation project took a while, what with deviations for Christmas Presents, scarves and other minor distractions along the way.
It is the first time I ever felt inspired to knit an entire book and have enjoyed knitting every pair- some more than others! It has also got me hooked on Cookie A's patterns and I have been collecting them on Ravelry and they form a major part of my queue:-) I have sent a copy of the photo to her as I'm not sure how many people have done the entire book.
The next mini project, after some random pairs because I like the patterns will be the Cookie A Jazz Collection.
It would be so cool to collect every pattern she has designed and knit them, but some are unavailable now so that may not be possible, but I will do what I can!
