I feel like there's been so much excitement over Cookie A's book, Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks, that I want to talk to you about the other new sock book, Wendy Johnson's Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits.

This book is freaking awesome! Not that Cookie's book isn't awesome but it's Cookie A, ya know: it's innovative, just like the title says, and is full of one-of-a-kind socks. But I'm not sure that those kinds of socks are my kind of socks or everyone's kind of socks. And I'm really not sure that I need a whole book of them. Wendy's book, however, is totally a sock book for everyone. If it weren't limited to toe-up socks, I might even say it's THE sock book that every aspiring sock knitter should have. But then again, why couldn't it be? So what if they're all toe-up socks. I mean, some of us learned to knit on circular needles and have barely even held straights in our hands, but we can still knit all the same things. And some American knitters learned to knit in the Continental style from grandmothers from the Old Country, but that doesn't mean that they're missing out on something. Judging from Wendy's book, a knitting lifetime of only toe-up socks looks pretty darned fulfilling.

And not limiting at all. In fact, Wendy includes a clear description of knitting socks on double-pointed needles, one circular needle ("magic loop"), and two circs, so that every type of sock knitter (even old-fashioned dpn users like me) can feel comfortable using her patterns.

She also provides us with three different heels, including a slip stitch heel (on right) that exactly matches the one made when knitting socks from the top down. I personally love a good short-row heel (seen on left), but this "gusset heel" of Wendy's (middle) looks so clean and neat. I gotta try it! There are also thorough explanations, with illustrations, of the myriad cast on and bind off techniques associated with knitting socks from the toe-up. These sometimes intimidating techniques (like the turkish and figure eight cast ons) are presented clearly enough for beginning sock knitters to tackle, yet there's enough technical stuff here to give an intermediate sock knitter plenty of new challenges.

Wendy starts off the pattern section of the book with a basic sock pattern for all three heel types. Just how your go-to, all-you'll-ever-need, essential sock book should begin. The patterns are expertly written for two sizes in a standard sock-weight gauge but include simple explanations for adjusting them to any size or gauge. And the socks look beautiful, even though they're simply knit up in just white sock yarn! Indeed, all the photos in the book are amazing. I'm telling you, it can't be easy filling a book with pictures of feet after feet after feet. But this book is gorgeous. Each successive sock pattern is knit up in pretty but not distracting variegated sock yarns and is presented with several pictures, showing the whole sock, the specific heel construction, and a detail of the stitch pattern. I can't remember ever getting so many helpful pictures in a pattern book before!

The majority of the remaining patterns are for lace socks. They are lovely. They may not be the most unique patterns you've ever seen - I'm sure you've seen similar ones - but that's what makes this book THE sock book for everyone: all the pretty sock patterns you've ever seen, or something very much like them, are here! Wendy follows the lace socks section with a section on gansey patterned socks - so Wendy! - and then a few mini/mock cabled sock patterns. (She and I are of like minds that less is more in the cabled sock department. Too much bulk makes for unhappy feet.)

The final section is my favorite and includes three patterns for sportweight socks. I love making socks at this gauge! They're just a little bit faster, the patterns are on a larger scale and they're great for beginning sock knitters. And I honestly think her sportweight socks are some of her most striking patterns in the book.

Okay, once you've mastered toe-up socks a la Wendy and you want to do something more challenging, more innovative, or more fabulous, go ahead and get the other sock book, the Cookie A book. Just get this one first.

One of my jobs as mom is to sharpen all the pencils in the pencil bin we have in the kitchen. That's where we keep all our pencils - for homework, for writing things on the calendar, for making grocery lists, for secret twin messages and for what wee one calls "draaahhhing". About once a month, after fruitlessly searching the bin for a pencil with a point to jot down a number, I end up sitting down for twenty minutes or so sharpening all the little buggers on one of those stylish, cleverly designed but oh-so-very-not-automatic German pencil sharpeners. And then I have to take a two day break from knitting due to a giant pencil sharpening blister on my middle finger!

So pretty much all I managed this weekend (besides sharpening the pencils, of course) was to finally sew the labels on the neutral quilt and purple lover's quilt (remember them?!) and send them off to the lovely women I made them for. I washed the quilts before sending them, which was scary as hell, but they came out looking great with that old-fashioned wrinkly look that quilts have.

I used a pen to write the notes accompanying them.

Wee one's Barefoot Knits tank is almost, almost done. Just one strap to sew closed and a few last ends to weave in and, oh right, there is the issue of the missing butterfly. I had meant to add a little butterfly motif to the front but after finding a sweet chart (thanks for your help, everyone!) and knitting half of it, I realized that I'd made a mistake when I started it. It was very annoyingly juuuust off center. Grrrrr! Out it went and, along with it, my desire to knit any more intarsia. So I knit the front section with my knitting class this week and am presently considering sewing a few cute butterfly buttons on the bodice instead. I did promise wee one that there'd be a butterfly on the dress and she never forgets things like that!

The good news is that the dress fits great! I made a ton of mods to the original pattern, so this was by no means certain, but I got lucky. After casting on a different amount to accommodate the ruffle stitch from the comfort zone skirt pattern, I ended up with about 20 extra stitches for the body of the tank. I worked some paired decreases near the upper section of the skirt to get back down to the proper number. I also added 3 or 4 inches to the tank so it would be more dress-length than tunic-length. And finally, I lowered the neck in the front of the tank so it wouldn't come up quite so high on her throat. Seriously, the neck is sooo much better this way. I can't wait for the modeled pictures on this one!

Sally Melville rocks. We know that from her awesome Knitting Experience Book series. But did you know that her daughter also knits? Well of course she does. As I was knitting on Mother's Day yesterday, I thought it would be a perfect time to take a closer look at the new knitting book Sally and her daughter, Caddy Melville Ledbetter, have recently published, Mother-Daughter Knits.

The subtitle of the book is 30 Designs to Flatter and Fit and the chapter at the start about knitting to fit is classic Sally Melville: full of clear, concise details and a multitude of useful illustrations. She explains ideal sweater lengths and shapes, how to measure yourself (not just a basic bust measurements, but more specific measurements like shoulder width and waist length), and how to adjust any pattern to fit you better. Sally's motto is "you should never follow a pattern without personalizing it to your measurements" and this insight and info will go a long way to answering how some of our great knits sometimes end up looking so "wrong". I'm not quite sure what this all has to do with "mother-daughter knitting", but, hey, a lesson from Sally on anything has got to be worth the price of admission on its own!

What's unique about this book is the glimpses you get in the later two chapters of the special connection these two women have to knitting and to each other. Surprisingly, they have not been knitting together for decades - Caddy writes that she only started knitting as an adult - but it is clearly something that brings them together now and it's lovely to see them sharing it with each other as they share their talents with us. The book still feels a little disjointed however, with Sally introducing one chapter and Caddy another. Both chapters contain patterns by each of them but, like the separate introductions, there isn't much of a link between Sally's patterns and Caddy's. You never really get a sense of them thinking or designing as a "we" (something that I do feel, for example, in the Mason-Dixon Knitting books). But although there isn't quite enough of the "mother-daughter knitting" for my tastes, there is still plenty of brilliant knitting.

Just look at all these sweaters that Sally has designed for the book!

Sally, rather tellingly, describes the book as "dual generational" and I think this is a better way of understanding its contents than in terms of mother-daughter knitting. Sally's patterns show her expertise that comes from years of experience, her classic sense of style, and her knowledge of what is flattering on all types of women, including older women. Caddy, who describes herself as part of the "AFMAK" generation (that's "absolutely, fabulously, mad about knitting!") has designed patterns that are all fresh and young, hip and fun.

oooh, I love that last one!

Caddy's creations are often simpler, but also somehow more innovative. The two women have different styles, but together - a mother and a daughter, two generations of knitters - they are genuinely able to offer something for every woman. (The proof: they do a lot of the modeling themselves!)

This is a beautiful knitting book. It's not just that the pictures and patterns and sentiments are all lovely, but it's seems likely to become one of those books that I'll end up keeping and looking at more for inspiration and information than for patterns to knit. I'm not sure there's anything in here that's gonna end up on my must-make queue, but, then again, there are a lot of possibilities! It's definitely worth taking a peek at next time you're at the yarn store and it would make a lovely gift for the mother or daughter in your life who knits. Or if you're the knitter, you can make them something from the book (how many good patterns for mom do you find out there these days, huh?!). And there's no need to wait until next Mother's Day!

Frankly, the serger frightens me a little. Look at that giant presser foot contraption! And the knife blade next to it! Then there's the complicated threading system. But, man, once you get everything all set up, it is sweeeeeet.

Earlier this week, I shortened and hemmed some new curtains for the living room in no time. Blind stitching and finishing edges in one pass, baby! And all that at a speed my regular sewing machine could never manage. Sergers rock!

I've had these Ikea curtains for months and had been meaning to quickly hem them forever. With the in-laws arriving for a visit today, I decided I finally had to get them up on the windows. Enter scary serger, saving the day!

I'm glad I gave up on the intarsia butterfly I'd planned for wee one's Barefoot Knits tank. Because these butterflies are so much better!

After sewing on the butterfly buttons, I couldn't resist pulling out some scrap yarn and embroidering some loopy flight paths for the sweet little bugs. When I first asked wee one to try on the dress, she was annoyed. Then she spotted the butterflies...

She LOVES it! It's much too cool today for her to wear it, but don't try telling her that because she refuses to take it off.

My butterfly girl.

(Details about the pattern and my mods are here.)