P is for Pick a Pattern

I had a self-indulgence attack today in Hobby Lobby. I'd been thinking for a long time about buying Socks a la Carte by Jonelle Raffino, Katherine Cade and the SWTC Staff. The only thing I need less than another book of sock patterns is more sock yarn. I did buy it and some sock yarn too, but the yarn was on clearance so I've got half-off the guilt.

The book is divided up into sections. You have a series of choices for the cuff, more choices for the body, and still more for the heel/foot/toe. There's a section with flip pages, so you can get an idea of what each combination looks like. It's quite a lot of fun to play with the pages. It's spiral bound so this is easy to do without damaging anything. There's even an elastic bookmark thingy that you can use to hold your new design in place.

The sample socks in the book are all knit using SWTC's Tofutsies. This makes the book a really good idea for a variegated yarn nut such as myself. I don't think they started making solid color Tofutsies until after this book was published, so all the designs are suitable for semisolid or wilder color combinations.