I’ve had my copy of New Pathways for Sock Knitters, Book One on my shelf for over a year now, but aside from flipping through it and oohing over the designs, I haven’t done much more than send it sidelong glances. Oh, I’ve thought about it for sure–but I’ve always been pressed for time, or needed a sock I could whip through quickly, with spare moments and little concentration.

This book? This is not a little concentration book. I’ve got some Noro Silk Garden sock in shades of white/beige/ivory that I’ve been swatching and starting socks with on and off. It’s great yarn, but a little thicker than most paterns call for, and I’ve had several false starts on socks that wound up being too stiff, and way too tight on the needles to knit comfortably. What I needed, clearly, was something more challenging than a plain vanilla sock, but that could be knit by plugging in my gauge.

Enter Cat Bordhi.

I love a lot of the socks in this book, but I decided to start with the Coreolis pathway. It’s very spiral-y, and I’m a big fan. In a rare fit of responsibility and good sense, I actually listened to the book and cast on for the practice sock. I think it’s meant to become a baby sock, which would actually be quite useful given the baby boom going on amongst my friends, but I cast on with tiny sock yarn and needles so mine is going to wind up as a Yule tree ornament instead. Oh well. And am I ever glad I did! This sock has been totally blowing my mind. I mean, logically, I can kind of see what she’s doing, but I can’t anticipate or pick it up the way I would a normal sock.

Once I get the hang of it, though–I expect I’ll be using this book quite a bit.