One of the best things about working in a knitting shop is getting a first crack at new yarns and books when they come in the door! We are loving Socks Yeah! Volume One, the latest self published title from Rachel Coopey which accompanies her recent yarn line of the same name. We asked Natalie to review it for the blog.

I am a long time sock knitter, and I have loved having Socks Yeah! in the shop. It’s a perfect workhorse sock yarn with 20% nylon for added strength, and the 50g skeins mean that there are extra possibilities for colour mixing and matching without ending up with loads of leftovers. It was no surprise that Rachel would eventually release an accompanying book for it, and she did not disappoint! The book has 12 sock patterns, as well as tips and tricks in the back to help you out.

Clearly Rachel had colourful socks in mind when she decided to put out her yarn in 50g skeins, and this book shows it. Of the 12 patterns only 3 are shown in a solid colour! If solid socks is more your jam though, most of them would also look lovely knitted up in a solid colour, as most of it is contrasting heels, toes and cuffs which aren’t as intrinstic to the design than something that uses stranded colourwork. 11 of the patterns are heavily patterned in some way (texture, stripes, colourwork etc), with a bonus reprint of the Dave pattern from the Coop Knits Socks Vol. 2 book. Dave is a perfect plain entry level sock pattern for a knitter who hasn’t done socks, or a classic vanilla pattern for those plain socks we all need to knit once in a while.

So whatever your comfort level, Rachel’s got a sock pattern for you! The hard part is choosing which one to knit first…