Stephanie van der Linden

There are some lovely socks in here, especially for colourwork aficionados. Some of them are typical, or somewhat representative, of the nations to which the designer ascribes them; some of them are just funny. Italy may be known for its stylish knitwear and its colourful sock yarn (pretty much all of which seems to get exported), but fashionable sock knitting is not an Italian "thing" and trying to buy sock yarn in an Italian merceria will probably land you with either black and grey to make socks for Nonno or pastel shades to make socks for babies. And doing "Scottish" argyle socks with running stitch diagonals is just wrong. I'm still looking for a real Scottish diced hose pattern. Nonetheless, there are socks in this book that I really want to make - the Estonian and Latvian entries and the English gansey-patterned sock are particularly attractive.… (mehr)

Each of van der Linden's 19 lovely socks is inspired by a specific artist - or even specific work of art - associated with what was called Op Art in the 1960s - Bridget Riley, Yaacov Agam - as well as other artists working with contrasting colors and patterns or tessellation - such as Josef Albers, Anni Albers, Victor Vasarely, and MC Escher. Some optical patterns are created using eye bending stranded color patterns or shadow knitting, others are produced by knit-purl textures or shifting ribbing. You will have not only lovely socks, but works of art!… (mehr)