Book Review: New Pathways for Sock Knitters by Cat Bordhi

I've been a die-hard Queen Kahuna Crazy Toes & Heels fan for the past year or so, but recently decided to check out all the hullabaloo about Cat Bordhi's "New Pathways for Sock Knitters Book One". So, I took the plunge and got a copy at MisKnits a couple weeks ago and just sat down with it last night.

At first blush, I like the concepts of Cat's different sock "architectures", use of letter markers and the different toes, heels and cuff options for both toe-up and cuff-down socks. I love the big color photos illustrating the sock architecture knit with many of my favorite high-end sock yarns like Blue Moon Fiber Arts "Socks That Rock", Fleece Artist, and Zitron Trekking XXL to name a few. The book does take some concentration and patience to absorb. The instructions are a bit on the terse side and require frequent references to your master numbers and to special Cat'niques like the LAinc and LRinc increases. Even though other reviewers suggest that a sock neophyte would be able to follow along and learn how to knit socks using Cat's unconventional methods, I contend that it would be better to learn and master the conventional concepts of sock knitting prior to taking the new pathway. One should already be comfortable with the basics of sock knitting like circular knitting with double points, increases, decreases, reading charts, gussets, turning a heel. However, for those of us who are sock savvy, I say jump right in.

My only suggestions for improvement in future reprintings of Book One would be:
1) Move "Chapter 10 - The Freedom of Master Numbers" to Chapter 2 instead. I think it makes more sense to guide the knitter through the process of calculating their individual foot measurements and required "master numbers" before reviewing the various architectures so that the knitter can mentally plug-in the numbers as the go along.
2) Move the patterns for each "architecture" after the overview of the architecture and after the "master plan" for that architecture.
3) Include instructions for Magic Loop Two at Once socks and explain that 2 sets of letter markers are needed when doing Magic Loop Two at Once.
4) Include tabbed sections for each architecture.
5) Spiral binding so that the book can lay completely flat AND be re-arranged.