I put Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn in my Amazon shopping cart based on seeing a picture of the cover socks in a group I belong to on Flickr a couple months ago, putting it in the “save for later” section because I already own a fair few knitting books I’ve yet to make anything from and have plenty of sock patterns already queued up to knit someday. A couple of weeks ago, though, I went ahead and bought it, justifying it as a better option for cheering myself out of the “I have a cold and it’s yucky weather and work is stressful and the economy sucks” blues than other things on my mental list, such as massive quantities of deep fried cheese curds. Now that I’ve had a chance to read some of the early chapters and page through the patterns, I’m glad I made that choice; it’s a great book. Even if I never make any of the patterns, the information about how to analyze a multi-colored or handpainted yarn and figure out how to use it to best advantage is good stuff. I’d sort of been finding my way in this area based on what I’ve learned about color and pattern from quilting and picking up tidbits online, but it’s so nice to have it all laid out in one place in a logical manner with plenty of illustrations. Though I may end up using some of the patterns, too, as there are many that are very tempting. I’ll have to develop my knitting skills a bit more before I can tackle some of the harder ones, but maybe the way to do that is to just dive in and try. Which I can do as soon as I finish the socks I started last month…