This is not so much a review as a freak-out. I had a bad week. Already. So after hearing the raving sock knitting community (and the gals at knitgroup), I went out and bought Cat Bordhi’s book. And I think, yes, she’s a clever person, but … it all looks like flap and gusset construction. Now, I’m probably one of the few knitters who doesn’t like the flap and gusset, especially for the reason I’m about to state.
The stitches just “look wrong”. They’re 90 degrees from each other, and it’s a jarring look. The gusset kindasorta feathers the 90 degree look, but not to the extent that makes it look less like these stitches are in a car-crash with those stitches. The short-row heel makes a smoother-looking transition to my eye between the instep and the ankle parts of the sock.
I’m going to try it, though. I’m going to try the little sock versions of the big socks, and I’ve been poring over the book trying to find the least jarring of transitions — I think it’s in the “Riverbed Architecture” socks for the most part, and the “Cedar Architecture” socks for the lesser part. Both of them ‘hide’ the gusset and flap somewhat.
I know three different short-row heels, and zero flappy-gussety things. I don’t know how to make the flaps look less flappy; I’m assuming a stockinette flap will look less… flappy than a slipped stitch or ribbed flap, but I don’t know. I’ll have to knit up some little ones to see, I guess.
What’s weird is I like entrelac, and it’s all 90-degrees knitting. It’s just the flap-and-gusset thing that bothers me. Is there anyone else like that? Am I alone in my non-flap non-gusseting? A quick google says I’m at least mostly alone in it. Most of the hits I saw were “don’t like” short rows, but love “flap and gusset”. Do you think it’s because of store-bought socks that I like short rows? The short-row heels fit me, I know that. They fit my feet, they fit Ben’s feet, and they just look “right”, like a well-thought-out bust dart in a shirt, or like shaping that’s hidden by cables, or the raglan increases/decreases in that pretty little line on either side of the neckline.
Maybe I’m just plain weird. I’ve thought of that possibility. It’s quite possible, and rather probable. Strange things bother me, like the flap and gusset. This is just the first thing that I’ve paid money for a whole book of. 
