A good sized book with a well laid out plan to start your socks. I will have to mention that if you have trouble following quite basic pencil drawings and a lot of writing on techniques without many pictures then this sin't the book for you, as ALL the patterns require one of the techniques to begin the socks. Some of the instructions were all written and no real pictures to explain certain techniques you need to start from the toe up. If your already confident and aware of 'the magic 8' and the Turkish cast on' , 'the easy cast on' ect... then great, this is wonderful book, but I WAS disappointed in the lack of attention to learning the techniques. I persevered and went on YouTube and other sites to watch the techniques alongside the book and have begun a pair already. The lay out is good, the choices of yarn easy to buy and the patterns are well written, just the general 'how to' is a bit poor for beginners who have always done socks from the cuff down. All in all a good book once you know how to begin.