Most of Anatolian Knitting Designs by Betsy Harrell consists of black and white knitting charts. The back of the book includes some fascinating history of Turkish sock knitting; the book also includes one pattern for toe-up socks with a peasant/afterthought heel.
I'm a bit disappointed in the actual charts but perhaps that is because I have most of them in my other sources already. They do have some fascinating names like donkey eye, earring, and chimney grate. The charts also include the name in Turkish.
The author interviewed a group of traditional knitters from a cooperative in the Sivas province to find out whether or not there was significance in the colors and charts used in the sock patterns. It doesn't really sound like there is significance to the specific patterns anymore although she muses that there must have been at one time. She talks a bit about Asian motifs in textiles - triangles for mountains, trees as a symbol for immortality, and snakes (s-curves).
I'm not sure if she is talking about stranded color knitting or intarsia in the sock pattern. "Bobbins may be thought useful for carrying the colors of the bands...Changing and carrying colors: When changing colors, it is necessary to twist the different-colored yarns at the back of the work, so no holes occur in the knitting. ... Colors should be loosely carried across the back of the work to prevent having long threads, which toes get tangled in when the stockings are being put on. To carry yarn on the backside, bring the yarn of the color not being used under and over the yarn being knitted, and continue knitting with the latter. No more than 3 sts of 1 color should be knitted without carrying the other color(s) along at the back." The photo on the front of the book shows antique Turkish socks that have many colors per row and may have been done in intarsia in the round although all the socks pictured in the book using the book's charts look like they are done in two-color stranded color knitting.
The most interesting part of the book for me was a two-page essay titled "Historical Notes on Knitting and the Wearing of Stockings." She discusses the earliest known examples of knitted socks. "The heroes at Troy wore foot coverings, though it is not certain what kind... At first the Romans considered that covering the legs was effeminate, but in due time they adopted the barbarians' practice of wearing breeches." ( This was interesting to me because I could swear I saw Lucius Vorenus wearing socks with his sandals in last week's (Philippi) episode of HBO's Rome!)
I bought it from Needlearts Bookshop but Schoolhouse Press carries it as well.
Here's a pair of Turkish socks I knit years ago from Anna Zilboorg's excellent book Fancy Feet: Traditional Knitting Patterns of Turkey. In it she says it is traditional in Turkey not to weave in yarn ends from all the colors used. I have no clue if the yarn ends would then go on the inside or the outside of the sock.
