Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

Kitchen Sink Dyeworks

It's arrived!  Hurray!  Isn't it wonderful when you order yarn and it arrives and it's even more beautiful that you remember?  Do you get that rush when you place an order from SSYC and you open your package?  "Cuz, I get that same rush when I open a large box (or eight) and it turns out that the yarn I ordered is even more gorgeous that I had hoped for.  It happened twice this week, once with a super special yarn that I'll talk about soon, and again on Friday when I opened the first box of Kitchen Sink Dyeworks' Merino Fine yarn.

I met Mercedes at the Sock Summit.  Her booth caught my eye because it featured an abundance of pale tones.  She has a way of making a light color still vibrant and full of color, as you can see from these pictures. The color I left Sock Summit with was Sucre, and I love it because buttercream is one of my favorite colors, but it's not solid- it incorporates a bit of pink and apricot, and the way these colors meld into one another is just perfect.  Mercedes really has great control over her art, and it's likely that this comes from dyeing in what she calls "microbatches."

 

I wound my skein on my lap on the plane flight home from portland.  I did this by putting my seat tray down, and that held the skein while I hand wound it into a ball.  Obviously, this isn't as quick as doing this with a winder, but I couldn't wait to cast on and it was really a nice way to enjoy seeing the colors in the skein.  I don't know how much Anne appreciated my elbows moving around for a half hour, but if it bugged her, she was smart enough not to say anything and impede my knitting!

I chose a Cookie A. pattern from her book Sock Innovations.  I usually wouldn't  and I've already blogged about my experience with this pattern here and here.  I really like the result of the pattern and the yarn together, but I would have liked to keep this pair of socks for myself, and the way the pattern was designed didn't allow me to easily size it to my longer and wider foot.  The 390 yard skein would have been plenty for my feet, as I have about 1/4 of the skein leftover.

There were no slubs, knots or imperfections in the skein.  The yarn was soft and as I knit these with US 0 needles (but would likely knit this using as US 1 next time) because that's what I had on me at the time.  It created a nice dense fabric that I can tell will hold up well to wear.  I just wish that I was the one wearing them because I love the color so much  But after seeing all the colors I ordered for the store, I think I like Sprout, Jake and Cocoa Ancho almost as much as Sucre.  So I'll likely snag one of these for myself.

I don't know how often I'll be able to get orders in from Mercedes, but like I do with all the store's small dyers, I'll do my best to keep a nice selection available here.  I really think you'll enjoy knitting this as much as I have, and I think the 11 colors I have in stock right now represent a good spectrum of colors, some light some dark, some bold, some pale.

Thankful Thursday

Today is my second Thankful Thursday- like I mentioned last Thursday, Carole invited me to list three things I'm Thankful for each Thursday in November.  You are welcome to take part as well by listing three things on your blog or in the comments below- big or small, it doesn't matter, as long as it's something you appreciate!

So what am I thankful for this week?

First, COFFEE.  Oh, sweet nectar.  It's not just the caffeine that makes this a wondrous drink.  I love the taste too.  I love that it's somewhat of a ritual for me each morning.  I hear James wake, I take a shower, I give him a book in bed while I go downstairs and grind and brew my morning carafe.  I run back upstairs to get James, and by the time I'm done, my coffee is finished percolating and James and I share those first few moments of the day, him on my lap drinking his milk while I drink my coffee.  It's how we start every day.

Second, tea.  My current favorite is a decaf green tea with tropical fruit flavor that is made by Good Earth.  In fact, I think one of you gifted this to me when I was pregnant.  I have quite a stash of tea to work through, and while I don't have tea every day, I do most days when I don't want caffeine in the afternoon.

Third, this weather.  There's something about warm weather in the fall that makes you feel like you are cheating nature.  Like you've done something to deserve just a few more warm days than you had last year.  So James and I have been spending more time outside, squeezing out those last days of autumn before the winter hits with all it's snow.  And with winter looking like this last year, who can blame us?

 

A day off

Today is Veteran's Day in the US- a day when we honor those who have given of themselves for our way of life.  My grandfather is one of those people, and I'm very thankful today and everyday for him and what he has did for my country and the world over 60 years ago.  He is the perfect Grandfather.  He taught me to fish.  He lived 5 houses away from me much of my life, and was the "candyman" of the neighborhood- everyday if you saw him working in the garage, you could stop by and get two small pieces of candy, or as many Whopper's as your age.   He had a list of all the kids and their age written on a weathered piece of cardboard in his garage, just to keep us honest.  Every week, he would give me a few Bicentennial coins from his collection.  He worked at GE most of his life, doing a lot of manual labor, and I have a picture of him holding me as a toddler, and his forearm is actually the size of my torso.  These are just a few of the many, many memories I have of a wonderful, courageous man who has made life better for me and thousands of Americans.

Veteran's Day brings with it a host of activities and closures- two of those closures being the post office and schools.  So what makes this Wednesday so much better thank any other Wednesday?   Joe's has the day off, so he's home with James, and since I can't ship out boxes I'm "working" from my favorite coffee shop.  The fact that I today purchased the unlimited cup of coffee should indicate how long I plan on being here.  Putting myself first.  Drinking cup after cup of coffee.  While it's hot.  *POW* That sound?  It was my head exploding at the idea.

I'll leave you with two pictures before I continue my "work".  The first is proof that I really am continuing to complete my half-finished projects.  This is the second one of my Vintage Jade socks using the Nutkin pattern (I added an extra pattern repeat 'cuz I used size 0 needles and have wide feet).  The little bag that's peaking out from behind is the awesome reversible bag that oh-so-many of you bought at my booth at the Sock Summit and that I'll soon have here in the store. I *heart* this bag so much.  I may have already snagged a second.. or third one.

The Yarn Harlot is currently knitting this pattern as well, only in Dream in Color's Starry in color 320.  Which is part of the reason I need a day off b/c half the internet is clearing this out of my store!

This next picture is something that completely blew my mind last night.  I was playing around on my iphone, and I look up and James had built this little house for his cars.  All.  On.  His.  Own.  The kid is barely two years old and is designing little buildings?  What the &^#(?  He's already smarter than me.  Joe and I are in such trouble, aren't we?  Do you have those oh-my-Lord-this-child's-too-smart-for-his-own-good moments?

 

Fortissima Socka & Pigeonroof Studios

I have new sock yarn for you!  I've had several requests over the years for Fostissima Socka, and I'm now happy to oblige with two of their collections, Degradee with Bamboo and Cotton Color.  These are both fun collections that aren't your typical sock yarn.  Fortissima Socka Degradee with Bamboo is a collection that gradates in color as you knit in the round, as shown below.

The Cotton Color is a blend of superwash wool, cotton and nylon, and it's printed with fun-to-knit patterns.  Perfect for those who want a sock that's warm enough in the winter, but with cotton content for summer wear as well.

And if you want more yarn that gradates as you knit, check out the new colors of Trekking Maxima.

   
 
 

It's been close to two years since I've gotten a shipment from Pigeonroof Studios, but I'm happy to get this in stock again!  Krista is now putting up her Original Sock in 100 gram skeins instead of 50 gram, which I think is always a good idea with handpainted yarn.  That way you aren't trying to match 2 50 gram skeins for a pair of matching socks.  Krista is an expert at applying color in a way that makes the skein and finished fabric look like it's dappled with color.  But what I really like about her skeins are way she combines colors- you'll see some atypical color combinations that really stand out, like Circus which combines yellows, oranges, pinks, violets and even a tinge of sky blue into a skein that can't be beat.  I've already snagged one for myself!

Shown above: Circus, Plum Hydrangea & Ribbon Dance

Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

I'm currently knitting the Vilai sock pattern in Cookie A's book Sock Innovations. There are K3togs and SSSKs galore in the pattern.  I am having a very difficult time with these.  I have finally resorted to using a crochet hook to pull the yarn through on the SSSKs and with the K3togs I am doing a K2tog and sliding it back to the lefthand needle and slipping the third stitch over, then sliding it back to the right hand needle.

Is there a better way to do these?  I just can't seem to pull the yarn through with a size 1 needle.  Thanks for any help!

Sincerly,

Probems with Pulling

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Help a knitter out and leave your suggestions below.  Have a question you'd like answered on the blog?  Title an e-mail Ask the Knitters and send it to service@simplysockyarn.com and your question may be chosen for the blog.

Thankful Thursday

My friend Carole invited me to take part in her idea for Thankful Thursdays- each Thursday in November, I'll blog three things I'm thankful for, and you're welcome to take part as well by either posting three things you are thankful for in the comments below, or link to your own blog where you detail three things you are thankful for.  And these three things don't need to be profound- they can be superficial or selfish, as long as it gets us thinking about all the things we have to be grateful for, big and small.

First, I'm thankful for knitting.  It's such a release for me- it helps me center my thoughts, de-stress from my day, and it makes me feel as though I'm selfishly doing something for myself in a time of my life when I rarely concentrate on what I want, instead putting others before me.  It's a way I can show love for my friends and family- by gifting them fibery proof of several hours (and sometimes tens of hours) spent thinking of them with each stitch I knit. Not to mention that without knitting, I wouldn't have an income to help support my family while staying home with my son.  I am truly, truly thankful for knitting.

Second, I'm thankful for the color red.  Just looking at red gives me a boost of energy.  The perfect red can make me stop and sigh.  It can elevate a canvas of fiber, drywall or lips from a ho-hum display to a breathtaking view.  The perfect red can make your day, while a red that's to bright or too orange can make you wrinkle your nose in a what-were-they-thinking?! way.

Third, I'm thankful that you are a kind group of readers.  I put a lot out there for criticism- pictures of my family, imperfect knitting projects, insecurities about parenting, and you are kind and helpful at every turn.  No one here has ever been mean and there's rarely any judgment passed- and if there is, you are good at keeping it to yourself.  I've never read a comment or an e-mail that said that I'm a messy knitter/have poor taste in living room paint/should give my son up to monkeys to raise/should answer questions in the comments more often.

What three things are you thankful for this week?

*Pictured is one of my finished American Beauty mitts using the Lepidoptera Mitt pattern.  No, that's not my hand modeling it.  I neither have a wrist that dainty or a diamond that stunning!  But I wish I did!  THAT would be something to be thankful for, eh?

Dream in Color Starry & Impatience Pattern

Gosh, it's been half a year since we've been able to get Dream in Color's coveted Starry yarn (and just as long since Dream in Color has had the yarn themselves!), but it came in last night and now is up on the website for you!  This also means that the last month of the club yarn will be packed up and shipped.  Also, those of you that had special orders waiting, those will be shipped out too.

And I have a really cool new free pattern to share with all of you.  My good friend Anne, as you might remember from SSYC's booth at Sock Summit, designed this pattern for all of you.  Impatience is a simple but lovely cowl and I think the strands of silver in Starry really set off the lovely color and pattern.  To download the pdf of this pattern, click the pdf file below.

Download ImpatienceSSYC

I hope you enjoy the pattern and I've added it to Ravelry so you can add it to your queues.
 

One down, one more halfway

I finished a pair of socks this weekend.  I feel like a project-finishing machine! The socks I finished are the ones I first posted over a month ago.  They are a lovely combination of buttery yellows, cream and apricot from Kitchen Sink Dyeworks, a dyer I learned about at the Sock Summit.  Mercedes dyes her yarn in very small batches in, you guessed it, her kitchen (like many small dyers) and the colors she dyes are said not to stripe or pool but instead give you a lovely knitted fabric that has mottled color throughout.  I found that this was in fact the case with the Kai Mei socks that I knit from Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks.  BTW. if you purchased the book when it first came out, you should check out the errara page on Interweave's site.  There are just way too many errors in this book's patterns, but I hear that the second printing of the book has the errors corrected, for those who have yet to purchase it.  While the errors in the patterns are very annoying, I'm a big fan of Cookie's work and it's a shame that her debut publication wasn't well edited.  Dispite the errors, I will definitely be buying her new book when it comes out next year.

These weren't easy socks to knit, as they are designed in a way that is different than I'm used to.  But they weren't terribly hard- it was just...different.  For me, this wasn't a pair of socks that I could absent mindedly knit while watching Glee.  I love the result of the way the lace panel works its way across the foot.  This was the first time I knit a pair of socks where you had a definied right and left sock.  And I couldn't figure out how to knit the foot long enough for my big feet, so I instead stopped when the lace panel reached the other side and I'll gift them to someone with smaller feet.  Well, I guess I just didn't want to take the time to figure it out- anyone else know hot to make these bigger and not have the lace panel stop well before the toe decreases? 

Here's my new project, the second pair of Lepidoptera Mitts that I mentioned in my previous post.  This is an amazing red, don't you think?  I must not have been paying attention several times while knitting this mitt, because I made a few mistakes and had to tear out. This isn't the easiest yarn to pick up stitches in- it's not nearly impossible like a Kid Merino would be, but it's so soft and really made me almost want to leave the second mistake in after I'd already torn back once.  Yeah, it could have been the glass of wine making it difficult, but I like to blame things on something other than myself...

I don't think I'll even use a whole skein of the Tilli Tomas Milan for these Mitts, so this will be a very luxruious gift for a very reasonable price.  And I think I can finish these mitts in a week's worth of evenings.

sKNITches Big Tryst, Fleece Artist Nyoni

This post is going to make many, MANY of you happy.  I have a new shipment of sKNITches cashmere blend Big Tryst!  This luxurious, sport weight yarn is perfect for cooler weather, and the colors are gorgeous.  This is one of those yarns that I only get in stock once a a year, but I have many of each color so I hope you can get the colors you want.  My faves in this round include Scarlet Letter, Rosette and Cinnamon Teal Duck.

 

Earlier in the year, I featured a special price on Fleece Artist Nyoni in the Sale Section, and I have it for you again!  Nyoni is the same fiber content as Somoko, only it's being offered by Fleece Artist at half the price!  Snag yourself a few skeins for socks or garments at only $11.75 per 383 yard skein.  And this batch is superwash too.

Scheafer Yarn, Bloomsbury Group Collection

Schaefer Yarn has released their newest series of special edition colorways, celebrating the artists of the Bloomsbury Group, an avant garde, bohemian group of artists that flourished in Edwardian England.  These 4 colors were dyed in conjuntion with the Johnson Art Museum of Cornell University for their internationally acclaimed Bloomsbury Group Exhibit.

Take a look at the lovely colors that the ladies of Schaefer dyed up in Anne for this edition, along with the work that inspired each color: Duncan Grant, Lytton Strachey, Vanessa Bell and Virginia Woolf