Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

Ew. Gross.

Joe and I had a two hour drive to Indy last week for Thanksgiving.  On our way, we somehow got on the subjuect of the Tur-duck-en.  It's something that's all the rage around here in meat markets- the turkey, stuffed with a duck, stuffed with a little chicken.  While this holds absolutely no appeal to me, for some reason I keep hearing about these things, like everyone can't get enough of them.  Do you know what I'm talking about?  Have you tried one?  Or is the mere idea of it enough to make to squirm uncomfortably?

Well, Joe and I, being complete 12-year-olds, started coming up with our own combinations of this thing.  Like the ferral cat, stuffed with a muskrat, stuffed with a squirrel.  Otherwised dubbed the Cat-Musk-Quirrel.  Or the Snake-Crawl-Worm; the snake stuffed with a night crawler, stuffed with a meal worm.  I know, I know.  We are wicked gross and I probably shouldn't even reveal here how my mind works, but there it is.  If you are sick minded like me, leave your combinations in the comments section.  Come on, give me and Joe something more to giggle at!

On a more tame note, I wanted to clue you in that I'm expecting a sKNITches Syncopation shipment before the year is out.  The first time I had this yarn a few months ago, several of the colors sold almost as soon as I put them on the site.  So if you wanted to snag more of this hand dyed, self striping yarn, keep posted here on the blog b/c this is where I post new yarns first- before I send out the newsletters.  I order as much as I can of the yarn, but Sam (the dyer) can't take huge orders and only sells to a few store b/c her method of dyeing is quite labor intensive.

Color shown at left is Militia (surrounded by various baby socks).  You practically had to have lightening-fast reflexes last time to get some.  This color will return, as well as some ones we had last time, and some new ones.

Trekking, Austermann and Addis

I just wanted to give you all the heads up on a price increase.  Trekking, Austermann and Addis are all increasing in price.  These are quite popular lines, and I just wanted to give you guys the opportunity to get what you may want before the price increase tomorrow.  I won't be increasing the price of the Addi Lace needles or Sockina (our new non-wool sock yarn) until the next shipment comes in, so those won't change for a bit.  But Trekking XXL, Austermann Step, and Addi Turbos will increase in price tomorrow.  Just a little tip, in case you were thinking about getting some soon for yourself or holiday knitted gifts.

Joe, James and I put up our tree last night- it's an aluminum tree with multicolored lights and various retro glittery ornaments.  James seems to love the fun, bright tree- luckily he isn't mobile yet and can't get at it!  I was thinking about how nice it would be to have had some spiced cider or another hot holiday beverage while wrapping gifts and addressing cards this week.  Especially since we all seem to have a sore throat and cough around here.  Any suggestions for your favorite holiday drinks?  Recipes?

Heck-uh-vuh-SALE!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday.  Joe, James and I did- we spent it with family in Indy, and it was a nice, long weekend of eating and hanging out.  Now. Onto the good stuff.

While I usually don't post on the weekends, I just wanted to clue you into some news- I'm holding a serious sale in the store right now in preparation for Cyber Monday- supposedly one of the busiest internet shopping days of the year (it's really more hype than anything, though).  I'm discounting many yarn lines, and making room for new things!  So check out the Sale Section of the store, as it's overflowing with good deals- up to 40% off.  Seriously, there is quite a bit on sale, including: Meilenweit Bosco, Cotton Stretch, Cotton Fantasy, and Cotton Spirit; Interlacements Tiny Toes and Toasty Toes.  Oh, and Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sport is on sale too!  Many Opal lines are still 40% off too.

And as if that wasn't enough, new yarn has arrived!  Sockina Cotton, which is a super soft and machine washable wool-free sock yarn option, is available in 6 self-patterning colors.  Also, Seacoast Handpainted Yarn in Merino/Tencel and Panda Sock have returned.  Check out all the tastiness!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yesterday it hit me- this is just a three day week because of Thanksgiving!  It's going to be great to have a long weekend to hang out with my family and eat ridiculous amounts of turkey and pumpkin desserts.  It's also a bit stressful to get a week's worth of work done in three days!  Please keep in mind when placing orders this week that your orders will be delayed by several days b/c of the holiday and no USPS shipping.

And for your patience, what do you get?  Nothing.  Just joking.  A little hint for you sale watchers...I'm going to be putting a few more lines of yarn on sale next week.  Did you see that we keep getting more Opal back in stock?  Several more huge boxes arrived yesterday afternoon, so later you'll see a few more of the 6-ply and other styles pop back on the website.  Oh, and more Trekking and Seacoast Merino/Tencel yarn arrived too, so you'll see more of those pop back on the website.

Thanks you for your great response to the 2nd SSYC Sock Yarn Club.  I can't wait to see what you all think of the color/fiber combinations.  The dyers have chosen beautiful special edition colorways that really highlight the properties of the fibers used.

Many of you e-mailed word of caution, links to videos, and articles about the recalled Bumbo chair that James was pictured with in my last post.  Thanks for caring about James!  Believe me, I know it was recalled.  But can you believe that it was really just recalled to put a new caution sticker on the box?  Yeah.  Like I'm going to drag my butt all the way back to Target so they can put a sticker on it that tells me not to put a too-big baby in the chair, unattended while he's sitting unsecured on top of a high surface.  As if I'm going to dangle James unattended like that anyway.  Of course, I also wonder why the heck the Bumbo company has pictures of unattended babies on high surfaces on the box and their website, if that's not how the chair is supposed to be used.  Stupid and reckless marketing.  Maybe they deserve what they are getting?  (Spell-check keeps wanting to replace Bumbo with Bimbo.  heh.)

Whew!

Thanks for the great response to this new sock club!  The club's been open for a day now, and I'm going to try and keep it open for part of the weekend as well.  I'm really pleased to see that many of the sock club members from the last round came back for this one, as well as lots of new folks.  Your response tells me that I'm doing this right.  I was able to increase the number of spots in this round by 50, so that leaves room for many of you who couldn't get in the last club.  It's going to be quite hard to wait until February to start shipping the yarn to you- I want to know your reactions to these great fiber/color combinations now!

Joe, James and I have a pretty low key weekend planned.  I'm going to try and not work... we'll see how that goes.  Sometime's it's hard to not work.  I like it, it's different every day, and I work in my home so work is always here.  Those of you who work from home know what I mean- you sometimes have to shut the door and forget there's work behind it.

Next week I expect more Opal yarn to arrive- both more sale yarns and the newer Opal Zirkus and Rainforest 3.  I also received a big ol' box of Trekking yarn today and hope to have it on the website early next week.  Oh, and look what's on order from Handmaiden. Merino, cashmere, nylon. Tasty.

SSYC Sock Yarn Club Now Available

Sign ups for the 2nd Simply Socks Yarn Company Sock Yarn Club are now on!  Due to the nature of the sock yarn club, there is limited space available.  So if you are really interested, sign up asap so that you get a spot.  This club focuses on three small yarn dyers (dyeing three different fiber bases), so each skein takes time and effort to produce, thus making large numbers of participants more difficult.

The details of the club are provided in the links above, but also know that to be enrolled, the club can be the ONLY thing in your cart at Check Out.  If you want to purchase other items, then it has to be in a separate order for your club order to actually be counted.  Also be sure to e-mail service@simplysockyarn.com with your shipping address once your place your order.  This will help me double check that everyone is enrolled properly.

I'm so excited about the colorways and fiber bases that Fleece Artist, sKNITches, and Zen Yarn Garden are designing specially for the 3-month club.  The club is a one-time fee of $89, and that includes shipping for US customers.  For International customers, you are still ordering the same thing, only the standard extra shipping is tacked on at Check Out.  Since I'm shipping International orders for the club in padded envelopes, I don't have to charge an increased price for the club for you, PLUS the international shipping rate.  So US and International customers order the SAME THING this time.  Get what I'm saying?

And as much as I don't want to give too much away.... there's a very special colorway this time.  And while I won't tell you the color, I'll give you the name- James Danger.  Heh.

Ooh, and the newest batch of Dream in Color yarn has arrived- bringing back all 24 colors.  And we've replenished our stock of Lorna's Laces as well.  But make sure to order them separately from the club order so that your club membership is counted!

Coming Soon.... New Sock Yarn Club!

Ooooh, I'm really excited about the new 3-month sock yarn club I'm planning.  I've got the dyers, the color ideas, and fibers almost squared away.  Yes, fibers.  I'm not planning on a normal merino sock yarn club- this club is going to focus on non-traditional fiber combinations.  Combining tencel, silk, bamboo and such with merino to create yarn bases for the special edition colorways that are being dyed.  Many of you already like knitting with such fibers, and now I'm having them specially dyed for the upcoming club.

Sign ups will work just like they did before.  I'll post here when the club is available on the website, and I'll also send out e-mailed newsletters to those of you who have signed up for the newsletter.  I'll keep the sign ups open as long as possible- last time I believe it was under 2 days before all the spots were filled.  There will be a price for US shipments and Non-US shipments, so make sure you order the right package.  And like before, JUST order the sock club, and don't order anything else at the same time, or your place won't be held properly.  The club's packages will ship in February, March and April 2008.

Keep a lookout here if you are interested- it's likely that I'll open sign ups within a week!

And the winner is....

Jennifer, whose favorite Halloween candy is Reece's pb cups. Congrats, Jennifer!  You win the Lexie Barnes needle case shown here.  Jennifer, e-mail me so I can send you your prize.

Thanks for your patience with me after a week of no blogging here.  That Opal sale is really making life busy, which is GREAT, but doesn't leave time for blogging.  Much of the Opal yarn is now gone, but I have more on order.  I can't get any more of the Hundertwasser collection at the sale price any more, so you won't be seeing that come back at 40% off unless I find a few stragglers in the shelves (or if the distributor finds more).

If you've been waiting for some more Dream in Color and Lorna's Laces to arrive, a huge shipment of both will be here shortly. With every shipment of Dream in Color that I get in stock, I think that I've ordered enough to keep all the colors in stock all the time.  I've been proved wrong every time.  But this time I've ordered double what I usually do (and that's hundreds of skeins) and so I really hope that you will be able to find all 24 colors in stock all the time, no matter when you want it.  This shipment doesn't include the new colors, which won't come out until mid-December.

And on Friday I received another shipment of the new Cherry Blossom colorway of Cherry Tree Hill Supersock.  This color is quite lovely and dainty.  I have a feeling alot of you are using it for shawls or scarves, since many of you are ordering three or more.

If you noticed that the Trekking yarn stock is dwindling, you'll see the colors replenished in a few days when the newest shipment arrives.  I'm knitting Joe some socks in color 69 (sold out right now), and the first sock is turning out very nicely.  I'll post a pic soon.

**TODAY IS A GOV'T HOLIDAY, SO THERE IS NO USPS SHIPPING.  All weekend orders will ship out starting Tuesday.

Wow...

Aw, look at this happy picture.  See how content I was before I put the Opal yarn on sale?  Now I look a bit more frazzled.  It's obvious you all know a good price when you see one.

I don't have time to blog this week, so I'm sending you to other blogs!  Go here and here.  These are two of my favorite blogs.  Jane has even made fun of knitters before, but I still like her.  Feel free to share your favorite blogs in the comments below.

I'll be back in a day or two! 

Yep, the yarn is here!

As much as I'd like to be watching E! True Hollywood Story Investigates the Curse of the Lottery, I've got work to do.  Okay.  Let's not pretend... I'm watching it as I type this.  How can I not??  It's just like a train wreck!  Like the first season of the Anne Nicole Smith Show, you can't NOT watch it.

Oh, stop judging me.

So if you have been stalking the store, you'll see that 25 different solids and multicolors of Alpaca Sox are now available.  I haven't carried an alpaca sock yarn yet because I hadn't found one that I liked.  Alpaca alone just doesn't hold up to heavy wear, but Classic Elite has combined a very soft alpaca with wool and nylon to create a warm, fuzzy sock yarn that holds up to wear.  If Joe hadn't already convinced me to knit a pair of socks for him, I'd already have some on the needles for myself.  And if tasty yarn isn't enough, the price is very good- under $20 a skein (each skein makes a pair of socks).  Below are the three colors I like the best: Dandelion, Dusk and Garden

More Trekking has arrived, bringing more of the colors that came in a couple weeks ago, plus five new ones.  Joe already picked out a color he liked, and I'm about an inch into a simple 2x2 rib for him.  It's color 69, and it's not nearly as boring as the colors Joe usually picks out for his socks.  There's only so long you can knit straight stockinette in a tiny fingering weight black yarn before you want to plunge your DPs into your eyes to make the monotony stop.

Like I mentioned earlier this week, Cherry Tree Hill has come out with a new color, Cherry Blossom.  It's quite a dainty color, don't you think?  I'm not sure how long they will be dyeing this color, as the term "limited run" was used to describe it.  So I'll keep ordering it for as long as I can.

And finally, you'll find lots of Opal yarn 40% off- these are collections that are from earlier this year and I'm passing the discount right on to you.  I'll keep ordering these as long as they are available.  Visit the Sock Yarn page list to see the ones marked 40% off.

Oh, you're hanging on for the contest, huh?  Tell me what your favorite Halloween candy is, and you could win this super cool "Betty" needle case courtesy of Lexie Barnes (don't forget to check out the new Mini bags I have for you).  Leave your comment below before November 8 at midnight.  One entry per person.  I'll announce the winner here after the 8th, so check back to see if you won this cool case.

And if anyone has some extra Kit Kat bars lying around, you know where to send 'em.  James LOVES Kit Kat, don't you know.