Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

Nutkin Much

It's been life as usual around here- which is nice for a change.  There's nothing too exciting or pressing going on right now in my life, which is nice because then I feel like I can just relax.  Do you feel that way?  When someone asks you "What's new?" and you almost feel boring because you don't have anything new to share, but secretly you love it?  It means that you can just sit back and enjoy what's happening around you without being too stressed by anything.  Business as usual.

I've been enjoying several things lately.  First, James.  He's been doing super cute things.  He learned his alphabet and surprised me the other day by saying it from the beginning to end without any help from me.  Admittedly, much of it was garbled, but he sang it all the way through with the right cadences and everything.  He has started trying to wear my flip-flops around the house, and the 3D glasses are a hit too.  He's getting so big!

Second, the Nutkin sock pattern.  I'm knitting it right now (with yarn I'll share later) and it's an easy and beautiful pattern.  You should try it if you haven't already.  It seems to be one of the most popular sock patterns on Ravelry (I'm AllisonSSYC).

Third, this pork chop marinade.  This whole South Beach diet thing gets tiresome after awhile, and I really lasted only a week (rather than 2) before I started adding back a tiny amount of carbs to my diet..in the form of a margarita at a pool party last weekend.Oh, come on- you wouldn't have been able to resist a tasty drink in the pool, would you?  But I'm still being very good, and it's not difficult when you have tasty morsels to look forward to.  And I actually had all the ingredients for this marinade in my kitchen!  How often does that happen?

Fourth, the lovely Unique Sheep Gradiance sock and scarf kits that came in last week, then sold out, then arrived again Thursday.  I have several new colors in the store, so you'll have to take a look and see which one (or three) speaks to you.

Fifth, seeing that the Sock Summit classes sold out so quickly!  I'm getting so excited to go there in August as a sponsor of this huge event!  While I completely knew the conference would be popular, I really didn't expect sock knitters to crash the server when registering, especially since Tina (owner of Blue Moon Fiber Arts and organizer of the Summit along with the Yarn Harlot) told me that she was sure it wouldn't crash b/c they had a spankin' new server dedicated to the Summit.  Just goes to show that even us "dealers" can still underestimate knitters' love of sock yarn.  Man, you guys make me proud.

Who here got classes?  And who is still going even though you didn't get classes?  There's always the one-hour-wonders.  There really are some good deals on flights right now.  Anyone ever used Frontier Airlines?  What's your opinion?

Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

I'm addicted to striping sock yarn, and I've been grabbing lots of it up lately, 'cuz it seems that it's more available than it used to be.  I now have a small stash of Mini Mochi, Zauberball, Vesper and Noro that I want to dive into.

So here's my question:  Is there a pattern that you would reccomend that really shows off striping yarn well?  I often just knit a simple 2x2 or 3x1 rib, but I want to have other options, since I have lots of yarn to choose from now.

Thanks for your help,

Stuck on Striping Socks

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Help a knitter out and leave your answers in the comments below.  Have a question you want answered here?  Title an e-mail "ask the knitters" and send it to service@simplysockyarn.com .  Your question could be chosen for the blog.

Good enough to eat?

Well, I've finally decided that I'm sick of having all these extra pounds on me, and I'm sick of trying to rationalize it as "baby weight."  Afterall, my "baby" isn't a baby anymore- he's a toddler and 22 months is a long time to be packing on extra pounds.

So I've cut out bread, sugar, starchy veggies (basically any carb), and it's going well.  From what I understand, what I'm doing is basically the South Beach diet, though I hate to call it a diet b/c that infers some sort of starvation.  I can't do that.  I just like food too much.

So far, so good.  I've lost 7 pounds.  I'm betting much of it is water weight, b/c my body is shedding the water that was used to store carbs.  But still, it's a start and enough to keep me motivated.

Have any tips that have helped you shed weight after a baby?  Or two years after a baby?  Or anytime???

Lest you think cutting back on carbs is easy for me, this new Etsy store just about did me in.  Take a look at Marlon's shop and these lovely knitted pastries!  Goes to show that all that sock yarn you get from my store isn't just for socks... she uses it to make tasty morsels!  One of the many things you can make with your leftover sock yarn.  Or just order them from Marlon... which, admittedly is likely the way I'm going to go. Once I'm not so easily tempted to eat copious amounts of sweets. This one is my fave, but it's already sold!  Congrats on the opening of your new Etsy store, Marlon!

Lorna's Laces, Wendy Knits Sunrise

The fifth colorway of the Lorna's Laces Color Commentary line has arrived, and this one is designed by Wendy D. Johnson, sock pattern designer and author.  It's called Wendy Knits Sunrise, and is inspired by the sunrises that Wendy sees when she arrives very early in the morning to her office day-job (we all know her night job is as a sock designer diva and cat-enthusiast).  Known throughout the sock knitting community as "Wendy Knits," her latest contribution is her new book, Socks from the Toe Up: Essential Techniques and Patterns from Wendy Knits

Want a free pattern for this yarn?  Wendy's created one as a pdf and you can download it by clicking here!  THANK YOU, WENDY!!!!

Click on the link below to take a look a her new book. I recently putchased it along with Sock Innovation: Knitting Techniques & Patterns for One-of-a-Kind Socks and Knitting Socks with Handpainted Yarn

Special Delivery from Artyarns

After the Toes-n-Heels sock club last year where each month featured a main color for the sock with a mini skein for toes and heels, many of you have been asking me for more toe-n-heel combinations for the store.  I recently talked with Iris Schreier, popular knitwear designer and author, at Artyarns and came up with some special combinations.  I even got a great deal to pass along to you!  So you'll find some three-skein bundles of Artyarns Ultramerino 4 in the sale section (on the last pages of the section)- two skeins are the multicolor, and one skein is a coordinating solid.  Each bundle would regularly be priced at $36, but is now 25% off!

Shown below:Sweet Pea, Green Bay (football fans, anyone?) and Independence

A bit more Gradiance

Just a quickie post to let you know that I have a few more colors of Gradiance Sock yarn sets, and one new color of the Scarf Kit.

In the sock sets I now have Lime & Violet, Hurricane Meadow and Peacock, shown below.  And I have the Scarf kit now in Lime and Violet, with more colors of everything on the way in the near future.

I've got it bad

I have Second Sock Syndrome.  It's bad.  Really, really bad.  I have several socks in progress right now, and I don't know if it's going to get any better anytime soon.

Here's a list of the yarns that are currently being used in projects:

Miss Bab's Yummy sock in Bluegrass

Merino/Angel in Smoke

Unique Sheep in Joy

Mini Mochi in color 107

Artyarns Ultramerino in Navy and Aqua (shown)

Pagewood Farms Alyeska in Peaceful

And I have a ball of the Crazy Zauberball set aside and am really having a hard time not casting on tonight.

Is this sad or normal?!  I ususally have just a couple projects on the needles, but for some reason I'm just casting on and stopping halfway through after being seduced by another yarn.  All of these have one sock complete, well, except the Fleece Artist Merino/Angel as I just cast that one on and ripped it out twice alread to find the perfect pattern.  I keep trying to adapt a pattern to my wider leg, and it's just not looking great.  I'll likely take one more stab til I give up and try a different pattern.

Even though the Mini Mochi socks and the Pagewood Farms socks are the ones that are the nearest completion, I think I want to complete the Artyarns socks (shown above) first.  What's your criteria for ordering your projects?  Do you complete those that you most want to?  Or do you complete ones that may have a gift deadline?  Or do you first complete those that are nearest to completion so you get that momentum going? Or what about projects that are taking up much-needed needles?

So many questions... give me your advice!

Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

Some of the yarns that I have no longer sport their labels.  I know that if you wind the yarn around (how many wraps per inch) you can find out what the weight is.  Where can I find a reliable chart that would tell me " x wraps per inch = fingering/sport/worsted weight" etc.?

Sincerely,

Label-less in LA

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Help a knitter out and answer the question in the comments below.  Have a question you'd like answered here?  E-mail service@simplysockyarn.com and title it "Ask the Knitters."  Your question could be chosen for the blog.

New Zauberball Crazy Sock Yarn

I know many of you have been waiting to know when the new Zauberball line, Crazy, had arrived.  It's now in stock in 6 colors.  It's similar to original Zauberball in that it slowly changes colors as you knit.  But it isn't one ply- instead it's 2-ply and the plies are not the same colors.

I really like how Schoppel Wolle is not only bringing the trend of striped socks more readily available, but also now making it even more interesting by making the plies a different color.  It can be hard to find hand dyed yarns that stripe in a way that the colors slowly melt into one another, but both Crystal Palace's Mini Mochi and Zauberball (and the Crazy line) have really hit the nail on the head with this trend.

What trend would you like to see more available in sock yarn?

Yarn, yarn and more yarn

Have you seen the new yarn I added to the store this week?  If you happened to miss it, check these out:

Trekking Maxima. This is a new line from ZItron. To me, it looks exactly like the Trekking XXL styles that stripe slowly in color, with different colored plies.  Perhaps they are just putting these types in a new line instead of combining them in the XXL line like before.  I didn't get a straight answer from the distributor, so I really don't know why there's a new name.  But the new colors are fabulous!

Shown at left is Trekking Hand Art Flame (pronouced Flam-ay) in color 551.  Just a beautifully dyed as the original Hand Art, but now one ply is a slightly lighter color than the others, adding a new dimension to the yarn.  Very cool.

Seacoast Handpainted Yarn: New colors in Panda Sock and a restock of both Panda Sock and Merino/Tencel.

I have a few new things on the way as well....and new sock yarn from a small dyer that I've been waiting for years to come out with sock yarn....