Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

Week in Pictures

It's been a busy week, but I managed to take a few shots with my phone to show what we've been up to.

As you can see, James doesn't need toys.  He simply needs the weekly box delivery!  He likes to pick up the boxes (which are quite heavy) and stack them into towers.

 

Or build tunnels to crawl through.

 

James also like playing with regular-sized blocks once the heavy ones tire him out.  Right now he likes to build "traps" for his cars.  Which are basically obstacle courses for his cars.

James' current obsession with blocks-of-all-sizes is great for me because not only does it allow me to get some work done, but also some knitting.  I've almost completed a sock with this colorway, which will be a special something for the store this summer.  I really want to show off how this knits up, but all in due time...

With all this working, knitting and playing going on, there surely isn't time for weeding.  Thus the new name of our home is Dandelion Acres.

Isn't that horrible?!  But I have at least been picking one thing from our land.  Fresh asparagus.  Isn't this about the most beautiful, slender asparagus you've seen?  Now if I could only say the same thing about my thighs...

We are replacing the backsplash tile above with glass subway tile.  Likely this one, but butted up together b/c those grout lines are yucky.  Your thoughts?

If you were to show your week in pictures, what would the pictures be?

Ask the Knitters

Dear knitters,

Like many sock knitters, I really love knitting striping sock yarn.  Hand dyed or otherwise, I just really like a good striping yarn.  I've knit both stockinette socks and the Jaywalker (zig zagging) pattern, but I'm seeking other ideas for patterns that show off self-striping yarns.  Conversely, are there patterns I should absolutely avoid?

Are there different patterns you use for thin vs. thick stripes?  Or do you stick with stockinette or ribbing?

Ideas, por favor!

Idealess in Idaho

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Help a knitter out and leave your suggestions in the comments below.  Do you have a question you'd like answered here?  E-mail it to service@simplysockyarn.com and title it Ask the Knitters.  Your question could be chosen for the blog.

Knitting Weekend

I made time for myself this weekend. And each time James went down for his nap, I pick up my little pointy sticks and enjoyed knitting stitch after stitch.  I finished my Fingerpaints socks in the Herbs n Spices colorway using the Jaywalker pattern.  They fit my feet perfectly and I adore them.  This mades the fourth pair of socks I've FINISHED for myself in 2010.  Rock on.

But here's the thing... and this is a first for me... I had to dip into a second skein to finish my socks!  I don't believe this has happened to me before!  While I have a size 10-11 foot, I'm usually really good at just esitmating how long I can make the leg and foot of the first sock to make sure I have enough for the second sock.  But by the time I started decreasing for the toe of the second sock, I had run out of yarn and then had to wind off about 30 yards of a second skein to finish my supermodel sized socks.

So what's the mean for you?  Well, if you can get a pair of socks out of about 390 yards of yarn, then leave me a comment below telling me what you did this weekend, and I'll randomly pick one person to win this skein by Wed at midnight EST.

Since I finished my Fingerpaints socks on Saturday, I had Saturday evening and Sunday to knit on a new pair of socks.  I was envisioning starting a second pair of Fingerpaints socks, but I figured I should at least give a chance to one of the started socks that is languishing in my project cabinet.  Do you sometimes start a project, get just a couple inches into it, and then put it aside for days/weeks/months?  I can't remember the reason I stopped knitting this sock after only a couple inches, but I think it had something to do with the fact that it's a really dark color which, for me, is hard to knit in the evenings.  The deep color, named Indigo Ink, combined with the seed stitch and cables likely made for a bad evening project.

But after knitting few rows on a hazy, rainy afternoon, I can't believe I ever put it away for so long.  While the color is simply fabulous, it's the way the merino/cashmere/nylon blend of this Siren Two Sock feels on my fingers.  That's what's really getting to me.  Krista at Pigeonroof Studios has really chosen a nice yarn base for her luxurious cashmere blend sock yarn.  To me, it seems to be on the thicker side of fingering weight, so I knit the leg of the sock with US 1.5 needles.  But after I knit the heel, I changed to a US 1 so that the fabric on the foot is dense and will hold up to wear.  This pattern, from the book Sensational Knitted Socks can be somewhat hard to see, as it's such a dark yarn, but if you want to see it in a light color, take a look here.

I recently received a new shipment of SIren Two sock yarn, and I highly recommend it.  I even have the popular Ghost Orchid color right now.  The two times I've had this color in stock before, it sells out quickly.  I also have it in Original Sock too, if you like a straight-up merino sock yarn.

Striping Colors Contest Winner

Last week's Pick Striping Colors and Win Some Yarn contest received over 300 entries and you all had some really inventive color combos.  I know that Jodie really found some insipration in your ideas and she's already chosen her color combo for the super secret pattern she's designing.  I randomly chose one winner among all the entries, and that person is Niki who commented:   

"My pick for a combination is periwinkle, chocolate and magenta. I saw this combination on a men's tie and liked it so much I decided to make a quilt in this combo. A yarn in this color palette would be even better. Socks work up much faster than a quilt!"

Congrats, Niki!  E-mail me at service@simplysockyarn.com and let me know what two skeins of Simply Sock Yarn you'd like as your prize.  I'd love to see and share a picture of the quilt that inspired this combo if you want to e-mail me a picture!

There are so many awesome color combinations that you proposed and what struck me the most was that they weren't what I would typically combine into stripes.  The color choices were interesting and varied and gave me an idea for an upcoming contest.  I'm going to firm up the details of the contest and will keep you updated.  Just know two things- color cards will likely come in handy, and there will be some big prizes.  You've all really inspired me!

 

 

What I've been up to. A list.

Knitting.  One would think this is an obvious thing, but the store is super busy, and so is my potty-training toddler, so knitting has been on the back burner for a couple weeks.  I finished the Sassy Stripes socks that I started in February and didn't finish because I got distracted with Fingerpaints.  But now they are complete and I think that this will be a perfect pair to wear with denim once the weather cools off again in the fall.  I'm almost finished with my Herbs n Spices socks as well.

Garden planning.  Joe does most of the planting and maintaining, and I do most of the cooking and canning/freezing.  We had great success last year with most of the crops we planted, including peppers, squash, beans, onions, tomatoes, peas and other things. That's the picture shown below.  And this year we are going to plant another fruit tree (maybe peach?) dozen or so blueberry bushes along the back of the barn.  I chose blueberries over other berries because we really do eat a lot of them, and even when I buy them on sale and freeze them I likely spend over a hundred bucks a year on blueberries.  And if I had a lot I could use them for smoothies, pies and jams instead of just pancakes and muffins.  I really do love blueberries.  Anyone have blueberries and have any tips or favorite varieties?  The more info the better.

Healthy eating class.  A friend and I are taking a class about weight loss and healthy eating.  I consider my family to be very healthy eaters and we have been for years.  Partially because I really, really like to cook and eat, and also because I like to be in control of food (and life in general).  I assumed I knew everything that I needed to know about additives, hormones, and such (the movie Food, Inc. was no surprise to me) but I have been learning things that I had no clue about.  One of the most surprising things I've learned is that conventional citrus fruit is sprayed with dye to make it look nice in the store.  Did you know this?  I guess I never gave it much thought.  And I considered myself a thrifty person by grating the rind of my citrus and adding it to baked gods for extra flavor and vitamins.  Turns out the lemon/blueberry pancakes I've been making for myself and James aren't as good as I thought- I've basically been grating up food coloring and feeding it to my toddler.  Now I've started buying organic citrus fruit because I just can't take the idea of eating food coloring on my lemons, limes and oranges.  BTW, if you don't like eating bug excrement in your Skittles, don't read this. 

Watching the new Pampers Cruisers commercial over and over.... and over.  It's the one with the toddler uses a hand puppet to talk to his parents.  James loves it and say "Do again, Mama?"  And I give in and rewind it for the 14th time because it's just so cute to see him giggle.

Taking evening walks.  Since we moved to a more rural area 2 years ago, I've really missed taking my evening walks.  I don't take them in my own area because there are farm dogs that aren't nice, and since I walk with ear buds, I wouldn't hear them coming to eat my legs off.  And there are coyotes. And most farmers use manure on the fields several times a year, and there's nothing like the smell of aged liquid manure to make you go back inside. So I've recently started taking an hour in the evenings to drive to nearby neighborhoods and walk.  It's hard to make the time to do this, but once I start walking, all my stress falls away and I feel great. It used to be so easy to just lace up my shoes and walk around my old neighborhood, and I really have to force myself to drive back in town to do this.

What have you been up to?

Insert nervous laugh here...

So, um, yeah.  Seems the server went down a few hours after the Mother's Day kit came out..... hahaha.... oops.  Never underestimate the power of the sock knitter.

Obviously you all gave me a run for my money on Thursday,  I received several frantic e-mails and calls asking if the kit had sold out, when really you caused the website (and the other sites hosted on the same server) to go down.  heheheheh.....heheheh.... ahem.

So for those of you who thought that the webite crashing down meant that the kits were gone, I do have more kits for you.  While I have just a few more Green Kits, I spent time packing up more Pink Kits for you this weekend, so those will still be available.  I'm doing my best to order enough parts of the kit to keep them in stock for a few more days, but as I've mentioned before, each part is hand made and so I can only get a certain amount of all the components and then it's gone.

I'm really glad you like this kit so much!

I also did a bit of knitting this weekend and finished a pair of socks that only had the toe to bind off.  These were knit with a sock club offering from last year- Pagewood Farm's Alyeska (merino/cashmere/silk) in the special edition Garden Party colorway.  Sorry, but I don't have any more of this color, and as it was part of the club, I can't get any more.

I've also discovered that I may have a fabric-collecting problem, as I've started amassing fabric for various table linens.  Keep in mind that I have yet to learn how to properly sew...

Mother's Day Knit Kit

Many of you have e-mailed asking me to continue making kits for you for holidays and special events, and as I aim to please, I have a new kit to share with you!  In honor of Mother's Day, I've designed the Tea Luncheon Knit Kit in either Pink or Celadon Green.  This kit is inspired by my own first Mother's Day two years ago.

James was a energetic baby- not yet a year old (shown above), he was at the stage where he was constantly changing.  I would get used to one stage and think "wow, I can really do this- I'm getting used to this and feel like I'm doing a great job!" and then his sleep pattern would change, or he'd want to eat more, or he'd get more clingy... basically changing things up enough that every few weeks our patterns would be different and I would feel like I was caught in a tide, being repeatedly banged against the rocks and never reaching shore.  Being a new mom was a trying time for me, and I think had someone just said, "This part ends, and life gets back to normal... a really great, new normal.  Trust me.  This too shall pass."

It was during this time that my sister-in-law invited me to Indy to the Scottish Rite to attend their Mother's Day Luncheon.  It was a day to dress up, drink tea, eat chocolate covered strawberries, visit crafty booths and watch a fashion show.  And as a new mom whose new uniform was yoga pants and an IU t-shirt, I was sure I would feel out of place and uncomfortable.  Plus it would mean 2 hours in a car with a baby who had acid reflux and hated being scrunched up in a car seat.

But I decided that I might as well try it.  I might as well commemorate my first mother's day by doing something memorable and fun.  Who knows, I might like it.

It turned out to be a wonderfully relaxing day- almost jarring in how different it was from how I typically spent my afternoons.  I dressed up, sat at a table of family amidst 300 other mothers who had all been in my place at some point in their life.  Each table was elaborately decorated with a different theme.  There were flowers and smiles everywhere, and no one was yelling or crying or attached to my body.  I was served hot tea and got to finish the cup while it was still hot, ate delicious morsels, and I wasn't in charge of anything the entire day.  It was just the vacation I needed.

I designed this Mother's Day kit to bring you a mini vacation in your life.  Sit down in your favorite chair, brew a cup of hot tea, nibble a tasty cookie, and knit away.  Give yourself this gift of fiber-filled time, or gift it to a mother in your life.  Not a mother?  You can still treat yourself!  It's just a gorgeously feminine kit!  So what's in the kit?  Take a look:

I have two colors options for the bags for this kit.  Shown above is the PINK KIT.  It's the exact same as the CELADON GREEN KIT shown below, except that the flower fabric has an ivory background, and the reverse side is a pink stripe instead of the green stripe shown below.  Each fully reversible sock project bag is hand made by Stacey at Silver Moon Studios (here are some of her other bags).

See that little fabric pyramid on the right?  The one that looks like a fancy tea bag?  That's a lavender-filled sachet!  Stacey stitched up for us a whole slew of adorable sachets filled with hand picked lavender.  They smell awesome and are a great way to keep your sock yarn stash, or sock drawer, smelling lovely.  She sent me one a few months ago, and I keep it right by my knitting chair and every night I shake it up a bit to release the lovely lavender scent.  I think you need one too.

Miss Bab's Fiber Goods designed the special edition Tea Roses colorway for this kit.  And if 100 grams of Bab's Yummy 2-Ply Merino isn't special enough for you, there's even a 33-yard mini skein in the coordinating Blushing semi-solid color.  You can knit your toes and heels in the semi-solid, or use it for edging on lace, or use it for an adorable little pair of baby booties.  These colors are only available through this kit.

You'll also receive a sampling of teas from Ashby's of London, as well as Scottish shortbread.  I want you to receive a truly special package that reminds you to take a bit of time to smell the roses... or lavender in this case.

While I was able to increase the number of kits available from the last time, please do keep in mind that the last kit I designed for Valentine's Day sold out in 4 hours.  I expect this kit to last the better part of a day- perhaps a few days.  I'd love to have enough of these kits made so that you can order days or weeks after they come out, but as each part is hand made, there's a limit to how much I can ask the artisans to do.  They do have other stores to dye/sew for and as much as I'd like to monopolize their time, I can't expect them to spend a year creating pieces just for SSYC and alienate all their other accounts.  So I have a few hundred for you, and once they are sold out, that's it. So please do order your kit either in pale CELADON GREEN or PINK as soon as you decide for sure that you want it.  These its are available for immediate shipment, and you are welcome to order other items along with it, if you want to qualify for free US shipping (orders over $70).

 

Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

I'm interested in how you feel about short row heels.  Specifically how well they fit and what kind of foot do they fit well?  I have developed the perfect "recipe" to fit my narrow foot with really narrow heels using a traditional heel flap (top down) sock.  But short row heels do look really cool on self striping or other patterning sock yarns.  I am just concerned that they might not fit my foot well.

Do those who like short row heels have high arches or no arches?  Wide heels or narrow heels?  Do they fit as well as a properly sized heel flap?  I would love to hear many opinions on this.

Many thanks,

Heeler in Hartford

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Help a knitter out and leave your answer in the comments below.  Have a question that you'd like answered here?  Title it Ask the Knitters and e-mail it to service@simplysockyarn.com.  Your question could be chosen for the blog.

Pick some striping colors, win some yarn!

Jodie Gordon Lucas, who designed the new Twisted sock pattern in Knitty using Simply Sock Yarn, is looking for some inspiration for her next sock design.  I can't tell you anything other than it involves some thick stripes, and she'd like to know what color combinations of Simply Sock Yarn you'd like to see in a quirky striping pattern.  So take a look at all the colors (if you own a set of colorcards, then you have a slight edge) and in the comments section below pick two or three colors that you think would look nice together.

I'll randomly pick one person from the comments to win two skeins of Simply Sock Yarn. So check back after that to see if you are the winner.  Please just leave one comment before midnight on April 20, but in that one comment you are welcome to suggest several color combinations as in "I like Teal and Adobe together, and I also like Cranberry, Adobe and Peach together."  Make sense?

When Jodie decides on colors and publishes her design later this year I'll make sure to post about it here!

By the way, I think it's really cool the way I've heard of you all using your new colorcards.  Several of you have e-mailed that you bought one set for a group of knitting friends to share, and that you are also taking them to your knitting clubs to get input on what colors you should choose for your next fairisle project. I knew these cards would come in handy for you!

Farmhouse Yarn 30% off

I've marked all Farmhouse Yarns down 30% for you!  This includes the Fannie's Fingering Weight and the Bo-Peep sock yarns.  Shown below is Fannie's Fingering Weight in Grapes on the Vine and Confetti:

 

Farmhouse is known for sourcing their wool regionally.  The wool comes from small sheep farmers in the eastern USA, some with less than 20 sheep that find it hard to compete in the global economy.

Do note that each skein is hand dyed, thus can have more or less of a particular color that's pictured, or it could be paler or darker.   Each skein is a unique work of art.  I find that it's hard to have one picture represent the depth of color in each skein.

Shown below is Bo-Peep in Tropical Punch and Wildflowers:

 

On the labels, Bo Peep sock yarn is listed with a gauge of 7-8 stitches to the inch on US 1 or 2 needles.  But it's my opinion that this isn't accurate.  To me, this should be designated as a sport weight.  Not only can I tell this by looking at it, but also by the size/yardage of the skein.  A 450 yard skein of this yarn is 5.4 ounces, which puts it at a very heavy fingering weight, or more accurately, sport weight.  As most 450 yard skeins of fingering weight sock yarn are 4 ounces or 100 grams, this skein is over 20% heavier than that.  So really, it's quite a generous skein of yarn and you could get two medium sized pair of sock out of one skein, if you are knitting it on a US 3 or 4 needle.

 

Weekend of knitting....

..but nearly as much as I would have liked.  While I did have a few hours to knit, I was only able to complete one of my Herbs n Spices Fingerpaints sock.  I really was hoping to get a lot more knit, but apparently I wasn't selfish enough with my time!  BTW, the new Fingerpaints yarn is selling quickly, and I've already received a second shipment of it.  So if you see one of the 10 colors disappear from the store, just know that it will return shortly.  Cherry Tree Hill tells me that they have plenty for now, so I will keep reordering.

I really like how this color knit up in the Jaywalker pattern.  I think that the diagonal pattern really shows off the stripes well:

But as I got past the leg of the sock, and started knitting the sole of the foot, I noticed that I also liked how the plain ol' stockinette looked:

  

Here, take a closer look:

And if you click on the above image, you can get an even more detailed image.

Which do you prefer?  The diagonal pattern, or the plain ol' vanilla stripe? 

While I like the Jaywalker pattern and how it shows off this yarn, I'm thinking that for my next project using this yarn I'll knit a more vanilla sock.  Just plain ol' stockinette or a 2x2 rib.  Of course, it seems I'm easily distracted lately, starting one project just to get sidelined by something new.  But I don't feel bad about this, because as I'm knitting for myself in 2010, I'm letting my own interests guide me, rather than choosing a yarn for someone else and what they might like. And since all these projects are for me, I really don't have a deadline.  Especially since the weather has turned and it's no longer sock weather.

Our flowering pear trees are starting to bloom.  Ah, spring.

 

 

 

Stitching Truckers

Even though I'm still away on Easter break until tomorrow, I wanted to share something with you that I recently read and found not only interesting, but inspiring.  Writer Jennifer Levitz recently published an article in the Wall Street Journal that details an increased interest in fiber arts by truckers.  Yes, truckers.  Now, this shouldn't surprise me at all, as I know many of my store's customers are men.  But when it comes to careers that I would associate with knitters, trucking just wasn't one of them.  Turns out that even a yarn store owner and admitted fiber fetishist can have stereotypes!

I highly recommend reading this article, Idle Pastime: In Off Hours, Truckers Pick Up Stitching.  And no, you don't have to have an account with The Wall Streeet Journal to read the entire article, as author Jennifer Levitz sent me this direct link to share with you.

Thanks, Ms Levitz, for writing such a cool article!  And thanks to WSJ subscriber Susan for e-mailing me article last week!  It's definitely a good read.

Striped Obsession

Well, I've already abandoned the project that I started last week... a project that I SO WANTED TO START that I left two pairs of socks unfinished (with just the toes to go) so that I could start it.  Why?  I've caught the stripe bug again.

I have this thing with stripes.  I love striped fabric, striped rugs, striped glassware... you name it and I likely have it in stripes.  This is especially bad with yarn.  So when Cherry Tree Hill announced that they were coming out with striped sock yarn (something I had a lengthy conversation with Cheryl, owner of CTH, two years ago), I immediately put in an order, and two days later opened a box of my newest obsession- Fingerpaints.

While this yarn is only available in 10 colors, I really like the selection and it offers something for everyone.  The colorway I immediately cast on was Herbs n Spices.  I really like that it's a neutral colorway, but has a bit of flair- there's some sage and celery green and various depths of melon that really highlight the deep chocolate and mocha in the skein.

By looking at the lovely skein above, who could have known that it would knit into such a cool stripe?

 

I'm knitting the Herbs n Spices colorway and the pattern is Jaywalker from Magknits (an online magazine that is no more).  You can now find the Jaywalker pattern hosted on Ravelry.  There are close to ten thousand Jaywalkers on Ravelry, so obviously it's a popular pattern.  And while I've already knit this pattern three times before, I knew that I would really like the result of the zig zag look this pattern creates.  *oh, and you might like to know that the Jaywalker pattern calls for Opal Hand Dyed, which Opal stopped making around the time of the pattern being published, which really sucked for those who wanted to knit the pattern with the yarn it called for. But they are now making again.  While there are just three colors right now, another three are coming out in a couple weeks.

So Fingerpaintshas basically taken over my evenings.  I've already chosen my next project in this yarn, and if I don't get sidetracked with another new arrival, I'll likely finish my current Fingerpaints project and cast on a second one while taking an Easter break.

Speaking of Easter, Joe's spring break starts in two days, so I'll be taking a few days off from Friday April 2 through Monday April 5.  Which is basically just a long weekend.  So please do note that while you are welcome to place orders during this time, I won't be shipping orders until Tuesday, April 6.  Thanks for your patience as I take a little bit of time to spend with my family (and my knitting)!