Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

Color, Color, COLOR!

There's nothing quite like a jolt of color to turn your week around and put you in the crafting mood.  So far this week I've received two quite large shipments from both Tanis Fiber Arts and Schaefer Yarn, and both are so full of fabulous color that you can help but have a sunny disposition when looking at it all.

Cheryl Schaefer's been dyeing yarn for as long as anyone I can think of (Schaefer Yarn itself has been around since 1980), and I swear I read an article that she actually coined the term "hand painted yarn."  The fibers she works with are among the best you can find.  And since the yarns I carry all contain wool, they suck up the dye really well and even if the tones are pale, you still get a well saturated skein.  Her yarns are named after women (I believe ladies who work/ed for her) and many her colors are named after those she deems "Memorable Women".

I have several new colors and restocks for you in Anne (merino/kid/nylon), Heather (merino/silk/nylon) and Nichole (merino/nylon).  Shown in Anne below: Emily Post, Georgia Okeeffe and Mary Walker Phillips

   

Shown in Heather below:

   

 
Last month, Tanis sent me a new batch of her Blue Label (merino/nylon) and Purple Label (merino/cashmere/nylon) and it got caught up in Customs for about three weeks.  Now, if you read this blog often, you know I have a ever-so-slight *ahem* love for her colors.  And just knowing that it was sitting in Customs in NY waiting for some sort of clearance to get to me, well, it was enough to drive me nearly mad.  Boxes get held up coming from Canada all the time.  It just happens.  But for some reason this one really bugged me.  All those lovely bundles just doing no one any good by just sitting there unknit.  Maybe there was a knitter in Customs who didn't want to let the yarn go!!

Shown in Purple Label below: Poppy, Amber and Jewel

 

Shown in Blue Label below: Glacier, Lilac and Mallard

 

Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

Summer Socks?

Ok, yes I wear socks in the summer. My office is sometimes way too chilly, the air conditioning vents in my poor old car only work at floor level, if the rest of me is having a hot flash - why not include my feet , and the number 1 reason I wear socks in the summer....I am sparing the rest of the world from having to look at my ugly feet! I'm not into pedicures (rather spend the money on yarn). I love pretty socks, so there.

My question is that I am looking for a good summer sock yarn (maybe some patterns too?) It can't be too warm, can't be scratchy, must be easy peasy to take care of, and it must look season appropriate. Nothing weirder looking than someone wearing socks in August that look like January socks. Been there, done that and it ain't pretty!

So Knitters, please help me fill my sock drawer with some really neat summer socks. Think of it as a community service project. My public awaits.

Thank you!

Cape Cod Momma

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Help a knitter out and leave your answers in the comments section below.  Do you have a question you'd like answered here?  Simply title an e-mail Ask the Knitters and e-mail it to service@simplysockyarn.com .  Your question could be chosen for this series.

What a difference...

... a week makes.

Wasn't it just last week that I was writing about how great my week had been?  The weather was perfect.  I was cooking healthy dinners.  I made time for knitting and a nice sock was finished.  James was celebrating fun holidays at pre-school.

Well, 7 days can sure make a difference.  How was this week?  It started bad and ended worse.  I haven't cooked one meal, but instead have had a steady diet of Wendy's salads and Lean Cuisines.  I didn't excersize at all because the weather was awful and hail, HAIL, pelted my house.  My 5-month-old car was towed from the scene of a motorcycle accident.  No, I wasn't involved.  But my power steering just happened to go out at the exact time James and I saw a motorcyclist run into a car.  Then Thrusday afternoon Joe went to the ER with severe pain, only to find that he has a larger medical issue.

Last Thursday night I was happily knitting and watching the shows.  Last night I was angry and mopey and generally pissed off.

Obviously, things could be much worse.  I know this.  I could have eaten a steady diet of pizza and burgers.  James and I could have been in the accident.  Joe could be worse.  I could be suffering through a natural disaster.

I'm trying to keep it in perspective.  And I'm hoping to find time to knit a stitch or two this weekend. 

Win this skein!

The weather here in NE Indiana has turned from gorgeous over the weekend to ugly and rainy.  The riding of bikes and basking in sunshine has been replaced with raincoats and couch sitting.  Yuck.  I figured that many of you could be experiencing the same spring sogginess and malaise, so I thought I'd make life a bit more sunny with a contest!

Just tell me in the comments below tell me about the view from your front door.  Do you look onto a bustling street full of walkers and shoppers?  Do you see kids riding through the neighborhood on bikes?  Does your view include water or mountains?  Tell me all about it before midnight EST on Friday, March 25 and you'll be entered to win this lovely Sundance skein.  I'll announce the winner here on the blog next week.

(I've shown my front door view here before, but in case you've missed it, it's trees.  That's about it!  I live in a flat area, so no mountains or hills, and across the street from us is a forest that obscures a view of the Maumee River.)

 

This skein was dyed by Krista at Pigeonroof Studios.  It was a prototype for the Sundance colorway that she dyed for the store's 5th anniversary kit last year.  This 100 gram skein is a merino/nylon blend that I don't carry in the store (but I'm considering adding it soon), and it took the dye wonderfully, don't you think?  I designed a free pattern for the color here- it's a simple pattern with a cable down the leg.  It works well with a busy colorway and let's the beautifully dyed colors do their job.

If you are interested in getting your hands on the next anniversary kit, it will be available in early June.  If you are on the e-newsletter list, you'll definitely be notified.  You can sign up here if you want.

Sock Summit 2011

There was a question in the comments asking if there will be another Sock Summit this year.  Yes, the second Sock Summit is taking place this summer and you can learn more by visiting www.socksummit.com.  I don't have more information than is presented on the website, but there is a e-mailing list to get on to learn when teachers are announced/sign ups begin/other info is released.  Please don't e-mail me directly with questions, because I have no answers.  I simply write a big check to support the Sock Summit's endeavors.

Just like the first event, Simply Socks Yarn Company is a top level sponsor, and I'm very pleased to be a part of this convention again.  It takes a lot of money and time to make something this huge happen (taking over the entire Portland Convention Center) and because you all support my store, I'm able to support Sock Summit and other knitting events.  It's one way I try to give back and enrich the knitting community that is a big part of all our lives.

In 2009, the classes sold out so quickly that it actually crashed their servers- thousands of knitters trying to sign up at the same time.  We are quite a force, aren't we?  But even if you don't take classes, you might consider still going because there will be two demo areas in the Marketplace and there will be so many awesome vendors and events.  You don't have to take a full load of classes to take part.  You can simply come, get a hotel for a night, and knit with thousands of other sock knitters who love the craft as much as you.  It's quite an inspiring event and I highly recommend it.

Want to read about SSYC at Sock Summit 2009?  Here are some links to blog posts I did from the event:

SSYC at the Summit

Setup Day

Day 1

Anna Zilboorg

Sock Summit Saturday

Last Day Pictures

Wonderful week

Wonderful, super, perfect week.  Not only did so much cool yarn arrive, but a myriad of other things have turned my week into something awesome (including the planning of the store's 6th anniversary kit coming in a couple months... I love planning kits!).  Here are seven things that made my week seem super special.  I'd love it if you would comment with something(s) that made you happy this week too!

The weather.  It dried up a bit mid-week and I've been able to do a bit of walking and....

Biking.  Joe bought me this bike for my birthday.  It has been waiting patiently since January for its inaugural ride and on Wednesday we hitched up a (free, thanks to some great friends) bike trailer for James and took a ride around our 'hood.  I hadn't been on a bike since before James was born and after enjoying it so much, I feel like I was really missing out.  It was the highlight of my week!

 

Milan.  The yarn, not the city.  Tilli Tomas is known for decadent skeins, and I've carried Milan for years.  They even dyed the yarn for the first SSYC kit (for Christmas 09). This week, several large boxes arrived, and I have all the colors in the Sale Section (last few pages) for 40% off.  Why such a large discount?  Tilli Tomas has to discontinue this blend becacuse the cost of silk and cashmere have gone up over 30%. So Tracey has sold all she had to me to pass along to you at a deep discount.  This merino/silk/cashmere blend makes luxurious house socks, or use one skein for these mitts (shown below in the American Beauty color).  I have snagged a few skeins for mitts for myself and gifts.

 

New recipes.  Joe and I have been concentrating on living a healthier life since December, and I feel as though we've finally gotten the hang of it.  One of the things I tried this week was this lamb meatball recipe.  It was so good inside a whole wheat pita with greek yogurt, cucumber and lettuce.  I've also realized that it's okay to spend a little more on cut fruit, if that's what it's going to take to get me to eat it more often.  At first I balked at the idea of spending twice as much for ready-to-eat melon and pineapple, but now I'm glad I did because I find cutting those to be too tedious to do regularly.

Socks.  I've cast on my second Sausalito sock in the Monet color. I chose that one because I'm trying to knit colors I don't usually use, and after knitting a few rows I wasn't sure I liked the color combo.   But after knitting the sock, I realized that once you have knit several pattern repeats, the color progression really works and I now love love love these socks.  I'm happy I persevered!  It's nice to take a chance on something and feel great about the outcome.

 

Fun holidays.  St. Patty's Day is reason to wear fun colors, make decorations, and eat special foods.  James enjoyed the day and made this hat at pre-school.  I love that for a few hours twice a week, both he and I get a different experience- his one of fun and learning, and mine one of less distraction and dedicated work time (and a cup of coffee that I can finish before it gets cold), and we are both better people for it.  We are sending him to the same place next year, this time for Pre-K.  Hard to believe that this time next year he will be enrolling in KINDERGARTEN.  It all just goes by too fast.

 

Fleece Artist - Hand Maiden Casbah

I have a new batch of Casbah from Fleece Artist's luxury fiber line, Hand Maiden.  Many of you are devotees to this merino/cashmere/nylon blend, and after finally fixing my socks and wearing them for the past couple weeks, I see why.  The socks are super soft, they are holding up well to machine washing, and the available colors are fabulous.  But I know that many more of you are knitting lace (like Ishbel) out of this.  In fact, ever since Ysolda designed the Ishbel pattern, my sales of this yarn have tripled.  It's hard keeping in stock for you guys, especially since cashmere blends have become so much more popular, forcing a longer wait from the mills.

While I can't find a color of Casbah that I don't like, these are the ones that seem to stand out to me this time around, Stardust, Salt Spray and Beach House

 

Of course, these are cool colors like I'm always drawn to.  I think that Beach House is really speaking to me because the weather here has finally started to change and is making me impatient for spring.  Gone is the snow that seems to have been much more plentiful than last year, bringing instead day after day of rain.  That only means that green grass and garden sprouts are just around the corner, right?  Something to look forward to...

 

Ask the Knitters

Dear Knitters,

I am in love with sock knitting.  I have at least four projects on the needles at any given time, and my sock yarn stash is gwoing every week.  I'd like to start knitting lace projects with some of my sock yarn, but I don't know where to start.

Can you direct me to some free non-sock patterns that you have knit with your sock yarn?  Mittens, shawls, hats- anything you think that would help me spread my wings and show off my sock yarn investment.  I've already found Allison's Lepidoptera Mitt pattern, and think I'll be starting that this week.  But I'd like more queued up!

Thank you all!

Sock Yarn Lover

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Help a knitter out and leave your advice in the comments section below.  Do you have a question you'd like answered here?  Title your e-mail Ask the Knitters and send it to service@simplysockyarn.com and your question could be chosen for this series.

The dreaded Inbox

Do you have those little particular duties or obligations that you leave unattended for way too long?  Tasks that, when left on their own, grow into large and seemingly insurmountable jobs that stagnate at the back on your mind.  You might not thing of them often, but every once in awhile when you are feeling caught up on things, that ONE task comes to the front of your mind as if to say "HEY THERE.  You forgot about ME.  Don't exhale just yet."  Please tell me you too have those quirks.

For me, my Inbox is that thing.  For the most part, I'm timely about responding to and filing away the appropriate e-mails.  I get a huge amount of mail every hour.  Various knitting magazines, e-newsletters, knitter questions and requests, conversations with vendors and dyers, and a myriad of other correspondence.  Let's estimate that on an average weekday I get three hundred e-mails.  At least half of those are the type that are somewhat unsolicited or something I would glance at longer if I had the time.  But instead I just delete them.  The other half are either immediately responded to or filed for later consideration.

But every week there are at least a few that I think " I want to give that one some more thought" and I leave it sitting in my Inbox until I theoretically have time to deal with it.  So it sits there.  And sits.  Since May.  You can imagine how many e-mails I had just sitting in my Inbox.  Close to 800. 

This morning, I finally found the time to go through them, deleting most, and filing just a few.  And now I can view my entire Inbox one one page.  I feel like I can begin my weekend a few hours early.

What will you be doing this weekend?  Do you have that ONE THING finished so you can relax and knit?  Or will you be worrying about something?

I'll be finishing my first Berroco Sox sock and likely leaving its mate waiting while I knit on either one of these or these.  Heck, I might reward myself by working on two new projects.

Crystal Palace's New Sock Yarn: Sausalito

Many of us are fans of Crystal Palace's single ply Mini Mochi sock yarn.  The colors slowly change from one to the next, creating an addictive knit.  It's super soft, so it's appropriate for scarves and mitts as well.  This week, Crystal Palace released their newest sock yarn, Sausalito, which I'd describe as a two-ply version of Mini Mochi.  It's still very soft, and the stripes are almost tweedy-looking becuase of the two plies.  I've knit one pair of socks in Mini Mochi, and I've only started a project in Sausalito, but I can already tell that the two-plies really are going to make this yarn more durable.

 

Right now, I have every color in the store and I hope to be able to keep them in stock for a bit.  I expect that this line is going to be very popular because it has what most of us want in sock yarn: under $20 for a pair of socks, beautiful colors, machine washable (not for machine drying though) and STRIPING.  This is one of those sock yarns that you'll want in your stash so that when you want a simple ribbed scarf or a stockinette pair of socks, you have it right there to get going.  And if you like, you can just buy one ball and make these mitts.

The photo above is accurate in color, and if you want to see the colors knit up, take a look here (note that the link brings you to Crystal Palace's website, and while the knit up swatches help you to see how your socks may look, for a true representation of the colors, the image above and the ones on the SSYC website are more accurate).

For those of you who were waiting for the remainder of the Jawoll Magic yarn to arrive, I now have all of those striping colors as well (shown below).  Yet another new striped yarn that I can't wait to wear!  I wish I could buy more time along with my yarn.

 

I'm taking Sunday back

The store has been nutty.  I shared this over the past month- the crazy amount of yarn I've ordered (only some of which has even arrived... stay tuned), the fact that my predictably slow February was this year just as busy, if not more so, than January.  It's been a really, really, REALLY busy time.  I'm very grateful for this.  I'm the type of person who likes to stay busy and do different things.  Being a shop owner, one minute I can be helping to pack all your boxes, the next minute chatting with you over e-mail, and the next taking pictures of all the yarny goodness that has just arrived, while also caring for and playing with a three year old.  I thrive on the constantly changing day.

For the past couple months, what hasn't been changing is that every day is filled.  And while I'm fortunate that it's filled with things that I like, it's still full until 8pm when James is asleep and I happily crash into my little knitting chair.  Every weekend, I tell myself that I'm going to put the computer down and pick the knitting up, and it just doesn't happen.  And I've realized that if I don't eventually stop working, I won't get any knitting done!  So this weekend I worked very little, but knit quite a bit more.  I didn't start any new projects, but instead finished the details on some socks.  One being the special edition Casbah color that Fleece Artist dyed for last Labor Day's Harvest Mist knit kit- Midsummer Morning with the Spring Forward pattern.  The socks had been finished for quite some time, but I found a dropped stitch and hadn't made the time to tear the second sock back and redo the toe. 

 

I've worn these socks twice since Saturday (I'm wearing them now) and they are so soft and comfortable.  I adore Casbah for socks.  For their first machine washing, I put them in a mesh bag, but apparently I forgot to zip it closed b/c when the cycle was finished they were no longer inside.  I was worried that the stitches would be less defined or that a stitch might've gotten caught on a zipper, but it was all good.  They looked just as good as they did before I washed them.  Go Casbah!

Dream in Color's Smooshy with Cashmere Yarn

Many of us have fallen in love with the special Smooshy with Cashmere skeins that have been offered twice in the Dream Club.  And now Dream in Color has released a selection of hand dyed colors for those of us who like Smooshy, but also like a bit of cashmere and nylon in our yarn.  What I like about the base yarn DIC uses is that it's 20% cashmere, with a feel very similar to the Tanis Fiber Arts Purple Label that I adore so much.  So not only is this yarn a wonderful option for luxurious socks, but it has a wonderful drape and texture for lace.

I have all of the 14 colors from their line, including Cranberry Melt & Electric Mauve...

 

...Crystal Storm & Lucky Stone...

 

...and Carary Cape & Global Mix...

 

All are such lovely colors, and I think that when you see these in person, you'll notice even more depth of color than you can see in digital images.  To me, the best parts of the skein are those short lengths where two colors overlap, giving you just a bit of something unexpected.  The colors in the line really are original and spectacular.  Take a look.  Or don't, if you don't want to find a package on your doorstep in a few days.  You might find it hard to resist.  I have, so far, just snagged one... which color do you think it is?

It's heeeere

The next installment in the DIC Dream Club.  Keep in mind that the skein represents this to-die-for green color, not so much the picture featuring the sock, which doesn't make the green look as lovely as dynamic as it is. 

This free pattern (just e-mail me your invoice number after your order and I'll e-mail it back) is a simple ribbed sock with a leaf panel down the back.  A very nice fit for this color.  Though I'm also considering this pattern as well.  Maybe the larger shawl version with 2 skeins.