Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

Oh so special Saturday

You may realize that I rarely post on weekends.  Afterall, we the shop is quite busy every-other Saturday, as we are open to the public.  And those other Saturdays are lazy days spent with Joe and the boys.  But I came in several hours before the shop opens this morning to get all this yarn ready for you because I couldn't wait to share it.  Tina has sent us a her new spring colors on the BFL sock base and it's all quite glorious.

Some of the new colors include Royal, Sherbet, Jumpin' Jellybeans (all shown above) and below with Sweet Tart.

If you're in the mood for subtle colors for spring, I have Lauma, Melusine, Narikama and Will o the Wisp.  I love knitting pale toned lace socks.

Or, you might be waiting for some of Blue Moon Fiber Art's most sought after colors like Farmhouse, Black Magic, Fire on the Mountain and Tea and Alchemy.  Wowza.

I hope you see something in the new colors of BFL sock here, and I expect them on other bases later this spring.  If you had a lazy Saturday with nothing to do but knit, which one would you choose?

Contest winners

Last month, we had a contest for designs of Marisa Hernandez.  Congrats to the three winners!

Kim, who said "So many beautiful designs!  I love Crooked Cathedral (shown above), and the Diamante shawls! These would be beautiful in the Mad. Tosh Merino Light - Oxblood or Baltic."

Janet, who said "OMG!  That Daizies is gorgeous!  And I would for sure use MTL!  Maybe in Cathedral color way. Just beautiful!"

Maryelle, who said "Artemist is beautiful! I have a skein of Malabrigo sock in my stash in a blue/green color that would be perfect (but that's not to say I wouldn't be tempted by some Tosh Merino Light or the new BMFA Tipsy colors!)"

Thank you to everyone who participated.  I love when you all participate in question/answers or contest with your pattern or color ideas.  You're all such a great inspiration!  Congrats to the three winners of the contest!  Check your Inbox if you think one of these is you.  Thank you to Marisa Hernandez, who not only designs fab patterns, but also sponsored this contest.  And hooked our Rachael into immediately casting on and finishing her own Mariposa.  

Still one

Henry is still my baby.  Still one.  But getting closer to two.

He doesn't act like a baby. He loves to tear around the house after James, loves to sit on him or lay over him, pretending to wrestle, but still wakes in the morning and hugs me tight and gives me dozens of 'mooches.  And, oh, those cheeks.  They are ever-so-'moochable.

He's my last.  At least, that's what we plan.  I had always thought I'd have at least three kids, perhaps five. But having him took much longer than we hoped, and I now am at the point when I want to travel and enjoy my kids and have time to myself once in awhile, and this last pregnancy was so much more difficult than my one with James five years earlier.  And babies, they are wonderful, but oh so draining.  Mothers want to do everything right, and remember everything, and that too is draining.

I see friends who now have kids in high school and I wonder how they will survive once their kids go away to college one day.  Do you watch them drive away and see the puffy cheeked two year old?  Do you watch your sons standing with their chosen loved one, getting married, and wonder where life went?  Do you remember it all? 

Tuesday Tease

I'm putting together something special next month to ring in spring, and here's a shot of the test skeins sent to me from the dyer! (please do yourself a favor and click on the picture to see it in great detail)

It's snowing here again today.  And not just a little dusting- real flakes coming heavily. So I TOTALLY need this color inspiration today to lift my mood.  A third cup of coffee wouldn't hurt either.

Opal Yarn, Smile

I have the newest Opal Yarn collection for you- Smile! 

A collection of fun and bright colors.  Just what I need to get over this winter- such a long and odd season.  Late March and we're expecting more snow this week!  Argh! 

Madelinetosh Spring 2014 colors

It's that time of year!  New colors from Madelinetosh!

Shown above is Tosh Sock in the following new colors: Black Walnut, Hosta Blue, Chicory, Medieval, Farmhouse White, Log Cabin Brown, Red Phoenix, Purple Basil, Ember, Capetown Rainbow and Sun Rose.  I also have the same colors in Merino Light and Tosh DK, with Pashmina coming soon.  If you want sweater quantities, now's a great time to secure multiple skeins in a single color.

I have over 90 colors of Tosh Sock right now, so for those of us who are obsessed with combining two or three colors into a scarf or shawl right now, it's like a party.  What projects do you think we should knit with these?  Stripe Study?  Phi?  Do inspire us with your ideas!

Thinking about spring!

Another gray day... Has me searching for spring pictures on my phone. What picture do you have that embodies spring?

Stephanie Pearl McPhee, The Amazing Thing

Yesterday, my copy of Stephanie Pearl McPhee's newest book was finally delivered from Amazon.  I took a photo of it with Henry, and then started counting the minutes til he and James went to bed so I could read.  And starting about 8pm, OH READ I DID.

The shop is about to open here in a few minutes for our once-a-week public hours, so while I'd love to list for you the nineteen things I loved, let's do that later.  Though I will admit that the second chapter had me thinking "Yes, THAT, YES!" and by the third I offered to let Joe have the book for a few hours because I knew he would enjoy the book as much as I did (just like he really enjoyed her lecture and getting to know her in December when she was here).  I just wanted to share that if you haven't yet gotten a copy for yourself (or someone else b/c this one's for non-knitters as well), please do yourself a favor and do so. Give yourself the gift of a few hours of time when you can relate to someone so well you realize that the world is full of people who probably think like you do and have their own silly quirks and insecurites and if we ever just opened up a tad more, we'd be a lot less lonely and scared.  Or, hey, maybe that's just me.

If you aren't familiar yet with the books of Stephanie Pearl McPhee, she also writes on her blog, Yarn Harlot.  It's one of the six or so blogs I regularly read and enjoy.  She's relatable, knowledgeable about knitting, and downright inspiring.  She also has great taste in sock yarn.... we have both been knitting Trekking XXL lately.  She posted pictures of her color 550 socks that she knit last month (and we FINALLY have that color back in stock, after it quickly went out the door due to her posts).  And she knit color 538 throughout her book tour last week.  She posted about that here, here and here.  It was really cool to see her taking pictures with our yarn throughout her tour. 

Fiberstory Yarn

Who needs text when pictures do such a nice job?

Well, I do.  I'm hard to shut up.  Especially about yarn.  But I'll do my best to keep it brief, because these skeins can speak for themselves.

I have a new dyer to share with you, Sarah of Fiberstory. I have a slew of her Fave Sock colors in the shop now, from the not-far-from-us city of Detroit.  Or around Detroit, to be more exact.  I've put these skeins together in picture because I think they are combos that I think are awesome together.  But in the two dozen colors I have in stock right now, I'm betting you could find combos you really like too.  Is there a two or three skein combo you think is divine?  Do inspire us in the comments below!

Come see Sarah's beautiful skeins in person this weekend, as we have shop hours 10-4 this Saturday (and following Tuesday).  Or grab yours now online.

March Madness Sale, part 2

As if the deals in the sale section aren't already great enough, I now have something for you that I haven't had for years.  Regia.

You may have noticed that I can't get enough self-striping and self-patterning yarn on my needles. Trekking, Opal, OnLine... you've seen it all on my needles already this year.  So it's probably no surpirse that I've made room in the shop again for Regia, after not stocking it for nearly 6 years.  To kick off this reintroduction, they've offered me two great collection for the sale section, shown above is the 6-ply (dk weight) Highland Tweed collection and below the 4-ply (fingering weight) Hand Dye Effect collection.  Both are 40% off right now.  And very soon I'll have a wide array of colors and lines to share with you that I'll keep on hand in the shop.  From fluroescents to self-patterns to solids, you'll find it all at SSYC later this month.  One of the perks of having a very large space is that I can carry a very wide array of sock yarn for everyone.  I'm so glad it's time to bring Regia back into the fold!

Is there another line or collection you'd like to see at Simply Socks Yarn Company?  I'm listening. Just e-mail me at service@simplysockyarn.com.

Please note, the weather here has turned bad again, and we've been without power since early morning (yay battery power for computers).  I hope we have power again soon, and I ask for some patience as we get orders out this week once the power returns.  Fingers crossed this is the LAST big snowfall of this season! Come on SPRING!

 

Tuesday Tease

Spankin' new dyer.
MORE sale yarn.
Soon to come.

Fourth finished project of 2014

I know the exact date I started this project, which is rare for me.  I only know this b/c I envied the color idea of Liz, who came in the shop on a Saturday to get yarn for a two color project.  Rachael suggested that she combine a multicolor from Miss Babs Tarte with a solid-ish color from our Poste Yarn Patina (b/c they are the same base, or at least look/feel to be to us).  Heather helped Liz pick out the color combo of Zombie Reunion and Antelope Canyon.  And I loved it so much that I grabbed some for myself and chose the Phi shawl.  So I guess it took four of us to come up with this idea.

My Phi Shawl was an addictive and fun knit. Very simple.

It has a bit of an odd shape, so I'm not sure exactly how I'll wear it yet.  It is longer on one side of the triangle than the others, so it could easily slip off my shoulders while trying to work or wrestle the boys into the car.  So I think it will be worn more as a scarf around my neck.

I liked the combination of a multicolor Tarte and solid-ish Patina so much that I then picked two more colors to start another project.  A Stripe Study shawl using Patina in Taj Mahal and Tarte in the color that Babs dyed up for last year's anniversary kit.

But that's on hold right now as I knit some OnLine Rio socks in color 1660.  And then I'm choosing some sock yarn leftovers to knit a coffee cup cozy or two.  This one was knit by a friend who just cast on 64 stitches in a fingering weight (this is BMFA Socks that Rock) and did a rib for a few inches.  She said it was a bit too big, so I think I'll cast on 56 and do a 2x2 rib.  Something quick and satifying and definitely gift worthy to have on hand.

Mad Mend from Bird Leg Bags

Aren't these sock cubes adorable?  They are from the mod Mad Mend fabric collection... thimbles, pins, buttons.  

I also have other fabric choices available here, made by Vickie at Bird Leg Bags.

I have two new highlighter stripe colors in Poste Yarn to show off.  The Thunderbird and Golden Nugget.

And in case you didn't see, we got in a bunch more sale yarn today.  Check out the sale section for 50% off of some great self-patterning colors.  I'm working on a sock in the Rio collection, color 1660 this week.

So much striped sock yarn

Striping sock yarn is one of my favorite things in the whole world.  It's something that gives me true joy. There's something about seeing one tiny stitch after another develop into a colorful display, don't you think? I have for you today three different striping collections.

First, Striped Turtle Toes from Turtlepurl Yarn.  Genevieve dyes her skeins in her Canadian studio.  You don't get one skein, you get two 50g skeins which are dyed to match and create perfectly matching stripes on your socks (as long as you pull from the same ends of skein after winding into a ball).  Below are colors inspired by angry birds, Pac Man, and Burberry.

Another awesome Canadian dyer, Louise, of Biscotte & Cie sent us some of her great striping colors and kits.  The striping kits work with her Stitch Surfer pattern.  Shown below is the popular Watermelon striping colorway.

Finally, we have received many requests for more of our Poste Yarn striping highlighter colors, and we aim to please.  You'll find all those back in stock (til this batch sells out).  We even have a few more to share later this week.  Below is the adorable Lanesplitter skirt that Rachael knit out of one skein of Gold Coast and one skein of Cascade Heritage in Charcoal.

 

Tuesday Tease

New striping colors coming tomorrow. Inspired by angry birds, comics, and Burberry.

Weekend in pictures

 

It was a fun and busy Saturday in the shop this weekend.  As most of you know, we focus on shipping yarn to you nearly every day of the week, and we open our "pretty warehouse" to one day each week.  

One of you brought in a pair of socks knit with our Valentine kit yarn.  Love them!

And this adorable little dress knit in Jojoland Melody Superwash color 04.

The yarn we all went crazy over is this new striping sock yarn from Turtlepurl Yarn in Canada.  I'll have this for you on the website later this week.  Super awesome hand dyed stripes.  One box was delivered several days ago, and after people saw that one box, we literally stalked the USPS guy to get that second box (which had been delayed).  We found his truck across the street and left a little note on it asking for it to PRETTY PLEASE be delivered asap.  Thank you for having a great sense of humor, Dominic!  Our USPS carrier knows we area loony bunch.

 

 

 

Our Saturday ended in the 12th hour, as we wanted to get all the sale yarn packages on their way to you.  For those who missed out on some of the colors, I'll have a lot more sale yarn in a few days in the Sale Section.

 

This is how I spent my Sunday, knitting away on a new sock.  These colors remind me of late 70's nylon track suit colors.  I love them!  It's OnLine Rio color 1660 and will be back in the Sale Section in a few more days.

 

What were you up to this weekend?