Simply Socks Yarn Co. Blog

More Colossal Sock from blue Moon Fiber Arts

We're nearing the end of our 12th anniversary summer celebration, and nearing the end of the special Colossal Sock that Tina at Blue Moon Fiber Arts dyed just for us to celebrate. These 150g skeins are 45% off, and we have just a batch or two more coming before its all gone. Here are some of the new colors that just arrived yesterday and are in our Sale Section for you.

Elephant Love Medley and Fall Frolic

It's been a fun summer celebrating our 12th anniversary with deals like this, contests, our Anniversary Knit Kits and our big party. We have a huge fall planned here, as we expand with many new yarn lines, so the fun won't stop!

West Yorkshire Spinners Sock Yarn

A few weeks ago, I shared that we would be adding many more dyers and companies to the shop this fall in our big yarny expansion. So it's time to welcome the next member to SSYC, West Yorkshire Spinners!

Above, Blue Lagoon. Below, Rum Paradise. Both from the Cocktails Collection.

West Yorkshire Spinners is an award-winning UK fiber company that offers fun and inventive self-patterning colors. This 4ply Signature Sock wool/nylon blend contains 35% Bluefaced Leicester, making it one of the more sumptuous 4ply products on the market.

Above, Peacock. Below, Pheasant. Both from the Country Birds Collection.

I also have an array of solids that coordinate with the self patterning collections.

And they just released a holiday colorway. Which I cleaned them out of. It's just so nice! I can't help it!

At just $12.25 a ball, I'm sure you can agree this new collection is quite a deal! I basically ordered everything they had available. The price and quality are really that great.

Regia Tweed Color

Want comfy tweedy, striped socks? This new Regia Tweed Color collection has you covered!

shown above is color 7496 and below is 7493

Heck you can even put together a stunning cowl using two different colors, shown here in 7497 and 7494

This collection speaks to me not only because I love stripes, but I really like the texture of tweed too. This combines the two together! And the tweedy nubs are very subtle and the yarn is just as soft as any other Regia collection. It's wins all around!

New Regia and more Poste Yarn!

The new Pairfect Collection by Arne & Carlos is now here!

There are 6 super awesome new colors in the collection and you can purchase the whole 6-ball collection to save $10 off retail and get free US shipping. Or you can purchase the colors individually. I even have three of the previous collection if you missed out on some of those.

And if you've been patiently waiting for some particular Poste Yarn Striping Socks colors, you wait just may be over! We've made room in the dye schedule for the following colors, so you'll see them back in the shop: M22, All the Wizard House colors (Bravery, Ambition, Loyalty and Knowledge which are all used in the sock above with natural separating them) Jollyville, and several Halloween colors like Camp Crystal Lake, Ghost Town, Elm Street and Funkytown. And for the first time as a single skein (without the matching toe/heel skein) Goblin Forest (shown below).

You'll find dozens of striping colors in stock right now, which is A LOT for a small studio like ours to have available. Especially during the summer months when it's so hot and humid in the dye studio. But we hate to see you wait until the temps cool to get what you want!

Camp Crystal Lake knit into mitts . Try this pattern.

Even more...

It's going to be a heck of a fall here at SSYC. We're preparing to add a slew of new dyers and companies to the shop and it's shaping up to be a crazy-making time.

Over the next two months, you can expect to see many new hand dyers in the shop plus lines from new companies and collections from our faves, restocks of some of those hard-to-get faves, more Hedgehog Fibres than ever, and an insane amount of beautiful stuff to inspire your craft and enhance your stash.

How do we prepare for such an expansion? First, a lot of coffee. Second, IKEA made a major delivery of new fixtures to the shop. I thought we had as much as we could fit in our 3500 sq ft space, but guess what? Rachael and I devised a new layout that allows us to offer you even more. Now we just have to assemble all these shelves (thankfully, this man will be doing it.... gotta love an adorable, helpful man!), patiently wait for everything to arrive, and then stock everything. It's a crapshoot as to when everything actually gets here, what with much of it coming through Customs.

I seriously can't believe we have so much new stuff coming. It's a super exciting time for me to work with so many new talented dyers. To talk about colors and fiber and finalize a myriad of details. To meet with new reps who bring amazing lines to show off and tiny little color cards to mix and combine and choose. Shown above is one of those lines, Wonderland Yarns, which is the only one I'll reveal at this time. With the most adorable mini skein sets that make me swoon!

And next week you can expect a long awaited new collection- the newest Pairfect Arne & Carlos collection in Regia! Below is the batch we received last time (a pallet!) and this new 6-color collection is even more gorgeous. I can't wait to show it off.

SSYC continues to grow with your support and direction. You are my best guide in what the shop should offer and I always greatly appreciate your feedback and ideas. If you ever want to share ideas and faves with me, you can always e-mail me at service@simplysockyarn.com. SSYC is exactly what you have created over the past 12 years. It's an amalgamation of thousands of knitters' preferences and obsessions, and without you all at the helm, we would be something totally different. Or wouldn't exist at all. It's thrilling to see things expand and change, and I'm so thankful for your part in it!

Madelinetosh's New Hues

It's time to show off the new Madelinetosh colors! I'm so pleased to have these for you on six different bases. I'm showing them all off here in Tosh Sock, and I have them also in Tosh DK, Pashmina (oooooh, merino/cash/silk), Merino Light (singles), Twist Light (super soft merino/nylon blend), and BFL Sock. Shown above is Gosia and below are Dirty Harry and Brass. 

If you want a black speckled yarn with a tiny bit of color too, you'll like Soot

What about a pale gray with speckles like Conference Call?

Want more tonal neutrals? Arch and Mockingjay.

What about some blues? Favorite Pair and Memory are super nice.

I love the sea hue of Translation

And if you love a good minty aqua, take a look at Porches be Like

Want a more natural green? Joshua Tree

And we can't go without purples like Himiko and Phantasm

And, of course, there are restocks of all the popular hues that sell out super fast. So if there's a project you had in mind, now's the time to find the yarn. I mean, I currently have over 180 colors in Tosh Sock alone! Now's the time to find what you want in the quantities you need.

Today's the Day

James started fourth grade! I can't believe that this tiny baby is now a 10 year old fourth grader!

He says he's most looking forward to gym and seeing his friend Nicholas. His current fave food is large Goldfish crackers. He wants to be a teacher when he grows up.

When I asked Henry how he feels about James going back to school, he exclaimed "Good!" And when I asked why he said "Because I can do what I want." And boy, he has. After we left the shop this morning, we went to Target, he picked out a treat from the candy aisle, and them proceed to say "This is a special day!" when I let him get Wendy's for lunch.

Are you putting your kids on buses and getting them off to school this week? Do you have special traditions to commemorate the day? Or is it a combination of triage and stress? I let James choose his breakfast (pumpkin chocolate chip pancakes and a banana) but other than that, it's just like any other school day. Oh, and the obligatory photos. I realized about twenty minutes before the bus arrived this morning that we never cleaned out his book bag from last year. So James went through and basically tossed everything so that we could fit in all the supplies/Kleenex boxes/sundry items. Other than that, our morning went smoothly.

Want yarn news? New colors of Tosh have started hitting the shop, and I'll show them off here soon too!

Back to School.... all the thoughts

It's hard to believe that this time next week, sweet summer will be officially over and James will have started his fourth grade! Summer flew by again this year, which is a good thing in some ways because James broke his arm (just 2 more weeks in a cast!) and the boys seem to be much less kind to each other when they are around each other so much. But all those endless morning snuggles watching Gumball and eating cinnamon bread are nearly over, and the house won't be full of the giggles of neighbors and friends. We won't have leisurely evenings  playing basketball or soccer or fishing and swimming, and it will soon be too cold to take evening walks. Ugh, I'm making myself depressed just thinking about it.

(Pictures taken last month- right before slip-and-slide-cast-incident)

But. BUT. There are things about school starting that I DO love. I get a whole month of Henry alone (my little sidekick) before he starts preschool again a few days a week. I'll soon have a more manageable and predictable schedule again after months of just-trying-to-make-it-work. I feel like that should be a parenting motto. "Just trying to make it work." or "Target will make it better. Pass me a Starbucks."

For example, it's 5am where I am right now as I type this. Why? Because the house is quiet and this is when I can think. Just trying to make it work. Soon, I can look forward to knowing when the house will be quiet or when I don't have to drag kids to the shop with me when they really just want to go next door to the library or down the street to the park. So these are some good things to think about when I'm sad about the summer ending.

I also get to consider knitting larger projects, now that the weather is starting to turn. Do your projects change when summer ends? I noticed several blanket projects being chosen at the shop this past Saturday. I think the Cascade 220 section gets a lot more use once we all aren't thinking about our laps sweating as we knit a chevron baby blanket for that new little one. For me, I don't think what I knit changes much with the weather. I've tried knitting garments and it just didn't take. I've learned I need quicker gratification from my knits, and so I pretty much knit socks all year 'round, with the occasional baby blanket or shawl thrown in as the fancy strikes. You?

Girl From the Grocery Store KAL

We're hosting an informal KAL on our Ravelry group page! If you've considered knitting the Girl from the Grocery Store shawl, do considering choosing two skeins of fingering weight yarn, your fave US 7 needles (I'm using these), and casting on with us. There's no start or end date- just a group on Ravelry to encourage us all, and if you're on Instagram you can follow along with my progress or search the hashtag #girlfromthegrocerystoreKAL to see what everyone else is up to.

Here's what I have done over the past five or so days. Keep in mind I took a bit of a road trip and was the passenger, so I had MUCH more knitting time than I usually have with little kids around. I'd say I'm bout 30% through the shawl.

The yarn I used is Miss Babs new sparkled Estrellita. Super nice stuff. Love the color, love the sparkle. Just became available in the shop, along with new colors of Hot Sock sock (merino/nylon) and Tarte sock (merino/nylon/tencel).

I think that this is my first sparkly shawl, and I'm loving it so far. And if you were one of the people who entered last week's contest, you could be the following winner of the two skeins of Estrellita that Babs sent us! Tobey is the random winner of the two skeins with this comment "For me I have made more mittens and fingerless mitts and currently only one scarf.....one pair of socks, and I have a shawl and a another pair of mitts on the list, and of course, more socks....had to take a break because of some arthritis in my thumb, but after some cortisone and rest, slowly back at it......" Check your e-mail if you think you're the winner!

Win some Babs!

Yesterday, I post about the new Miss Babs base we will have in the shop next week. Estrellita is a lovely sparkle sock yarn, and I'm knitting it into a shawl right now. You can follow along on Instagram if you like.

Would you like to win two skeins to knit your own two-color shawl like I am? Awesome! Just answer the following question in the comments below before noon EST on Friday, August 4 and I'll randomly choose one person to win these two skeins.

What have you knit more of so far this year, socks or other accessories (shawls/scarves/mitts, etc)? And if you'd like to link to your fave project to give others inspiration, please do! For me, it's socks all the way. I knit several single socks (so far) and pairs using this, and I did finish this shawl. But the socks far outweigh the other accessories. I do think I'm due for a new pair of mitts though.

Thanks for playing along!