Niqkita's Sock Journal

Since we moved the business out of our home in late summer of 2005 I haven’t quite picked a spot for my sock table. This is my latest, next to a big bright window, covered with stuff I get to play with this week. Typical of me I thought I’d do it this weekend, but instead found myself drawn to the missing colors of current styles and have added nearly 20 missing images or new colors since yesterday.
…they are scattered about throughout the site.
The fun thing about never quite catching up is
always having much to look forward to
and having a full life to enjoy.
Happy New Year!!!

As things go, our plans to add gift cards in time for the holidays did not go off without a hitch and one of them was that we were not able to get the official plastic version in time so we improvised by having the graphics printed on nice card stock. Anybody who ordered before noon yesterday got this version, it was nice, but not exactly what we had in mind. Now the “real” ones are here! Gorgeous little credit card sized plastic cards with official card carriers as seen above. One last minute decision was not to have the amount printed on the card itself as we had with the cardstock version, it was going to be an extra step in the printing and without the amount on there we now have more flexibility, we cannot possibly run out of any denomination and will add an option with our next update that will allow you more choices for the gift amount than the current $10, $25, $50 & $100.
And, about that update, we have one major step before we can do it, we are switching to a new host this weekend that will allow more features to be coded into the site. Once the move is complete and all is working as expected we will begin the planning of the next update, at this time we do not have a time frame scheduled, but it should be before spring and will include several more things we have been talking about including many things suggested by you and the many other sock lovers who have written and called us. One idea that has been mentioned that we will not be doing is adding the journal to the front page, it’s a nice idea in theory, but isn’t something I want, at least not now or anytime soon. Customer log ins, tracking notices, back in stock notifications, maybe even back ordering options are on the list though, along with several other enhancements.
We’re a little short handed this week due to losing an employee right in the middle of December, vacation time for some this week and an illness or two. So we might be behind in replying and can’t always catch the phone while it is ringing, but we are getting all orders pulled and sent and do not need to hire anyone else just yet.
This weekend I plan to get some more new items added so stay tuned…

Cold weather means long yummy socks! I recently dug out my old favorites and found a stash of Ribbed M Stockings . One of the things I love about these is the ribbing creates a visual line up the leg & I love vertical stripes! These grey ones were so well loved that they got bleach stains on them from house cleaning. Getting these on can be a bit of a workout, but I’ve been wearing them for days and haven’t had to adjust them once. I even slept in them which I can’t usually do because socks itch me when I sleep, but these were dreamy and actually gave me a better nights sleep for having warm and comfortable legs. YAY for cotton socks! The feet were big on my little 6.5 feets, but a couple of runs through the dryer and they fit great now. There’s 19 colours to choose from and $10 a pair.

Cold weather also means leg warmer heaven and here I be sporting the Judi Rib Cuff Leg Warmers in grey. I love these B.ella warmers because they’re made out of super warm fibers: 68% Virgin wool, 26% viscose, 20% nylon, 9% cashmere, and 6% angora. They’re really soft and hug my ankles without being constricting. They add a nice layer of warmth which helps my ankles. There’s 5 colours to choose from and they’re $20 each. & in case you’re wondering as I did:

viscose rayon :
n. A rayon made by reconverting cellulose from a soluble xanthate form (a salt or ester of xanthic acid) to tough fibers by washing in acid.

{From Dictionary.com}

Never let it be said that grey is boring. I love it as a pick me up from my basic blacks. lol. It also co-ordinates well with almost every colour.

Today was the final day to send orders priority mail and have them arrive in time for the 25th.We all worked overtime today in an effort to get each and every order out the door. I checked and had Bsti double check that every order that came in by noon today was accounted for and if at all possible sent off. With the exception of International orders every order is now in the hands of the US postal service who are currently inundated with last minute packages, each of them *the most important package* to someone somewhere. And sadly, some of those are sure to be late, misdelivered or lost in transit. I’ll keep my toes crossed that those will be few.
Any orders that processed after noon pacific time today will go out with tomorrows batch and anything that isn’t going via 2 day Express will most likely to get to you next week. Unless of course you ordered from a country outside the US, then it could still take a couple more weeks due to customs, regardless of which shipping method you choose, at least that has been our experience.
Soon it will be New Years and I can focus on a whole new batch of priorities. To help brighten Winter we’ll continue to add new socks nearly every day, sometimes several a day, shipping will still be free for orders placed online, and we’ll keep adding to the site features and customer service options.

P.S. Happy Blessed Merry Solstice!!!

Not only are the Eye Candy OTKs from Ozone the most awesome of eccentric patterns to date, but they were so unbelievably comfortable, too! In typical Ozone-goodness, they were soft and made it well over my knees, and even fit my feet! The stretch was lovely and the tops had the same amount of stretch as the rest of the sock, which allowed them to make less of a dent. They stayed up beautifully over my thermals; I haven’t yet tried them on their own for stay-up power. In black with wonderfully bright eyes all over, the Eye Candys made a bold accessory to a plain outfit and were tons of fun.

What are YOU lookin’ at???

O Woolies, how you’ve been longed for
yearned for, asked about, they’ve even begged for you and now
now the new O Woolies are finally ready to go home to warm the chilly legs of the world. One by one, toes will feel warmer, ankles will relax, calves will be calm and knees will be happy. Are they soft? yes. Do they itch? they didn’t itch us and Alicia and I have been testing these babies like crazy the past weeks during chilly weather and hard work. Are they warm? oh yeah, I really miss them if I take them off and can stand out side comfortably in shorts or a skirt. They are nice and stretchy and should fit well from slender to Rubenesque. They don’t stay up perfectly preferring to slouch down, we thought they looked nice that way and I made sure it shows in the pictures lest anyone think they should fit snuggley and stay up for a marathon, they won’t. They did stay up perfectly under tall boots though and would stay up well over tights if you want to layer up for a super chilly day or night. About the colors, they were the only choices we had and alot more choices than previous years, but just like before, we will run out of these, they are a limited run, maybe a few months worth at best so don’t wait too long or you might miss out. And finally, no Michelle, we won’t hate you if you order *again* this week ~;)

In between keeping up with socks heading out in every direction in time for every big event from Solstice to New Years I continue to dig through new boxes of socks. Deciding which to add first, which can wait and finding some that must get up immediately. You see, when I placed our fall orders last spring I was overly optimistic about how much I was capable of adding during the ever busy days of fall. Now that I finally have nearly enough help I am really enjoying finding little treasures I’d forgotten we needed and testing some of our warmest, yummiest socks yet! Earlier today I wore the highly anticipated new O Woolies, they are almost ready to add, when just really depends on how this week goes, this is not a week to make any promises except that we are doing all we can to get orders out in time to arrive when expected. The little fuzzy bits of uber goodness I’m wearing now are my fav new bed time socks, extra cozy with my pretty little Woolrich slippers. They’ll be added in the next day for sure, it was either add them tonight or write you a quick note. You’ll see these on the new arrivals page before you hear from me again. And so you know, they are fromm Biella and are just like the Niegos except a tad shorter with top stripes, Mmmmm!!! Monday morning Update: The B.ella Bev is up and ready to go!!! I can’t say enough about how much I love these, uber comfy, I’ll definitely order these again!

We have the lovely Ozone Angora Jambieres back in beige this year! For those of you unfamiliar with them, they’re a lovely soft angora blend ribbed OTK that stay up at least to your knees and do wonderfully with sock garters. I like to sleep in mine, too, as the natural fibers make them quite wonderfully breatheable and oh-so-soft for snoozing. You may get a tad bit itchy from these at first; a washing will do them good and you’ll likely quickly get used to the feel of the fibers. You should wash these in the gentle cycle (or by hand if you’d rather) and can then hang dry them or lie them flat to dry (I usually hang mine over the shower rod).
I slept in my Jambieres last night and stayed quite cozy, but I also like to dress them up and go out sometimes…

As you can see, I used a pair of black Pompom Sock Garters to keep them up and offset the outfit (their fuzziness works well with the fuzzy angora). The black pompom garters are nicely stocked right now, and the white will be back in stock shortly. I prefer to usually wear mine just over the knees, especially if I’m in boots, and I like to scrunch my socks down to cover the elastic so that just the pompoms show, like so:

However you wear your socks, or your sock garters, here’s hoping that your holiday shopping gets done and your toes stay toasty!

The Orkney Angora Over the Knee Socks are one of my all time favorite cold weather long socks. They come up about mid thigh on my 30″ inseam and keep my feet and legs deliciously warm and snugly soft. The angora may itch a more sensitive leg, but you can comfortably and easily wear these over tights or leggings as I did above. They’re so fantastic that you want to wear them showing so all the world can pet your socks and oooh and ahh over them. ;) They don’t stay up on their own and do require sock garters, and for me that adds to the specialness of these.

I paired the angoras with the Cable Knit Leg warmers in burgundy up top and ivory here. These are one of my favorite leg warmers mainly because of the ruffled edge and rich mixing of fibers which gives it a hairy looking appearance. I just love the soft fuzzy stuff! I sometimes wear the ruffled edge down to accent a shoe/boot, or upside down so it accents the knee. I think that’s a cute look. These aren’t all thick and bulky as some warmers, and they’re not super tight either. At $12 you have 5 fabulous colours to choose from.