Niqkita's Sock Journal

I’ve been eyeing these gloves for some time…
so I gave Bruce the go ahead on ordering them recently
…along with a few other new yummy items from Leg Avenue.
For stuff we haven’t seen in person we’ve taken to starting with a small order to test and that’s what we did, so for now we only have a few pairs to sell, but I liked them enough to go ahead and put them up before the reorder arrives (should be within a week). I’m not going to wait til then to tell you about them though because I’m sure to be excited over something else by then (like my new purple office!!!).
We passed a list of potential new items around to see how everyone at Sock Dreams felt about them and the sheer pin striped thigh highs above got mixed results, I thought they at least deserved a chance and I’m glad I did. Up close you can see the edges of the black threads through the sheer white part, but at a slight distance it’s not so bad. I think they look pretty spiffy! …and they were really soft and stayed up perfectly without any help. Of course, the down side to nylon thigh highs that stay up perfectly without help can be a little denting/bulging in the thighs and they do indeed do that, not too badly though. I adjusted them a bit and kept the bottom of my dress over the tops of the stockings and voila, no visible dent or bulge to be seen.
They come in two sizes & the stripes run nearly all the way to the toes…

and the best part?
these aren’t even the cutest items of this batch!
(((more to come…)))

We got one single sample sock of this style not too long ago. We passed it around, each of us trying that one sock on and cooing over how comfy & lovely it was, we knew it was a yes and naming it was easy. We asked for two sizes and sent off our first order. The larger footed version arrived first and, wow, what large feet you have my little lovelies! so big they were that our largest feet at a size 12 found them baggy! then the smaller version arrived and our size 12 could fit into them with ease, the problem was that the rest of us found them to be too large, especially on smaller feet. Here’s how they look on my size 8.5/9 feet, not bad, but not at all snug…

This is a pebble, before washing, I will be washing them tonight on high heat settings because I’ve been told this shrinks the feet down without changing the tops too much so I’ll be reporting back on this later. For now, we asked for a yet smaller size so that those with size 6ish feet can enjoy them too because we think these are wonderful and will be adding more images soon. They work well both over and under the knees, they look nice cuffed and are really cute scrunched, they have that great ripple effect like those hard to find (and harder to afford) Prada socks we were asked about so much last year. The O Lovelies are a light weave so are perfect for the warm months ahead, you can cover more or less of your legs as you like and not be overheated…
Yet another great addition for us sockaholics and addicts!

Here I am having a late morning at home after working twelve hour days for Pride this weekend. I always watch the local news in the morning just in case there is something I should know before I leave the house. When it was over I was about to turn off the tv so I could go out and walk the dogs, but since my ever amazing assistant Kori insisted I not hurry in I decided to see who was on The View first. When I saw that Margaret Cho was the guest host I had to watch, I love Margaret! she’s ordered from us a few times in the past including once a few weeks ago. I put that order together myself and included a pair I remembered being her fav from previous orders. So Barbara Walters introduces her and insists she get up and show off her stockings, I gasped, Lola worried and offered a blast of kisses, OMG! yes, those are a pair I pulled for that order, and there she is wearing them and being admired by the world!!! I quickly checked her website and was happy to find her blog complete with the above picture of her wearing them during her True Colors tour. Quick, someone pinch me, I think I’m dreaming! Thank you Margaret!!!

The crowd was beautiful and the feedback fantastic, at the end of the day our cheeks hurt from smiling so much and not because we had to but because we were just having so much fun being there and talking to everyone. To me, supporting pride is not so much about supporting this preference or that, but supporting the right to be who you are and dress the way you like; and being surrounded by unique individuals is just about the best place I can think of being, besides being safe at home that is ~;)

Here’s a small sampling of our little booth…


I caught Liz having a good giggle here with Janey.

I wore my extra special socks that I will be sharing with all of you this fall…

paired up with some of Shelleopard’s ever adorable pompom garters
(which we now need to restock)
Late in the afternoon we noticed an invasion of pirates, as if their ship had just come in (we were at Waterfront park so it did seem possible). We were told they were having a Pirate’s Booty outing, I think that’s what they said, it sounded like an awful lot of fun and many of them had stripes on their legs. The best we saw were these two, who, it turned out, are repeat customers of ours, not to mention terrific dancers!

Karissa is wearing vertical stripes and Joshua is wearing rugby stripes.

Sunday will be far busier due to the parade, but we’ll still be happy to see each and every one of you who comes down to support the right to an independent thinker!

Because we’re a quirky bunch of open minded individuals here at Sock Dreams I decided to sponsor Pride this year. I thought, what better way to promote us to the community during the slow months of summer? I was thinking a banner, an ad, a mention and a really good feeling of contribution for me and Sock Dreams, but wait, there’s more! a booth at the NW Pride festival was included in the package, well, usually the mention of a booth makes us shudder, we’re kind of spoiled working out of our comfy little building safely tucked away from the masses here in the Moreland/Sellwood area, but not this time, no, we’re very excited to be out and meeting everyone this weekend. So if you happen to be in the Portland area and are coming down to Waterfront park to celebrate pride this year be sure to swing by and say hi and get yourself a pair of socks while you’re at it. Better yet, buy some socks for everyone your proud of! We’ll also have some stockings, leggings, garters, petticoats and two exclusive sock garters that we’re not selling on the site yet (Shelleopard made us some nifty little slave garters complete with D Rings and I have some lovely little green flowers on black elastic with the prettiest purple thread you ever did see). Of course we’re going to have just about every rainbowed style we carry with us too!

Once upon a time we only sold socks
…no leg warmers, gloves, petticoats and certainly no tights!
I never liked tights myself, but one nice customer after another requested them so I brought some in, then some more and what do you know? they sell pretty well, I’ve even learned to like them. So when I was shown these new Biella luxury tights at a show last winter I was in love! Gorgeous Italian made crochet tights, in purple!?! yes please! they also had fishnets and backseams and pinstriping, and the price, though not low, is not bad for such nice styles. So I ordered in bunches and last week I had the pleasure of trying them all. The Lilianas were my favorite, soft and so so comfy, the waistband is nicely finished, not bare elastic. The only problem I had with them was getting those lines to run down my legs correctly, other than that, true love!


The Gisellas are similar, but with a floral pattern, back seams and not quite as soft though still quite comfy, the red is a gorgeous scarlet, just perfect if you want a great red! that’s them in the red & black image for last post. Other little differences between them and the Lili’s: the floral pattern runs down to the toe seam, the Lili’s have a fine mesh at the toes and the Gisellas have an uncovered elastic waist band.
The pin striped Christianas are thick, opaque and seemed quite durable to me. The Marcella backseamed fishnets are fine gauge, fine enough that they hold your toes in without any issues and are also durable, I’m sure someone is going to tear them or get a hole in them, but not from normal wear & activity.
All four are summer stunners!

We’ve added some really great new items this weekend!
I’m going to find more time to write about them here later but wanted to get a fresh picture up and get your attention on the new goodies, because they are extra good!
Be sure to check out the O Lovelies while you’re at it…
we have more sizes and pictures coming for those!!!

The lease is singed!!!
This is not what it really looks like, it’s not green, not yet, and when it is it probably won’t be this shade, but hey, I liked it so this is my photoshopped version of what it might look like. It’s on the northeast side of the Ross Island Bridge right in the center of Portland, complete with a parking lot! It’s nearly 10,000 square feet so we are going to be able to spread out and organize like never before. Coming from a space less than a third of that you can only imagine how excited we all are to move in and not be bumping into each other and the socks every time we turn around.
We’ll be moving in July. Once we have everything set up we’ll start getting our shop ready, it will be small with very limited hours and only a fraction of our stock available to the public, but we will also be offering items that don’t make it onto the site as well as test runs for ideas and future products. Pickup for web orders will also be an option. That billboard at the top, it won’t really have our name on it. We’ve been told it is the most expensive billboard in the Portland Metro area due to the high traffic volume on Powell Blvd, it usually has a bank or OMSI or the Oregon Zoo or a radio station advertised on it. I think a neon sign would be beautiful on this building, but we haven’t looked very far into that option or the numerous others we get to start working on as soon as all of this is finalized, but we are now so close I couldn’t possibly wait another moment before telling you. More news to come…

We are doing not one, but two outside events this month and this is the first…

FatGirl Speaks will be happening Saturday, June 9, 2007
at PSU’s Smith Memorial Student Union Ballroom in downtown Portland, Oregon
And Sock Dreams will be there with a table full of our best socks for the larger legged among you. They sought us out for the event and since we are always doing our best to answer questions about which socks for which legs we all thought this to be a great place to be for an evening.
Here’s a little more from their site:

This year’s theme is “Every Day is a Revolution!” To us, this means that all day, every day, each act of self-love and acceptance is a revolutionary act. Every time you defy a stereotype, or every time you willfully dare *not* to, you are being revolutionary! We want to celebrate you!