Niqkita's Sock Journal

Simone brought our fall order in the other day…
I have been eagerly testing them out every day since!
I’ve photographed all but two styles (will add those next week) and am editing away tonight/tomorrow til I have them all ready to go. As soon as I do I’ll make them all live, should be by tomorrow afternoon. I already added in the four new argyles.
I went with small amounts of everything for this first order because they are fine Italian made socks and could put a dent in anyone’s sock budget, even mine. After trying nearly all of them I am most excited about the ribbed wool OTKs and will be ordering oodles to keep you all warm in the wee winter months ahead…

notice how the larger size on the left are indeed longer than the smaller size on their right …and the stretch amazed us! unfortunately it was far too warm to really give those a try, but I saw enough to know you are all going to love them!

btw, do any of you know the name and/or origin of the flower symbol on these?

A children’s book we love.

We were thrilled a few months back when Linda Urban and her publishers at Harcourt wanted to buy toe socks from us for the promotion of Urban’s new book A Crooked Kind of Perfect. We ourselves would never claim to be perfect and are certainly little off kilter at times. The thing is…We love that fact! Isn’t that one of the great truths about people and life itself? The publisher’s synopsis tells how Zoe, the main character, comes to realize “that perfection may be even better when it’s just a little off center.” We certainly agree and were absolutely charmed by Linda Urban’s quirky and sweet story.


We don’t sell socks exactly like the ones on the cover, but we do sell lots of other cool stripey toesocks so we sent them a bunch of our toe toe stripeys and they used our link to tell people where to find cute toesocks, even Powell’s Books linked us on their product page for the book! the funny thing is, when we read the book we discovered it is not us mentioned in the book, but Sock It To Me, who doesn’t even sell toesocks online ~I’ve seen them in her booth at Saturday Market though and she is a good friend of ours so we certainly don’t mind sharing the sockie-glory.

By request…
Originally I didn’t think “slouch” socks were dreamy enough to bother with, one of those things you could just as easily pick up cheaply at a department store or sports shop I figured. But people kept asking so I started ordering some. We’ve tried quite a few “slouch socks” over the years since then & though you can slouch a whole lot of socks that are not specifically called “slouch socks” we have two main favorites…

1. the EG Smith Original Bootsock: thick with so little elastic in their tops that they will fall where they may with the greatest of ease.

2. our Cotton Slouch Sock: a little thinner than the EGs and with enough spandex to keep them knee high if you prefer or push them down for alot of little scrunched folds around your calf/ankles.

We’ve had a longer version of the EGs off and on for most of our sock dreaming & fetsihizing years in the Pippy Longstocklings and now we have a longer version of our cotton slouches with a little modification… Before committing to them we requested samples of a longer version of the slouches as they currently are and a shorter version of our original Ribbed M Stockings which are thicker with nicely padded feet.

When the samples arrived we all tried them on and overwhelmingly agreed that for this sock thicker was better. Pulled all the way up on larger legs they are just a knee high, but the ribbing is very solid and looks great! On smaller legs they reach nicely over the knees, either way you can scrunch them down for lots and lots of wrinkles and cuteness for being sporty, sexy or just plain comfy! They seemed to work pretty well on smaller and larger feet alike, but we could be convinced to do a little more modifying in the future…

About the future, there are also two more variations of the pippys up ahead, one that is being made for us and us alone. And, I’m told the long-coveted Japanese version will soon be available to us! I’ll give more info on that as soon as I have some…

We’ve been blessed with beautifully cool mornings here in the pacific northwest. Some mornings & evenings have even been nearly chilly making socks and extra covers ever inviting so we gave a few of our newest men’s socks a test run, or test walk to be more accurate. All three of these have varying amounts of virgin wool, nylon, viscose, cashmere & angora. Virgin wool is wool that has been spun for the first time, as opposed to recycled fibers. Viscose fascinates me because it is what they make rayon and cellophane from and according to Wikipedia Rayon is a very versatile fiber and has the same comfort properties as other natural fibers and can imitate the feel and texture of silk, wool, cotton and linen. The bad thing about rayon is that it isn’t usually machine washable but these are, though gentle handling is recommended. The Giacomo argyles were my favorite to look at…

Since they are “men’s” socks they fit men’s shoe sizes 8-13 so any of you ladies who have trouble with the usual girl sized sock will find a friend in these since that would cover women’s shoe sizes 10-15 with generous ankle/calf room.

These were my sweetie’s favorites…

They were the first pair he picked out when shown the selection and have the loosest tops as you can see they don’t have the the turned welt cuff like the other two, though all will fit muscular calves just fine. Almost itchy before being washed, extra sensitive people beware, they do soften with gentle washings as the fibers fluff up, cotton socks worn under is also a good solution for sensitive feets, I thought they were very comfy for wool socks, I love that about Biella socks!

Sometimes I want to eat dessert before dinner

(maybe I’m a freak, but sweet stuff makes me hungry for a main meal)

Sometimes I like white after labor day

(especially when it FEELS like summer well into November)

Sometimes I wear inappropriate shoes

(I once wore combat boots with a gown to a ball, yes an actual “ball”…

and even though “Muffy” stole my jacket that night, I had a blast)

Sometimes red and green are not just for the holidaze

(despite occasionally rude commentary from confused people when I wear my red/green mstripes year round. hey, remember that old Crazy Eddy commercial guy… “it’s Christmas in July”!!)

Sometimes I put on ankle length leggings or long socks even though it’s hot as an oven outside

(They are my legs and I’ll dress them as I please when I please, thank you… and hey, didn’t those old fashioned bathing beauties actually wear long wool socks or sometimes even tights with their cool bathing suits?)

Today it’s nearly 100 degrees outside and I’m sitting here in the lovely AC, wearing boxer shorts, sipping cinnamon tea, and wearing my brownie brown (that’s what I call them) Cronert Cotton Overknee socks. Am I breaking some sort of summer rule? Am I tempting the fashion police with my seasonal disregard? Who cares! I’m comfy, cozy and cool just the way I am.

The Cronert Cotton Overknee are an excellent light weight OTK in rich deep colors. In my dreams (my sock dreams that is), I have always wanted a pair of basic black OTK in a lighter thin knit, with no shine, soft flat matte or brushed texture, that of course would fit my feet and go well over my knees. I once had a pair (way back when) that was PERFECT and fit my specifications to a “T”. Then for years I could not find any.

When I first sought out our sock Goddess, this dream sock was what I was looking for. She led me to the E.G. Smith Solid Over the Knee Stockings, Though close enough to my dream to become a sock wardrobe staple for me, they still left a little to be desired in size and length. I’m happy to say that these Cronerts (though pricier than the EG Smiths) do come just a bit closer to my dream size wise, and texture wise these have a lovely almost brushed texture, but do have a little shine when pulled taught over a larger calf.

From previous experience with the Cronert spring striped anklets, I had anticipated these to be much friendlier to the larger footed. Though slightly more forgiving than the EG Smith’s, these still come out a bit snug on my toes when the heel is properly lined up (and surprisingly, the larges don’t seem to me to be significantly larger in the feet than the small, but they do seem slightly longer in length). And although they do make it over my knee, it is not by much, yet still a smidgeon more than the EG’s. If I had to choose between the two, I think I would choose the Cronerts for size and the Smiths for price. But luckily, here at SD I can have a pair (or three) of each :O)

The Cronert Cotton Overknees stay up mostly well, though they are prone to do that rolly thingy. If you have enough length you can try folding over a cuff on top as that seems to help them not roll, but if (like me) you don’t have enough over the knee length to do that, I recommend a garter to keep them perfectly where you want em.

All in all, I’d recommend these to anyone who’s listening… I’m pretty smitten with these.. and although I am truly enjoying them now in this nasty summer weather, I think I may just end up loving them even more in the cooler fall and winter weather.

…and this is just the beginning!
Click the image to see a large version with much better details.
Now that we have more space I can finally start adding new stuff again, this is actually the tail end of what arrived right before it became painfully evident that there wasn’t space for one single more style in the anklets room, nor in the men’s section. These are some of the nicest socks ever with lots of really great stuff coming in the next couple of months. I’ve already got nearly half of those shot and hope to get lots more done in the coming days with the help of my fellow sock dreamers in between pulling orders and phone calls and emails and everything else it takes to keep the socks flowing out the doors and to their new homes in a timely manner.
It was pointed out by a repeat customer this week that we now have so many styles that it is getting ever harder to sift through them all. She suggested adding a way to narrow the search by price ranges and not only is that an excellent idea, it is just one of many new features being discussed & developed here this summer. We’ll be adding new features & functionality as well as new socks pretty much every week from now til November, if we don’t have it all done by then we’ll just keep on going til we are.

Here’s a sneak peek at my personal favorite from this batch…

these might just be the comfiest socks ever!!!
I’ll have them ready to go by Monday…

this is just a quick note because it seems not all the emails we’ve sent since we moved have been received. If you have written us since July 23rd and have not heard back we are sooo sorry, we have indeed been writing back to everyone within a couple of days and the issue should be resolved today. I promise that we are not ignoring anyone and are all caught up with sending out orders.
If you are awaiting an overdue response from us please write again and be sure to include your order number, the actual name you used to place the order, date ordered and a phone number so we can call you if we need to. Additionally you can call us, but we are a little short handed this weekend and everyone is rushing around filling orders and responding to emails (we get a ton every day you know). Don’t worry, we are training people to help us keep up with the ever increasing demand for our lovely socks and that in itself slows us down, but it is for a good cause, your socks, nothing is more important to us than making everyone’s toes happy!
Thanks again for your patience!!!