Niqkita's Sock Journal

and other tidbits about us you may or may not have wondered…

If you live in Portland, or have ever driven though, chances are good that you’ve crossed the Ross Island Bridge and/or have seen the huge billboard at the northeast end of it. Below that sits our building in beautiful, funky, southeast Portland. It is a lovely rounded building that is boring old beige. I dream of painting it green, a gorgeous bold green that will stand out and inspire happiness in all who see it, especially the poor commuters who drive-by by the thousands every day (the count we were told is 50,000 per day!). But the owners of the building have concerns and think our shade is too bright, we hoped for a compromise and were given a list of local building that were acceptable shades of green. Every one of them no more exciting than army green or pea soup. They say that despite our area being progressive with lots of lovely bright and beautiful shades of green (and blue and terra cotta, ect) that our spot is actually considered the “gateway to southwest Portland” which, apparently, is not as progressive and/or open-minded to new ideas and colors.

Now that the rainy season is about we’re going to wait til spring to bring up the issue again, hopefully a little time will help open their hearts to the shade we desire.

Having an actual store to shop in has been set back to spring due to permits and time (see our FAQs for more info). But we will continue letting people come by to pick up orders at our front door.

Sock Garters are being worked on right now…
Shelleopard has been sending them to us by the dozens, including a nifty new one that I’d hoped to have up in time for Halloween shopping but didn’t get my pictures ready for in time, they are gorgeous and are now ready to go..
We finally got more of the special elastic to make our pretty buttoned garters and will have the first batch ready Monday morning.

Black Fingerless Gloves…
everyone loves them, everyone wants some
we order them by the hundreds
but sometimes things don’t happen as fast as they should.
Our latest batch is finally in!!!

The Halloween rush is slowing down and we’ll have a little lull before the holiday sales kick in again so I’ll be busily getting lots more sock garters ready in between adding more new items, I got a little behind on that the past two weeks and am happy to have time to get back to it…

This weekend I’ve been getting new colors of current styles done including the garnet cashmere knee highs, new Gingers, new Giadas and new brown arm warmers.

The new web site with all its fancy new features to bring us up to speed with customer log-ins, full tracking, wishlists, back in stock notifications, ect…
we’re working on it and much as I wanted it done by now, some things are worth waiting for and it is never a good idea to make a major change after September. So we’ll be inviting some of you to help us test it, hopefully, in December. The launch will be around New Years. But Gift Cards by email will be ready much sooner!
I’m sure that didn’t cover some of your wonderings so ask and I shall answer…

They just upgraded their site.
It looks very nice
but for several hours we weren’t able to process international payments due to the country variable not working.
I wrote and called our dear developer Dan in a panic and he jumped right on it looking for a fix only to discover it started working again on its own (it turned out to be a Paypal issue all along). So we are once again fully functioning and doing our best to keep up with those last-minute Halloween demands…
Happy Friday!!!
I’ll do a nice little post complete with pictures later.
Love and happy toes to all!

Remember when you were little and you wanted to wear that tiara to the grocery store… or the football helmet to your Aunt Celia’s wedding? Remember how that one favorite thing to wear could change the mood of every adventure you had? These favorite things seemed to take on magical powers, and we got to be someone special each time we wore them.

Armwarmers and gloves are like that for me… The moment I put them on I feel special. I end up pointing much more than necesssary (which way did you want to go, this way? that way?… oh it’s over there… etc.) I tend to make grand sweeping gestures with my hands just to catch a glimpse of how these fun accesories accent what I feel is the second most expressive part of us all (our face being the first). My large hands feel prettier, more delicate… and don’t even get me started on the funky factor of anything that gets to hang out over your wrists with folds of fabric.

They are also most excellent for “squishing tall buildings”

These are perfect for holding the hand of someone you love

Now when you take something this cute and make it in plaid, it just can’t get any better than that.

I LOVE PLAID!

The Plaid arm warmers fit my larger hands just fine, they come mid way up my forearm all the way stretched out (but I like em scrunched up at the wrist). These are the sort of thing that look even better the more you wear em.

Sure these have a function… they can certainly help to keep you warmer on brisk days…

but for me, these are just pure magic fun! (I’m even wearing them while I’m typing this up… they ummm, really help with my typing… yeah, that’s it… wearing them helps with my typing) ;o)

Naomi was, as usual, late for her own party…
Kimi had been waiting for what felt like days, weeks even, for her best friend to be ready. For the umpteenth time she was changing skirts and threw another shoe across the room. “Maybe I should just wear pants!” Naomi announced in frustration as Kimi stared out the window of the warehouse replying “why don’t you just put on some tights so we can get going? you’ll be able to stay up longer anyway if you do…” “I’m perfectly capable of staying up on my own you know” Naomi replied smartly as she slipped on some cowboy boots and marched towards the door continuing, “just because I don’t have those cool stay ups in my top like you do doesn’t mean I’m going to come tumbling down anytime soon, besides, I’m marled!”

We’re always dreaming of new socks and trying new socks
and taking pictures of new socks…

I usually try to avoid novelty socks
but these were too cute to pass up this time…
Bats and cats and spiders, oh my!

So we passed them around and had a little fun between pulling & packaging orders yesterday afternoon…

They fit small feet and bigger feet too,
girls and boys alike liked them and layered them…

We even made a little section with some of the best socks for the occasion all lined up and ready to peruse and Olivia made a banner for our front page to feature Halloween styles. We’ll be packaging up green and white stripes and rainbows and everything scary like crazy this month so that you can be your frightful best!

Yes, our 1000th item has been added!
now, not all of the 1000 being counted are still active, but many are.
In fact, because I added these a few weeks ago (just didn’t have pictures ready) and have added quite a few since we are actually up over 1034 right now.
And that does not account for size and color options…
which brings our choices for you to well over 1000!!!
At $11.00 these little cammies are a pretty cool deal. They come in four choices that stay up for just about anything. But true to most woven patterned socks, these are going to be snug, even on thin legs, bearable for me, but large legs beware! We’ve got a few other new Super Kawaii choices too. And more B.ellas coming, with new Hot Sox and MPs not too far behind!!!

You might’ve noticed that we’ve added a bunch of new socks from Sock It To Me in the past week, including the new SITM men’s socks. We now have nearly everything she offers except some of the patterns which we’re sure to bring in this winter to help brighten those long dreary days we’ll be having. Everyone who was here on picture day last week was more than happy to get a new pair to try (and for many, including the Great Amanda above, it was not their first pair). So how do we really feel about Sock It To Me? Here’s some of the buzz around Sock Dreams about them:
“Some of the cutest/funkiest socks around”
“One of the consistently most satisfying socks”
“The super heroes fit perfect, but the Maroon tri-stripe are kinda snug”
“Super fun and super cute”
“Really stretchy, comfy on little feet and they stay up forever”
“One of my favorites”
“Vivid, perfect knee highs that don’t shrink down to half size in the dryer”