Niqkita's Sock Journal

 

shhhh … I mean it!!

Keep it down now …. cause once it gets out that THESE ARE SOOO fANTASTIC  everybody and their mother is going to buy multiple pairs and deplete the stock before I get more. Envision an old movie department store scene where people are grabbing anything, and mutiple tug’s of war breakout…  ”mine, mine, mine” “I had it first” “let go of my sock” “Unhand that thigh high you cad“  :O)

YAY! Autumn is almost here which means cooler weather and being able to wear long socks again. When I first saw the O Lovelies I thought they were so cute, and knew I had to get them! Alot of the pics showed them scrunched, and I always wear my otks up, so I had some doubts about their stay up power. Everyone said they stay up fine, so I bought them, and am thrilled about how these actually DO stay up really great. I’ve been wearing mine for almost 3 days and they’ve made it through grocery shopping, much socializing and even playing with my mom’s dog Sadie. They stayed up the whole time. After a few days of wearing the knee is starting to get a little stretched out, but most socks do that after alot of wearing and kneeling.

Here’s Sadie a little wet from jumping in the pond to chase the ducks. The O Lovelies are a wonderful otk sock for this time of year because they’re a lighter weight sock. I want to call them delicate, but they’ve proven to be quite rugged with all the wear I’ve given them. I got the small size in grey which fits my size 6.5s most excellently. No need to shrink these in the dryer.

Another reason I love these is because the cuff stays put! There’s no annoying doughnut rolling going on. They’re also a full 4inches above my knee. So I really love these and hope to get all the fabulous colours.

Sadie can’t take her eyes off the lovely O Lovelies! teehee.

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?

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.

(To the tune of “Wouldn’t it be lovely” from the musical ‘My Fair Lady’.)

All I want is a sock to wear,
Feet that fit with some room to spare.
In lengths that go up to “there”,

Ohhhh, wouldn’t it be Lovelies?

Lots of colors would be a treat,
Lots of sizes for lots of feet.
Comfy even in summer’s heat,

Ohhhh, wouldn’t it be Lovelies!

(tee hee)

That beautiful girl is Kaytee (my Nephew’s girlfriend who I’ve now adopted as my second niece). She came over to visit me the night I was doing an O Lovelies sock review and I was lucky to have her pose for me.

The O Lovelies fit her gorgeous legs perfectly and went well over her knees, the feet however on Kaytee were pretty loose (as where my pink shoes… She wears a size 7). She is also wearing one SD sock garter, the O Lovelies do seem to stay up decently… but as always, if they absolutely, positively must stay in place, best to grab a sock garter to be sure!

THE FEET!! These feet make me sooo HAPPY! I think they fit my size 11’s brilliantly! Prior to washing they seemed to have a tiny bit more room and I loved them like that too (and now, I know these aren’t supposed to shrink, but I swear they seem to now fit my feet perfectly after thier first bath).

I know that my Sock wishes in the future will be that O Lovelies will come in Lots of fun colors. But mostly right now I wish for a few more inches in length on the larger footed ones. On my larger and longer legs, these just barely make it past my knees (and that’s pulling on them). The difference in knit on the top band actually starts mid knee.

I’m touch obsessed with the texture of these. My memory of the sample sock was that they had felt more cottony. But my pretty pair of blush pink feels soft with an almost spongelike fluff. I can’t stop touching them! I think it may just be that sponge quality that allows them to breathe so well and be hot weather friendly. They are light and cool and look-wise Ideal for that school girl look. Oh and have I mentioned how perfectly sweet they look scrunched down around the ankles? Well, they’re adorable like that too!

And don’t even get me started on how pretty the textured vertical rib like pattern is… almost like a lacy crochet and soft like a baby’s blanket.

These really are Dreamy.

Raubynn has sort of been an unofficial sock girl and one of my dearest friends for at least a couple of years now. She, like so many of you, often has trouble getting socks to properly fit her above average feet & stems so a pair of the robin’s egg blue O Lovelies in the large size was a must try for her. And just like us she found the large size too large for her shoe size 10 toes, and just like us she loved them anyway. When she showed me her pictures I asked if I could share her results with all of you because her shoes are so darned pretty! We have the small size on its way to us now too…

I have to say I loved these on line from the first moment
…but then when I got them in my hands I wasn’t too sure
…and the foot was actually very large….
I just wasn’t sure…
although the look is what was in my memory from long ago
…after boiling them to shrink the feet (heehee) and actually wearing them around –
I really fell in love with them
…and they are so good with maryjanes- were not too thick at all…
loved the look and I loves the little – not too much – slouchiness of them….
very old fashioned I think….
very Brooke Shields “Pretty Baby”…

the color is so soft on these…very beautiful…and i adore the ribbing.
and both sides stayed thru all my wearing them the way i had arranged them…
one side cuffed with a bit of scrunch…the other up over my knee. A+

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!

When the first batch of solid colored Cronert OTKs were a hit I decided to order every other color I could. It had to be a large order as they are not readily available in this country at this time of the year. It arrived from Germany last week and Simone promptly brought them over for us just as we were down to our last few black pairs
~now that’s what I call perfect timing!


There were minor glitches with the order, no ecru til next time and the light orange are only in small (I’ve seen the small stretch to fit large feet though so if you really like the shade you might want to try them anyway). I’d love to see a better range of colors; four of these are quite similar but I’m sure there will be more in the future.

from top down: Wine, Violet, Aubergine & Pink
The wine & violet were our big favorites of these, both are gorgeous. The violet is very dark, not the least bit bright, like a black plum in the heat of summer. The wine seemed extra soft to me and are my personal pick of the batch…

We’ve had a ton of positive feedback about the fit and quality of these. If you can fit them in to your budget they will be a wise investment worthy of your finest shoes…

I’m not a dot lover. But it can’t always be about me and what I like can it?
So when Simone showed me these

my heart thumped for those of you who do love the dots.
Much to my surprise, when they arrived I actually liked them. Now for the bad part…


When stretched beyond 16.5 inches around the dots distort noticeably revealing what appear to be holes and loose threads. This is a pretty common thing for socks with patterns (the fuzzier the yarn the less noticeable this & many other sock flaws are).
I was able to rearrange the dots by running my hands over them a bit to make them rounder, it lessened the gap between the red & black. As long as you turn these inside out and wash them gently the threads should not unravel. This is all less noticeable on the black with white dots. The top few inches do not have spots and can be left up or folded down, they’ll stay up pretty well either way. They’ll be just over the knees on longer/larger legs and nearly thigh high on shorter thinner legs. The feet, like most Cronert feet, fit great. If you’re an 8.5/9 I’d go for the smaller size; 9.5 and up go for the larger sized.
The truth is that I love these!!!

I adore fishnets but am kinda picky about the amount of cling factor. For years I’d only purchased fishnets from dance wear manufacturers (I like the resilient materials they use and the super elasticity of them). The problem I find with some “regular” maker nets is that there just isn’t enough return stretch and there end up being spaces where the nets don’t cling (like behind the ankles and knees). I am pleased to say that the Stay up Fishnets with Woven Satin Ribbons have just enough cling to hug every curve and stay there, and yet not so much of a tight grip that your legs look like a ham when you take them off (thanks to Babylon for that comparison… it was you right?). Though I must mention that the stay up top band is quite snug (but not painful) on larger leggies, and there may be a little thigh denty thingy. They stayed up great, and only had a small amount of top roll down every once in a while.

The shiny wide satin ribbon threads through pretty circle cut outs near the top of the stocking… and the ribbons are long enough to decadently trail down your leg in a loose bow.

I love these on bare legs, and adored them with my Dark Red & Fuchsia Mstripes as well. The look that ended up being my fav was with the Mstripes and Nets sort of lazily bunched over the knee, ribbon hanging down a bit too loose and sloppy …  though really pretty in a “I’m a mess but still cute as heck” sort of way, and I just looooove things that can do that.