Niqkita's Sock Journal

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!

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!

In the picture they were the prettiest pink & appeared to stay up without the help of a garter belt. When they arrived they were a stronger shade of pink, closer to salmon than baby, baby salmon perhaps? I signed them off to Janey to shoot on one of her models and they reported back that they don’t stay up for anything & start snagging the moment you touch them. So I decided to give them a try myself…

Out of the package they didn’t have the cheap feel I expected from such easily snagged stockings. I pulled them up with ease, so far so good, but the back seam wasn’t quite straight so I eased them back down below the knees and carefully pulled them back up paying special attention to the seam alignment. Perfect, but wait, where’d that snag come from? I didn’t even feel a slight tug on my nails, and that tiny hole, that wasn’t there a minute ago. Next I noticed that the heels were on my ankles, a quick adjustment fixed that, but they really weren’t going to stay up for any amount of walking without something holding them up so I added a pair of the panty garters, minimal support with those and it was plenty, plus, they looked perfect together!

Now that I’ve got them figured out I love them! they have plenty of stretch for the longer legged among us and with minor adjusting you should be able to make the cuban foot-bed work for a women’s size 8 up to a 12 (men’s 10), give or take a bit depending on how picky you are. I highly recommend using a wash bag and some special hosiery wash plus a pair of gloves that cover your fingers to help prevent snags from cuticles and nails. Though my pair didn’t suffer any additional damage after the initial incidents.

We might just run out of these this week, but will be ordering more immediately!

Just this afternoon boxes arrived full of our newest colors of these!!!
They are as soft, beautiful and stretchy as the tan & charcoal; in black, natural & red.
Liz brought in an armload to fold & tag while we all cooed over their glory. She also made an updated label for the new colors and will soon supply us with pretty pictures of them. Til then you’ll just have to trust us on the colors, they are the exact black, red & natural as the rest of our cotton Dream Stockings ~:)

We also [finally] got another batch of Toe Toe socks, the absolute best toe socks ever! They cost a little more and were a lot harder to get than we expected, but I think they were worth the wait and, hopefully, we’ll be able to stay better stocked on these in the future. I should get the images updated for them in the next week AND there is an OTK this time. Just one, pink clouds, two pinks and a lilac striped all pretty-like. There will be really funky furry warmers too.

And finally (for now), new Leg Avenue stuff. Janey already took pictures, I just need to sit and focus long enough to review them, should be any moment now. I just couldn’t go another minute without updating the journal ~:)

There has been a huge increase in the variety of stripes available this year. We’re going to need a bigger warehouse just to make room for them all. I keep finding creative ways to come up with more space in the rooms we have now (I’ll have to get a good image tour for you before we start getting ready for the big move). These are the first of three new Ozone stripes for men. Nevermind that Ozone says they are made for men, I loved them and they fit me quite well. The colors are so pretty! way too many of them to list on each and every pair, but they go together perfectly. They were at the tops of my calves, nearly knee high. They also fit my sweetie’s feet quite well but were truly midcalf on him. He says they are lighter weight than the K. Bell men’s socks, but that the toe seam running across the tops of the toes is far comfier than the toe seams that run along the ends toes. A very nice spring or summer sock indeed! More stripes and “men’s” socks to come…

Like all things in life our slouch socks do not meet everyone’s expectations. But for the many of us who love them they are a kaleidescope of socky delight. With the warm weather coming to many regions people have been stocking up on these and we’ve seen quite a few orders like this one. Liz pulled this order and couldn’t resist lining them up in this dreamy rainbow, I couldn’t resist snapping a couple of quick shots to share. We fold & tag these ourselves right here in our little niche of the world and Liz & Janey, being our newest worker-bee-sock-dreamers, do the most folding & tagging. The real value of our Dream socks, to me, is that they are made & packaged here in the states by healthy happy American citizens who are earning fare wages and working in a safe, friendly environment. On nice days they might even be found sitting outside in a comfy spot zenning out on the rhythm of folding and tagging all the pretty colors. We currently have all of the colors in stock and are only low on a few. And, finally, here is that same batch of socks from the other end…

Also high on my original list of socks I dreamed of selling: hemp socks…
The 2 Brothers Hemp Crew is our third, and quite possibly my favorite hemp sock yet; like the other organics it also comes in two sizes. The EG Smith version was nice, but has not been available to us since last year.
Hemp is known for being easy to grow without the help of fertilizers and insecticides and the fiber is perfect for all kinds of things from paper to clothing and much much more. Unfortunately hemp has a bad reputation from a shady past and we’re not allowed to grow it here in the USA, not even for its fiber or pulp that could save forests full of trees. Hopefully that will change someday, but for now the hemp yarn is imported and mixed with cotton to make a soft absorbent sock that will keep your feet cooler than cotton alone. I thought I had more to say about this, but now I don’t remember what it was ~;)
We’ll be adding even more organic styles in the months to come!

With these we see the biggest fault I’ve found in the new organics, they run a bit small. The quarter crew above looks like a child’s sock all wrapped in its 100% recycled package. Surely they must stretch a lot I thought as I unwrapped them. Sure enough they stretched right onto my size 8.5 feet & sure enough it wasn’t long til they were half-way off my feet. I think they’ll be great for petite feet, kids maybe? And then there were these:

Meant to be a men’s sock, they fit so well and looked so great I could barely hand them over to be tested by my fav men’s sock tester. They did fit him, just not as well as they fit me and I’ve yet to take pictures of them on him so I’ve not yet added them to the men’s section. For some reason people are sometimes weird about buying socks for men that are shown on a woman. These are an ultimate boyfriends sock if ever there was one! They have a terry looping on the insides of the feet and I feared that would make my Mary Jane’s too snug, but the gentle padding actually made them more comfortable, now I just need to prove that men can actually wear them too ~;)