Niqkita's Sock Journal

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!

…Or, the long & short of the new lace thigh highs, restocked & reviewed.

The picture on the package is gorgeous, it shows a matching top and panty which are not included nor do we plan to get them at this time. Pity, I know, but we don’t want to get into the fit & return issues they would incur and the stockings are just so pretty we had to try them! Straight out of the package they look rather large, but that is because of the lace, it is a stretchy lace sewn into a stocking and came nearly up to the tops of my little 30 inch legs. They fit nicely and stayed up fine, they were just too long for me to wear and still be able to show off their cute ribboned tops so onto the sewing machine they went. Yes, it is a good sturdy lace, won’t snag easily…

and can certainly handle a new seam along the toes.
I think it would be best to do this on a serger, but knowing most of you don’t have one I did a simple zig zag stitch (in pink & purple) and cut off the extra length…

Much better!

When pulled up they appear to fit even in the thinner areas like above my heels, but when I loosened them you can see how there can be a little slack at the knees

Pull them up and they are all better and are sooo pretty I cannot resist them…
As for the fit at the tops, not only can you tighten that ribbon to fit the skinniest of thighs, the stretch actually fit our larger thighs, without a bulge(!!!) and we feel 23 inches around should be no problem with these.

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!

Before we add more socks there are a few new tights…
These are Via Spiga’s Maxi Rib semi sheer tights.
No denier listing on the label, maybe about 25? …tattoos are going to show, scars most likely too, bruises and freckles not so much. The ribs go all the way to the tippy tips of the toes, but the panty area is brief style (no cotton liner either). This is our first Via Spiga item, I also have a cute lacy capri to test this week from them (because it is *finally* almost lacy capri season). No fancy smell with these, just fancy legs.
…plus, they’re made in the USA.

These Vertical Tights are a really sexy pair of tights. Everytime I open one of their packages, “The LeVante Scent” fills my nose. I can’t decide if I like it or not, or even if it is perfume or the smell of the fabric, so I tend to sniff them alot trying to make up my mind what that smell is all about. I imagine their factory must be thick with this scent and their workers mildly delirious from the smell & making such fabulous stockings all the time. After a washing the perfume is gone, so I’m thinking it’s just a selling point. If you are sensitive to scents you will want to wash these before wearing.

The panty area is “tanga style” instead of the brief/boy short style like most American pantyhose are. Which pleases me greatly as I never found the brief style to have an advantage unless I got the super-duper control top turniquets. So this tanga style ads to the sexiness. I used to like pantyhose, but the square boxy brief has always been so unattractive that I gave up on pantyhose and switched over to tights. But these are really sexy and are winning me back. If you never thought of pantyhose as sexy, I bet it’s because you haven’t worn tanga style before.

I’m sorry I’m too modest to show a pic of the tanga panty. So, here’s a close up of the stripe detail instead. It’s a nice little pattern, and every few lines, the rest are a normal kind of stripe.

Wikipedia says

“The sheerness of the garment, expressed as a numerical ‘denier’/'dtex’, ranges from 3 (extremely rare, very thin, barely visible) to 15 (standard sheer) up to 30 (semi opaque) until 70 (opaque).”

These are 20 denier.
Which is pretty sheer and will clearly show all tattoos & booboos.

The vertical stripes are very flattering. They make your legs look longer and slimmer. I’m 5′3″ & I got size 2 which fit me fine. These are the glace colour which is your standard nude pantyhose colour. Tube style feet like most hosiery. And these will probably run if you’re rough on your hosiery. They are very sexy and one style I want all the colours of. I really love the Verticale Tights.

The ToeToe toe socks have always been my favorites though we don’t keep them in stock all the time. The colors are really pretty and the fit is exceptional in the toes. But the top band is a little scratchy straight out of the package this time so I’m going to wash them and continue with my weekend of testing them. I’ll report back later on how they come out, I really hope they haven’t changed the quality, it would be very sad. Last summer we had a few different stripey combinations of them, the purple was a most excellent purple. No purple stripes this year, just a solid purple that I’ll add an image for this coming week. I love spring! it is ever so much more fun to go out and take pictures of socks now!

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…

Tucked into my last order was this pair of little pink striped socks (The Spring Striped Anklets in light rose and white). Now, I know you all think I live in a pink flat with a pink tinted dog and wear lots of pink things…. Yes, I love pink… yes, it is my favorite color, and yes my bedroom is shocking pink on pink on pink. But no… I really don’t wear pink everyday… mostly it’s worn at home in my lounge about clothes (which tend to be way more frou-frou than anything I’d greet the public in… think vintage slips, crinolines, etc.) or the occaisional ‘can’t help myself they are so cute’ pink or pink striped OTK socks (the dark red and fuchsia Mstripes… mmmm).  And, as some of you know, I’ve only started to brave the outdoors in my pinks after our sock goddess used her powers on me and got me to start thinking out of the box (as I’ve always pretty much been a black on black, with a little olive… dresser). Even my mom was nearly fainting on her last visit here when she saw that there is now some color in my closet. And on her next visit now she’ll surely see little pink socks and more.

Anyway… back to these particular pretty little pink socks.
Sweet is the best word I can think of to describe them… sweet in a cute… cotton candy, flirty skirt, point your toes, put on a pair of those little white lace up sneakers and come ride the merry-go-round sort of way.  I think they’d look adorable with a pair of black capri length leggings and ballet flats too.