Think holidays

I wish I would take some photos of colorful leaves and pumpkin patches but we don't have them here. Instead we are finally spending more time outside where the garden is in full bloom. The weather is really pleasant and comfortable now.

We count the plants we lost this summer. A beautiful apple tree and some vegetables did not make it through the 115'F summer heat. So we replaced the apple tree with pecan and also added a fig and pomegranate trees, hoping that these will tolerate the heat much better.

When the pomegranate tree was finally planted I went outside and immediately notice that even thought it's not the right shape and kind, it still resembled a Christmas tree. The red fruits were covering the tree and it looked like Christmas ornaments.

 This simple fact put us in a holiday mood so we created some new items for our shop. Some colorful socks, some soft fingerless gloves and cute bottle covers that we made this November and are listed in our socksandmittens shop on Etsy. 

Hope you will like them!

How did we start making socks

We started making socks about 6 years ago.

 We lived in the Pacific Northwest at that moment, on the Olympic Peninsula where the weather is a bit too cold for me. It rains a lot so even though we lived in the banana belt zone there, we still did not get a lot of sun.

Even without a lot of sun the summers were glorious.

So it was one of the chilly fall mornings when I suddenly realized how much I hate slippers. I just don't feel comfortable running back and forth on the carpet and I definitely don't like to have my first cup of coffee feeling cold when I am barefoot!

The store bought socks were nice but slightly too tight on top and they were either too long or too short. I did not like the colors and I was just feeling uncomfortable and had to think of something!

My best solution was I ask my mother, who knits, to make me a pair exactly as I like it. My first pair was in bright colors and helped brighten a dreary / gloomy day. My mornings were peaceful and quiet again.

I was so happy with my socks that my mother made a bunch for my neighbors and we gave them as gifts for Christmas. Everyone loved them and asked for more!

 Now we are making them from several types of yarn. Since I am using them to walk around the house, I like to use a durable acrylic yarn. It is coming in lively colors, acrylic yarn is easy to clean and care for. The socks are thick, warm and strong. They are also great to wear while gardening, perfect to wear inside of clogs or resin boots and machine washable!

The socks you wear with your regular shoes have to be thin enough to feel comfortable but warm. Wool is best material to use in this case but the nature of wool is fragile. Socks get a lot of pressure inside your shoes so to prolong the life of your hand knit item is better to use a blended yarn of wool and polyester.

There are many ways and types of material that yarns are made of and they all have a special purpose. We use many of these blends in our products.

Have happy feet and stay warm this winter!