3 giveaways this weekend!

There are 3 great giveaways are going on right now on the Russian Artists Team's blog. 2 of them are offered by Nataliya (nataliyamalik)and the 3rd one is mine (socksandmittens). So if you are interested please click on the photos below to get to the one you want or participate in all three. 

 Felt flower brooch giveaway

 Washcloth & soap nuts giveaway

 

Knit cup cozy giveaway

These giveaways are held for the annual Etsy Craft Party and will end tomorrow, on June 19th. The winner will be announced on Monday.

Good luck, everyone!

Inspired by harvest

This Fall we are just in love with color. It is colder here this year and the yellow leaves are already falling. We already harvested our herbs, watermelons, lemon Meyers, sweet Hawaiian peppers and Indian eggplant. They are so colorful (and delicious!).

 

That's when we decided to pull some bright yarns out of our stash and knit some new gloves!

I don't have more of these yarns so some of them are impossible to repeat. The colors are so rich and pretty that sometimes I don't even know how to explain the shades in words!  

So please visit our socksandmittens shop to see the selection. 

You can never have enough quality yarn

I was searching for more quality yarns another day and found this lovely peruvian shop BelPunto on Etsy. Marisol, the owner of this shop is offering lovely baby alpaca and puma cotton yarns in pretty colors and gladly accepting custom orders to accommodate the customer's needs.

Alpaca yarn is one of the finest yarn nature has to offer and is made from the hair of alpacas, a domesticated species of South American camelid. They are kept in herds at an altitude of 11,500 ft to 16,000 ft above sea level and resembles small llamas in appearance. Alpaca yarn is soft, warm, fire and moisture resistant and naturally hypoallergenic. 

 

Baby alpaca yarn  is the most precious and finest type of alpaca yarn. Alpaca wool is light weighted, stain resistant and durable. What better natural fiber can you think of for a making adult and baby clothing!

I wanted to know more about Marisol and her BelPunto shop so I contacted her to find out more about her. Here is what she is sharing with us today:

"I do not remember the first time I held knitting needles, but I have been knitting my whole life! This is a past time that my grandmother passed to my mother and she did the same with us. When my son Renato was born, and many people admired the clothes he was wearing - made by me and my sisters - we decided to start a baby clothing company, which we called Renattoni. 

I love using these beautiful fibers and am now starting to write some of the patterns, in order to share them... there is only so little we can knit, so much else can be done!!!"

So if you are looking for some quality yarns for your new project please stop by BelPunto shop to see if there is anything for you. 

Or, if you are looking for already made children clothes made with either pima cotton or baby alpaca wool please stop by Renattoni shop. Marisol and her sisters will be glad to help you with your order!

Children with llama

Summer linens

I was looking for some quality summer yarn for my summer crochet projects and I was happy to find this gorgeous Lithuanian linen yarn at YarnStories shop on Etsy.

I started with purchase of natural unbleached yarn first, just to see how the yarn will work for me. I spent a week working on this tote and I am very happy how this project turned out!

I purchased more yarn this time in numerous colors. It's thinner than the unbleached one but it's a pleasure to crochet with this also. I've decided to make a summer wrap, the kind you want on your shoulders at a nice ocean front restaurant. It's turning out so pretty!

Linen is one of the oldest fibers made by humans. It's made of flax plant and was always popular for the exceptional qualities in hot weather. It's lightweight, durable and moisture absorbent. It feels fresh and pleasant to the touch and will not give you a static shock. Linen was always expensive because it's labor intensive but it's definitely worth it.

I love the colors and variety of linen yarn at the Kate's YarnStories shop. When I've got my parcels with the new yarn I purchased I lined them on display at our living room for a week. Such happy colors!  

If you'd like to see more of Kate's yarn please visit her at YarnStories shop on Etsy. Her knit and crochet patterns can be also found on Ravelry so if you are ready for some colorful summer projects get some yarn and start working on your project!

How to measure your legs for your legwarmers

Leg warmers are great fashion accessory. They were widely used by dancers and aerobic enthusiasts once but they came back as a pretty and practical outfit for your legs. 

 

Your leg warmers can be worn in many ways. They can be loose or tight fit, knee or thigh high. They can be worn with boots or high heel shoes. It is up to you what color or type of yarn to choose. Either way they are pretty!

 

If you would like to order a custom pair from us we will need your measurements. Here is how to measure your legs:

measurement A - measure the circumference of your ankles where the joint is ( where the bone sticks out)

measurement B - measure the distance from your ankle to your knee (above the knee cap for thigh high leg warmers, or at the narrowest point just below the knee cap for knee high)

measurement C - measure the circumference of your calf at it's widest point

The price on custom orders will vary and it depends on chosen type of yarn and size of the finished product. The regular order completion time is 3 to 4 days, and it might take longer November through December due to the high volume of custom orders.

Leg warmers are a wonderful piece of cold-time-clothing and are something to consider for a regular wear during chilly months.  

End of summer sale at Socksandmittens

We are back from our wonderful trip to Canada and getting ready for the Fall and Winter season.

We are slowly adding some new items and also reducing prices on selected items. If you are planning ahead for the coming Holidays and looking for some hand knit gifts it might be a way to get them for less!

 So there is an end-of-summer sale going on right now in our Socksandmittens shop. Please visit our SALE section to see the selection.

Knit and crochet while on vacation

Of course, we had time for our favorite hobbies while on vacation. My mom was one busy knitter (as always) and I was making some crochet snowflakes for our Christmas tree. The pine forest, meadows and river near by our friends house were a great inspiration for these cold-time-projects!

 The one thing we were missing was some colorful yarns from our home stash. The ideas were floating in the air, we just had to grab them!

I wrote many of those ideas down. We are home now and have plenty of  time for this creative side of us. I like to visit places but I also love to be home!

Knit cell phone sleeve, beach style

Spring in Arizona is more like mid summer in Europe. The nights and the mornings are slightly chilly and the afternoons are hot and lazy.

So I am always dreaming of a vacation by the sea at this time a year. I am actually even shopping for outfits I would wear if we'd go. I am looking at maps, searching for the best travel deals and dreaming of snorkeling.

It happened again this year. I've already pick up some new beach style gowns and looking for the perfect purse and shoes. While I am still shopping I've got an idea on a great knit beach bag which would be big enough to hold everything I need. 

This idea is still in a process but while working on it we made a small cotton sleeve for my cell phone to match the bag. It's color reminds me of white coral bleached by the sun on the seashore. The design is simple but this is what I love about it.

 

We made one like this for our Socksandmittens shop on Etsy - stop by if you need one!

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!

Back to black

I love to shop right now for Halloween stuff, don't you? I am trying not go overboard with my spending but I still have some unfulfilled wish. Like that little devil pot which runs away from you laughing as soon as you get close to it.  

Anyway, we were thinking of costumes for this year and I realized that I am in a mood for black and Gothic. This is where my inspiration is coming from. I love to make or  purchase clothing that I am able to wear more than once so we thought of these lovely romantic (or Gothic) gloves which will look great with any outfit. 

 Lace is always classy so we used a soft blend yarn made of merino wool, bamboo rayon and nylon to show the pretty pattern. They are elegant and sophisticated at the same time. 

The same pattern but in a different yarn was used to make this pair:

It has a completely different look, don't you think? Great to wear for your New Years eve gala or any time you like :)

Knit cotton cuffs

These cuffs are simply wonderful. We made them thinking of a sunny summer and vacation but when we prepare to do a photo shot the wedding dress idea came out.It turned out to be a perfect accessory for the wedding outfit! With yarn available in many colors it will mach any dress.We are also working on other patterns and are excited about many of our ideas. The best part, you can wear them with any outfit you want during the year!The model you see here is also embellished with vintage buttons. I bought them a long time ago during my trip to Europe. I was hoping to make a nice something for myself but it turned out I never used them. I hope you like how they look.

See these cuffs at Socksandmittens

A new cozy for my teapot

I was just playing with the yarn the other day :)

Now my teapot got a cute new cozy!

Our men's fingerless gloves were on front page of Etsy today!

What a pleasant surprise we had this morning! Our gloves were featured on front page of Etsy and were sold to a great buyer from Sweden!



I am already packing them and they will be on it's way to Europe in an hour.

A great collection Testosterone which was featured on FP was made by Irene Tombjorndesigns , and she is from Sweden, too! Thank you so much, Irene!

Valentines gift ideas for men

If you still have not decided what to get for your men for Valentines, think of practical gifts. Something he could use all the time when he needs it and remember it was a gift from you. Small accessories, perhaps, manly jewelry, something thoughtful and cute. He will think of you while wearing these and not only on February 14th!

We are still working on custom orders but in the same time we are trying to add some new nice items to our shop. Like these light gray gloves, for example:These are made of light gray 100% merino wool, they are warm, cozy and stylish. We called this model City because they would be one of my friends choices to wear in megatropolis downtown!

We also experimented with some graduated color yarn since we had some customers requests recently. So we came with this model in Earth tones, Rust:The colors are exciting and they will add some fun to the gray winter days.

Our classic model Town is also available for sale:
If you'd like to get it in different color please let us know. Right now it is available in gray (shown on photo), dark olive, charcoal and black.

So think of your man and make that guy with the cold hands warm heart into a guy with warm hands warm heart!