Solmate Socks

How cool!  Our socks inspired another artist! That just gives me the warm fuzzies.

It’s fun & funky jewelry and in the description of her jewelry it says that these pieces with their crazy patterns and fun color combinations were inspired by the Socklady’s socks. We see Amy (the artist) at the Paradise City Arts Festival and we always love her stuff.

Check out all of her funky jewelry.

Kids Socks on Sale
Regularly $20, On Sale $16

All of our children’s socks have been marked down to $16.00 - that’s $4 off per pair.

After listening to some feedback from a lot of our customers about our children’s “Pair With A Spare” line of socks we decided to make some small improvements. The updated line launches next year and that means we need to clear out the old styles in order to make room for the new. So stock up on the current styles since they won’t be available much longer.

See All Kids Socks

I like the daffodil color so much that I bought 2 pair so I could have one in the laundry and one on my feet.  My husband looked at me in horror the other morning and said “My dear, you have matching sox!” - Harriet

Last week we got this adorable picture from Mary Bencks (trail name: Heart Rock Mary). She is a member of a hiking group of women in New Hampshire named “The Painted Toe Solemates.” They’ve been hiking the New Hampshire White Mountains together for six years.  They heard about our socks on Prairie Home Companion back in September as they were driving home from a hike. It was fate and so the Painted toe Solemates had to have some Solmate Socks.

On one of their next hiking adventures they all wore their new Solmate Socks and they were kind enough to take a picture and share it with us. Here they are, with their sock clad feet in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, on top of Mt. Moriah. Hopefully on their next outing they’ll snap a pic that includes thier faces and their sock clad feet. To the ladies of the Painted Toe Solemates - thanks for sharing! You’re fabulous.

Anyway, we all LOVE our socks.  How can anyone feel grouchy when their feet look so happy! - Heart Rock Mary

The Painted Toe Solemates hiking in New Hampshire

So it’s Sunday night… I just got back from yoga and decided to check my email before heading off to bed. While online, I randomly ended up on Flickr and decided to do a search for our socks. Lo and behold I find this adorable picture:

Thanks Jeero for being a furry fan of Solmate Socks!

Socklady-Sharon sent me info on this fundraiser which is all about using knitting to support a great cause! How incredibly awesome is that!  I love seeing knitting projects go towards a good cause.

Rwanda Knits was founded by Cari Clement of Montpelier, Vermont and with the annual online Rwanda Knits Benefit Auction you can bid on famous sweaters, accessories and knit and crochet items for your home and family – all to benefit the women of Rwanda Knits!

The auction begins at 10:00 pm (eastern) on Thursday, October 16 and will conclude at 8:30pm on Sunday, October 26. Just go to www.rwandaknits.org where there will be a link when the auction goes live.  Or go to www.rwandaknitsauction.org during the times of the auction and start your bidding. All proceeds from this auction will go straight to Rwanda Knits in Rwanda.

From Rwanda Knits press release: “Your winning bid on fabulous knit and crochet designs can help 1,200 Rwandan women buy yarn, learn business skills, create 100% sustainable knitting businesses and raise their incomes up from less than $1 per day. Bid on over 40 garments donated from the personal collections of designers such as Nicky Epstein, Doris Chan and Deborah Newton, magazines such as Vogue Knitting, Knit Simple, Knit 1, Interweave Knits, Interweave Crochet, Creative Knitting, Crochet, Knit ‘n Style, Cast On, book publishers such as Leisure Arts and the and yarn companies such as Berroco, Classic Elite, Tahki Stacy Charles and Caron International. These companies and designers are supporting the Rwanda Knits Project (www.rwandaknits.org) that is assisting over 1,500 women in 17 different groups in Rwanda to make a living through knitting and crochet. What a perfect Christmas, Channuka, Kwanza or holiday season gift!”

For more information on Rwanda Knits, please visit www.rwandaknits.org.

Garrison Keillor on Stage in Vermont

A couple weeks a bunch of us Sockladies went to a live taping of A Prarie Home Companion at Champlain Valley Fair in Burlington, Vermont - which was part of The Rhubarb Tour. It was an absolute blast. The show was fantastic and it was just so much fun to watch - the whole cast did a fantastic job of putting on a live show for a big audience.

Anyway… the reason all us Sock-folk were there was because Solmate Socks was the official sponsor for that stop of The Ruhbarb Tour. That taping will be broadcast on this weekend’s airing of A Prarie Home Companion. We all had so much fun and even got to meet Garrison and the crew backstage after the show. And of course there was plenty of very yummy Rhubarb Pie to eat! Mmm…

So please listen in this weekend. If you’re not sure what station to tune into, you can check out the station listings here.

Garrison and Marianne The Socklady

If you miss the radio broadcast of the show, you can go to the Prairie Home Companion website and go to Audio Highlights of Last Week’s Show to hear it (top left section of the page). You can also listen to The News from Lake Wobegon as a podcast (updated every Monday). If you use iTunes, you can subscribe to The News from Lake Wobegon here.

From the PHC website:  “This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we just can’t say goodbye to summer sunshine, so we’re bringing you a show from the Champlain Valley Exposition in Essex Junction, Vermont. With Suzy Bogguss, The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, The Royal Academy of Radio Actors: Tim Russell, Sue Scott, Fred Newman, and The News from Lake Wobegon. Join us this week for our final grandstand rendezvous before the massive cold fronts descend, and darkness prevails once again on the Northern borders.

Marianne and I finished up our last tradeshow of the season last week. The New York International Gift Fair is by far the largest tradeshow we attend: it fills the entire Javit Center in NYC. We had an absolutely phenomenal show and it was great to touch base with so many of the stores that sell Solmate Socks.

One of my favorite parts of these shows is seeing what all the other artists do. This time I found (and ordered) some really fun and funky metal sculptures for my garden. Fred Conlon at Sugar Post makes these hilarious Gnome-Bearers… little metal helpers to get rid of those pesky garden gnomes. You can find big and little versions of these Gnome Bearers available at UncommonGoods (where you can also find our socks). These little guys were probably my favorite new find at the show and I’m super excited to get them home and in the garden.

Next up: Prarie Home Companion taping! This past Saturday a big group of us Sockladies (and gents) went to the PHC taping that Solmate Socks sponsored. It was a blast and I’ve got some pics that I’ll put up in a bit.

Our new Autumn Series sock, named October Morning, is almost here. It’s not available just yet (we’re still busy knitting them), but here’s what they look like. Make sure you’re signed up for our email newsletter because I’ll send a newsletter out when they’re ready… which will probably be in a month or so - closer to Autumn that is.

Psst… aside from being the Solmate Socks’ marketing chick and blog writer extraordinaire… I’m also the foot model! Finally my moment of fame is here. All the pictures of legless adult socks are me. Not that you’d know since I ask my husband (official Socklady photographer and Photoshop king) to remove any trace of my freckled legs.

Just got back from another wholesale tradeshow, this time in Philadelphia. The BMAC tradeshow in Philly is probably my favorite show - the quality of work is phenomenal. Everything at this show has to be crafted in America or Canada (nothing mass produced overseas). Marianne and I do this show together, which just adds to the fun.

Yippee for Fingerless Mittens!

I usually have an easy knitting project I work on while at a tradeshow. I have an awesome circular needle clutch from Offhand Designs which makes traveling with my knitting stuff so much easier. I often default to making a hat, but this time I decided to do a pair of fingerless mittens. I love using Noro Kureyon yarn and when I found this easy and free knitting pattern for fingerless mittens I decided to give it a go. I only got the right hand done, but it looks great and matches the hat I knit in San Francisco last week.

I had dinner on Saturday night with one of my favorite jewelry artists, Lori of Lieske Designs. Lori is an absolute hoot and every time I see her at a show I always seem to pick up at least a piece or two of hers. I’m also very excited about a new little table I bought for the entry way of our house from Studio 78. Very fun & colorful.

Random building I took a picture of while walking around in Philadelphia

One of my favorite parts of traveling for work is discovering new places to eat. Since I’ve been doing the San Francisco show longer I’m a lot more familiar with those restaurants and I have some favorites that I revisit each time I’m there (i.e. Shaha). This time in Philadelphia, on Lori’s recommendation, Marianne & I had dinner Monday at a restaurant called Audrey Claire’s. Absolutely delicious and I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting the area. If you have any Philly dinner favorites let us know so I can try them when we’re there in February.

I usually don’t mind flying (especially since it usually means I’m starting out on some type of adventure or going home to see my dog), but this time I had a layover in Dallas… now I know that Texas is a meat loving state, but you’d think that they’d have the occasional vegetarian traveling through this major international airport. It was tough finding meat-free food and I’m surprised that the yogurt & granola I got from a coffee stand didn’t have bacon bits in it. The universe made up for it when on my flight from Dallas to Portland, OR I got to watch a lightening storm at night from the plane. Simply breathtaking. Watching a night lightening storm from above it was kinda like playing God and watching the weather from the other side. Such a neat experience.

I’m home now, but I head to New York on the 14th for the NYIGF show. If you’re planning on attending we’re in booth 6221 (handmade division near the German stage) - stop by and say hi! We’ll have samples to show of the new Autumn Series sock style with us: October Morning!