~ Sock Dreams ~

Hearts, red, pink, candy and kisses are all common Valentine’s day themes. We’ve got a category full of sweet styles for your sweetie (luckily socks won’t give you a toothache) and we’ve already seen some super thoughtful sock gifts pass though our hands.  We’ve offered a couple different takes and styles on the holiday here on the Sock Journal over the years and our site’s theme is even in the mood for love.

 This year, we’ve got a Valentine’s gift for you. No, not a sale or a code, but something much sillier. May I present four covers for (pretend) romance novels featuring our favourite stars, socks! If any style tugs at your heart strings, I’ve given the names links straight to the colour shown.

Love’s Captive

Her love held him, but would their fibers keep them apart?

 Shirley was a gorgeous cotton sock and heiress to a fortune. When she finally meets Michael, the one sock who seems to love her for more than her money, Shirley knows in her deepest heart that he’s too good to be true. When he turns out to be a wool blend she works even harder to bind him with love, hoping he’ll stay and that their different washing techniques won’t keep them apart. But will Shirley go too far and actually felt his cashmere-blended heart?

Knit Together

A baby can test your patience, but can it test your love?

Bea and her baby Dottie give Sabina the family she always wanted. Sabina has never hesitated about jumping into a situation with both feet, but she’s also never jumped into something quite like this. Is sharing the duties of mother too much for the Bea and Sabina’s growing love?

Branded “L” for Love

A sheriff bootsock romance.

Sheriff Gregorio was never easily swayed by a steady life or a pretty sock, until he met April. The flirty knee high was as sweet as could be, but it was her streak of bull-headedness that roped him in. When he finds out that April has been running her family’s ranch by herself, Sheriff Gregorio pitches in and finds that he and his trusty steed might be ready to settle down.

Tides of Desire

They never expected to be swept away . . . by love.

The beach cottage was playboy Greyson’s getaway, a place to escape to. Just like he’d escape to the arms of whoever he could find, leaving both love and cottage when the city called him. This time he chose Franco and, as the sun-warmed days wore on, Greyson began to doubt he could leave his soft embrace—but could Franco fit in with Greyson’s city life?

I am not ashamed to admit I maybe spent a lot of time thinking of the stories for these. I mean, I love socks, why couldn’t they love each other?

Have a lovely Valentine’s day and remember to treat yourself too! Because, if I can paraphrase one of my favourite quotes, “if you can’t love yourself, how are you gonna love someone else?”

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The International Day of The Sock is a day for rocking your favourite socks (even more than usual)! The socks we want to rock this time around are the ones made right here in the USA. Our collection of American made styles is full of fantastic delights from two dozen suppliers.

Our two house brands, DreaM Stockings and Dreamer Socks are made for us right here in the States, out of recycled and regenerated fibers. They’ve got some beautiful basics,

• O Woolies •
• Extraordinary Thigh Highs •
• OTK Tubes •

And of course, pretty patterns.

•Jacquard Flowering Vine OTK •
• Fast Lane OTK •
• Bamboo OTK •

But far more than our fabulous house brands are made in the USA. Why, did you know that from B.Ella we offer over forty USA-made styles? Only about a third of their styles we carry are made in Italy and the rest of these gorgeous, luxury offerings are home-grown.

• Adie Pima Cotton Ghost Footies •
• Nicolo Rugby Stripe Midcalf •
• Liza Polka Dot Knee Socks •

And ALL of the Gumball Poodle styles are made in the USA. Stretchy and sassy, we even offer two styles that name-check the Pacific Northwest and one that honours our local Roller Derby team!

• Seattle Knee Highs •
• Portland Knee Highs •
• I Love RCR Knee Highs •

Speaking of local, Una arm warmers are made up in Seattle, Washington—and Polonova styles are made right here in Portland, Oregon!

• Geoweb Arm Cozies •
• Polonova Floral Lace Trouser Socks •
• Polonova Longer Velvet Wrist Warmers •

There are so many more made in the USA offerings! Just join me after the jump for a quick list (and links and Advanced Searches for) of USA-made styles.

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We’re almost through the first month of the year! And I thought February was supposed to be the short month. But January is always full and busy as we sort out what we’re doing over the next year. In the sock world, that means saying goodbye to some styles to make room for new favourites. You might have seen Jess’ post in Latest News about a bunch of Leg Avenue we’ll be seeing the last of, but I thought it might be good to show you more ways to work the Zap! category. And it’s kind of fun to be able to look back on posts like this (like this one from 2010) and see styles we’ve forgotten about, like a sad time machine.

If you’re not familiar with our Zap! category, it’s sort of like a train station platform where we can wave goodbye to styles as they go away. This time of year our Zap! category swells as we find out what styles are being discontinued, what newer or better styles are coming out in the spring and just from general housecleaning. At this moment there are over 100 styles in Zap! I feel like I should add an extra exclamation mark, since the category name already has one. Heck, let’s do three!!!

But because we’re saying goodbye to these socks means you get to say hello. So here are a few styles that you might want to grab a pair of before they’re gone for good. Now, I’m trying to pick styles there are still plenty of, but be aware that some might be gone before you get there!

Almost a quarter of the styles in Zap! are knee highs, and a lot are super fun. I think almost every closet needs one pair of knee highs that make you smile or feel fancy.

• Sock It To Me Bunny Stripes •
• Five Toed Sheer Knee Highs •
• Faux High Top Knee High •

Moving on up the leg, here are some over the knee and higher treats that we won’t have around much longer.

• Marbled Scrunchy Socks •
• Acrylic Striped Thigh Highs •
• Asel Over the Knee •

Some favourite tights are going away and I know several Dreamers have stocked up on their favourite pairs!

• Kalana Wool Crochet Tights •
• Eyelash Web Tights •
• Wool Cable Stripe Tights •

Of course, there is a sweet silver lining to styles going away and that’s when they go on sale! There are a lot of luscious choices with marked down prices that mean you get a pair before they disappear and feel smart for waiting because now you’re paying less.

• Shadow Brocade Over the Knees •
• Fifi Marled Ghost Anklets •
• Polonova Vines Trouser Socks •

There are a lot of reasons (most of them being whether or not we can still get a style) that a sock might go away and as sad as it is, it does mean that we’re busy picking out new things to take its place. So dig into the Zap! category or use our advanced search to pick through all these styles that are just waiting for a home—you’re helping us make room for some new favourite styles.

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Putting on socks and stockings with vertical stripes can be kind of a hassle. You want the stripes to be straight, but it’s hard to keep them that way. It’s a special kind of frustrating to pull on a pair of tights with a vertical design and realise once you look in a mirror that they’re zigging AND zagging, instead of staying on the straight and narrow.

With our helpful assistant, Mrs. Half-Mannequin (“Half” is her maiden name) and a pair of Sheer Vertical Striped Pantyhose, I’ll share a couple tricks to help you guide those stripes. The wonderful Dreamer Zaf of our Tumblr took most of these pictures, since I only have so many hands.

In trying to keep those stripes straight, particularly with tights, sometimes the legs get twisted and that makes it awful up in areas that you really don’t want bunching. So here’s the key: keep the pattern straight from the start.

As you gather up the stocking or tights to slide them on, make sure you’re gathering everything evenly. Keep those stripes in line as you gather, starting from the top of the sock or leg of the tights. If you’re dealing with panels or designs, pay attention to what part is made to go in the front or back. What you’re doing is making sure your tights don’t get twisted.

Okay, now you’re ready to get fancy. Ease your little toes in and carefully put the stockings or tights on. It should be a lot easier now that you’ve essentially “prepped” them to keep their stripes straight. You may need to do a bit of adjusting as you go, but it should be pretty minimal.

Now they’re on! You may find that the toes are a little wonky. This is fine! You were focusing on getting things straight. Just adjust the toe seam to your comfort and pickiness—it’s a lot easier to get tights on straight then adjust the toe than make the toes perfect and try to keep the designs straight.

There, you look fabulous! For a twist you can do just that with socks and stockings (as opposed to tights), purposefully twisting them as you put them on for a new spin on vertical stripes. I think the Fast Lane Knee Highs are particularly well-suited to this.

Do you have any tips or tricks for putting on difficult patterns just right?

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I don’t know how many of you ever got presents for your birthdays with coloured glass that represented your birthstone—but the idea of flowers, gems and constellations associated with a month is pretty fun.  And it’s a great way to take a walk through our gardens, mines and galaxies of socks!

January’s gemstone is garnet, which is normally a gorgeous deep burgundy (though also happens in yellow and a startling green!). Philippe Matignon’s red is called “garnet” (or actually, “rosso granata”) and I couldn’t think of a better name for this shade.

• Multi-Lines Knee Highs •
• Lily Lace-Topped Knee High •

It’s thought that the word “garnet” came from “pomegranate” and even if that’s not true, it totally could be. Our Dreamer Socks’ deep red shade is called Pomegranate, and we like it so much we’ve even got the 100 Inch Super Ruched done in the same delicious colour.

• Extraordinary Striped Thigh Highs •
• 100 Inch Super Ruched Socks •
• Dreamer Jacquard Ripple OTK •

Each month has a couple of flowers to choose from, it all depends on where you are, really. But mostly it seems like January’s flower is the carnation. The original colour of the carnation is pink, but thanks to flower science and careful cultivation, they now come in a whole tonne of shades. But one thing makes a carnation what it is and that’s the layers of ruffle-y petals. Hmm, what do we have that has layers of ruffles?

• Micromesh Lace Ruffle Tanga Short •
• Layered Tulle Petticoat •

Of course, you don’t need straight up lotsa ruffles to get a ruffle-y look. Sometimes a textured sock and a good scrunch is all that’s necessary.

• Dreamer Ruffled Stripe OTK •
• Textured Stripe Knee High •
• Keri Dimensional Stripe Crew •

The constellation associated with most of January is Capricornus (more commonly known as Capricorn). It’s a fish-goat. Or a sea-goat, if you want to be proper. Since we don’t have anything that has mohair in it right now (mohair comes from Angora goats), I think Capricorn will have to be represented by things that don’t go together, yet totally do make one awesome whole.

Stance always offers some cool mixed packs of mixable, matchable socks. Maybe those Trilogy Midcalves are more like a chimera, since that’s made up of three different things instead of two.

• Trilogy Midcalves •
• Mariner Midcalves •

These Sock It To Me Toddler & Kids Two Packs are fun because they pair up some unexpected and adorable designs. You know that monkeys and dinos would hang out or that ninjas like robots. But did you know that ninjas also love cupcakes?

There’s still over half of January to go and a long way until spring up here in the Northern hemisphere, so keep warm! Unless you’re in the Southern hemisphere, in which case may I offer you some lightweight sock styles, if you don’t mind my totally shivering while I do.

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