The first shipment of the 2013 Sock Club went to the post office this morning. The lady there was super nice so I think everyone’s packages are in good hands!
A little trivia, if you’re interested: this year’s sock club will be traveling to 48 states and the District of Columbia, as well as to 18 additional countries around the world.
Flight and Striation are the final patterns from the 2012 Cookie A Sock Club.
Flight features a not-too-complicated airy feather motif.
Striation’s geometric lace pattern is mirrored from left to right.
The yarn is Sinful Sock from Stricken Smitten, a luxurious cashmere blend in a deep, rich violet that proved nearly impossible to photograph accurately – but was so lovely to work with!
These patterns are exclusive to the Cookie A Sock Club until December 15, 2013.
The final patterns from the 2011 Sock Club, Rambutan and Dragon Crystal, are now available.
The Rambutan socks are a play on texture with an eyelet welted pattern that swirls around the foot. Because of the heavy twist of the pattern, the two socks are mirrored in opposite directions.
The Dragon Crystal socks are highly three-dimensional and have large swathes of smooth fabric within the stitch pattern itself.
These were originally knit up in Sanguine Gryphon Bugga!, which you can now find at either Cephalopod Yarns or The Verdant Gryphon. With 20% cashmere these are a real treat for your toes!
Of course, if you’re looking to get in on the sock club fun, there are a few memberships still available. I’d love to have you join us!
Congratulations to Louisa in Melbourne who has won a free membership in next year’s Sock Club!
All members of the Cookie A Sock Club Ravelry group who completed a pair of socks, knit up something in club yarn, or baked cookies and posted photos in the appropriate thread were entered into the drawing (one entry for each finished object). There were over 840 entries! The winner was chosen using the random number generator at random.org.
Louisa’s Prizewinning Nanaimos
Congratulations again to Louisa! She knit her Nanaimo socks for her brother-in-law and says they are a treasured gift.
It’s been interesting sifting through the Ravelry group, taking another look at all the lovely socks and yummy cookies over the past year. Judging from the Ravelry tally, 2012’s most popular cookie was a tie between the Pumpkin Cookies with Brown Butter Icing and the Flourless Fiery Fudge cookies. The sock that had the most FO’s posted to the Ravelry threads was Nanaimo, with Reykjavik coming in a close second.
There are still spots available in next year’s club. I am looking forward to sharing another exciting year of new sock patterns and delicious cookies with you! Get all the details and sign up for the club.
I’m also pleased to announce the November winner of the Shapes + Form Knitalong, Gus in California!
Gus has been a prolific knitter-alonger (is that a word?). She finished Conic and has started in on Rotation, with plans for Pivot in her future! She wins 5 skeins of Plucky Knitter Primo fingering and a copy of Landing by Cecily Glowik MacDonald. Thanks for knitting along.
Gus’s Prize
An astounding 58 members of the knit.sock.love group on Ravelry have completed all 19 pairs of socks from the book in their recent knitalong! All the members who completed all 19 pairs got a prize. I was able to contribute some patterns and copies of Shapes + Form… and a sock club membership to one lucky winner!
This group’s knitalong started almost two years ago with Hedera and Monkey and wrapped up with Sake and German Stocking. Over 300 knitters have participated in at least one month of the knitalong.
There is a really fun thread in the group where club members have stacked up all their socks or made photo collages of all their projects.
These are Sue from Wisconsin’s socks. Her Ravelry username is CO64… sounds like the perfect name for a sock knitter!
Ann from Boston knit up all the socks and made a cool photo collage:
Simone from Germany also made a cool photo collage to show off all her socks.
Debbie from Ohio knit all 19 pairs of socks and was the very lucky grand prize winner from the group: she’s won a free membership to next year’s sock club! Check out her project collection here.
Registration for the 2013 sock club is still open and going strong. You can see all of this year’s patterns and yarns to date here and catch up on what current sock club members are up to in the Ravelry group. If you’d like all the fine print on the club, be sure to visit http://cookiea.com/club/.
Join the Cookie A Sock Club for 2013 and enjoy the pleasures of sock knitting and cookie baking with the only group of its kind. Every other month in 2013 you’ll receive two exclusive Cookie A sock patterns, two delicious cookie recipes, and a batch of independently produced yarn.
Here’s some of the yummy cookies we’ve baked over the past two years…
And some of the fun sock patterns we’ve been knitting.
You can see all of this year’s patterns and yarns to date here and catch up on what current sock club members are up to in the Ravelry group. Check out all the details and sign up now for the 2013 Sock Club at http://cookiea.com/club/.
I’m looking forward to sharing another wonderful year of socks and cookie recipes with all of you!
For the sock club, I like to feature colors, yarns, and patterns that are more “guy-friendly” in October. This month’s yarn and pattern are rustic and homey, appropriate for the rugged man who loves flannel or for anyone who loves sitting by the fireplace sipping cocoa or mulled cider. Of course, now that an autumn chill is in the air and the holidays are fast approaching, many of us are also thinking about gift knitting.
The yarn is a wool-tencel blend that was exclusively milled and dyed for the club by Green Mountain Spinnery. We tested the yarn to see how it held up, and it surprised me by holding up better than many superwash merino / nylon blends after repeated washings and even a dry cycle. In my book, that makes it a great candidate for gift socks that are likely to accidentally get put in the dryer.
The Sarsaparilla socks feature a chunky cable pattern that goes well with the rustic nature of the yarn.
The Hamantaschen socks feature triangular patterns that are tiled to look like diamonds.
Club members have been keeping busy knitting up this month’s socks, and for good reason: a finished pair of October socks is worth two entries into the Grand Prize drawing to win a membership to next year’s sock club. If you’re in the club and you haven’t been posting photos of your finished projects in the appropriate Ravelry threads, now is the time. You have until December 15th to post photos!
Dorie from Washington knit up a pair of Sarsaparilla socks in Hazel Knits Artisan Sock in a gorgeous brown, perfect for fall.
Mia from Germany also knit up a pair of Sarsaparillas in an intense shade of purple Wollmeise:
Josiane from Switzerland knit up her Hamantaschen socks in the club yarn:
And it looks like those sheepy sock blockers are popular! Ann from Boston is also showing off a pair of Hamantaschen socks  on them.
These patterns are exclusive to Cookie A Sock Club members until October 15, 2013. Want in on next year’s club? Sign ups open next week on Monday, November 26th.
Welcome to October! Two more patterns – Hex and Slide – from last year’s sock club are now available.
Autumn was my favorite season when I lived in the Midwest. The brisk weather and color changes are invigorating, but for this shipment’s theme I went a different direction. I know for many it is the start of gift-knitting season, so this installment was a “man-issue†of sorts featuring many men’s favorite color: grey.
For the patterns, I wanted something simple that my husband might actually wear. Both patterns play on geometry.
The Hex socks feature a hexagonal pattern all over the leg that transitions into plain stockinette on the foot that my husband definitely approves. One of our favorite tools is the hex bit for our drill which we’ve used a LOT to assemble furniture over the years. So consider this also an ode to Ikea!
$6.50
The Slide socks are a traveling rib sock that angles the rib down the leg and the foot, just like a playground slide. These were inspired by the color of the yarn. I love the simplicity of these, and of course the pair is mirrored.
 $6.50
The yarn I chose is Fleece Artist Sea Wool which hails from Canada. When I began knitting socks, the first pair that I knit and actually liked was made with Fleece Artist merino sock yarn. Those socks traveled with me to Canada, Turkey, Alaska, England, and Iceland. I really wanted to use a Fleece Artist yarn this year and decided on Sea Wool, a Seacell blend.
What is Seacell? It’s a fiber that’s created from seaweed, similar to how rayon is created using other plant fibers and bamboo rayon is made using fiber from bamboo plants. It has a sheen that I think goes very well with the pewter color of the yarn.
I might have had a lot of fun putting together the patterns (and, as you can see, the photo shoot) for this August’s sock club shipment. The socks are knit in Enchanted Knoll Farm EKF Superwash Sock yarn which is squishy yet durable.
This is Jedi Mind Tricks – which of course looks far more complicated than it is.
And this is Gyokuro, named for a type of Japanese green tea.
These patterns are exclusive to the Cookie A Sock Club until August 15, 2013.
It’s been a little while, but better late than never: there are two prize winners for finishing projects from June’s sock club shipment.
Sock club knitters loved the Plucky Knitter yarn last month and found some great inspiration from Iceland.
The random number generator at Random.org helped choose the lucky winners – coincidentally, they both happen to be from Texas, and they both knit both Solfar and Reykjavik! Congratulations to Kim and Leslie. I’ll be sending out a skein of Plucky Knitter Plucky Feet to each of you, as well as an Icelandic knitting book and a little goodie from my trip to Iceland.
