Mongrel Socks Christmas

Time flies........team Mongrel Socks have been busy little beavers getting all those Xmas orders out. I felt like Santa dragging our jags of parcels in to the post office today, then a lot like a sheep when I saw the queue out the door. Ah well.
It's been a big few weeks for Mongrel Socks and we have the photo's to prove it.
The Oprah roadshow hit Australia last week, with her best friend Gayle King (with two film crews) and the Tasmanian contingent visiting the Mongrel Socks Factory outlet at Hobart's Salamanca Market, much to our surprise and delight. Most exciting was that Gayle arrived already wearing our humble pure wool socks, and then went on to purchase (driving a hard bargin too) some of our Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/Leg Warmers. Yee Ha! Typically, I fumbled around and giggled like a teenager, doing a great impersonation of a scared bunny caught in the headlights.

I probably should have thought about the mannequin leg placement before I took the photo, oops! Sorry Gayle!

Must remember to hold the camera still, although pretty all the same.

The Saddle, Mullumbimby.

I'm sure he was smiling at me?

Gayle King and the lovely Mongrel Socks' Sharon Stegeman - Ms King was so kind to allow us a photo with her,  she is absolutely gorgeous inside and so clearly out!
Miscellaneous images from the a

 

The weather was wild at the Brunswick Heads river mouth - it would have been a hairy ride for these sailors over the bar.

The changing colour of socks.

That making socks can be repetitive...is an understatement. When we finish a run of a colour in all the sizes and different products we make. Even if we began liking the colour mix, by the time we're ready to change colour we are well and truly sick of the sight of it.  Always a pleasure to choose the next colour mix. While we do have a standard colour range in our Pure Wool products, dye lots change and so does the way the final blend appears. It can only be a slight change in the shade, of say one of the seven colours we blend together, to make the socks, arm and leg warmers and head warmers, they can appear very different to the last run. Yay! A changing colour day today - we've been doing the Camo green mix, while it's nice, is is quite dull. We are back on my favourite Blue/Green pure wool socks mix. It's day one of the run and I still love it, give me a week or two and I will have developed an aversion, so much so that I won't even be able to wear that colour for a while, I'll be over it. Funny how the mind works, eh?

#4 made!

Yee ha! #4 in 101 uses for old socks is wrist warmers. I haven't had my act together enough to photograph them but will do asap. It wasn't hard to find #4 I've been making and wearing them for many years. Already one of my favorite things, together with the longer pure wool arm/leg warmers we make.

Any day we'll have our new supplies of pure cotton space dyed knee high and crew length socks. We're so happy. We love them, and it seems our customers do to. Both Ladies and Mens sizes knee high or crew with all 6 original multi-colour with the addition of 2 new colour mixes and plain black completed any day (or say 2 weeks) now. Bring it on.

Head Warmer weather

Just loving the all the new colours in our Mongrel Tasmanis pure wool Head Warmer range, in the Arm/Leg Warmers as well. They've been getting a good reception at Salamanca Market, where we do all our market research, our customers down there have never lead us astray. You can always count on Tasmanians to be honest with their face to face feedback. Good or bad they're happy to let us know exactly what they think. Even via email our customers don't hold back. Often liberal with praise, ( I Like) but today we opened an email with lashings of unhappiness. Oh dear! A customer unhappy her pure wool socks wore out, we hear her pain. Sadly, the one reality in the life of Pure Wool socks is for all that is good, better than the rest, nothing is surer your Pure Wool Mongrel Socks will, without doubt, wear out, at some stage. Every wearer is differant, I regularly sell socks to folks who tell me they are replacing 4 year old socks that are still going strong, right next to someone who's socks have worn out in a few heavy wearing months. Why? goodness knows. But one thing we do know, if longevity is more important to comfort, best customers pick our Tuff Mongrel Socks over the Pure Wool. They won't be disappointed.

8 sleeps 'til Xmas

I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote. Here at the home of Mongrel Socks it' been a big month. Lots of orders coming in and going out. It's that time of year. I mentioned inthe last pot that I had been having a stab at making beanies, I did try to post some pictures but I couldn't get them up online. Anyway, I sold the lot! Which I'm taking as a very positive sign for the future of Mongrel Tasmanis Headwear. I'm still fiddling with the designs, and have come up with a one that I'm hoping will be a stayer. It's very unusual, loose and comfortable, and suitable for people who have lot's of hair or dreadlocks and even no hair. It can also double as a neck warmer-yes, a very versatile thingy. The beanies will go on the back burner, while we get ready for Xmas and the New Year-but I'm am happy to say they are evolving, and even happier with the fact we are able to make use of what would be waste knit otherwise.
We've got a new lot of Possum/merino socks due to be finished around the end of January, which will replenish our depleted stocks, they have gone off in the last few months. Yay!
Busy working towards our new website, will take a while but will happen.
Our pure wool Mongrel Socks will still be our focus for the next month at least, then we'll start on this years Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/leg warmers. Looking forward to playing with the colour mixes again to see what we come up can come up with. Oh well, best get back to work.

Times ticking!

I can't beleive it's already February. We've had a flat out month, it feels like we've been on fast forward. Hoping it's going to start slowing down soon, but I doubt it. Making our Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, has been keeping us most busy, keeping up supplies of our dozen'ish colour mixes in the four sizes, is a challenge alone, but when our other products like our Head Warmers and Arm/leg Warmers need replenishing.....we're running! We've had a bit of a wait on the production of our Tuff Mongrel heavy duty socks, but the new yarn supplies arrived yesterday so the Tuff Mongrel drought is over. We had sold out of a number of sizes and colours. We are knitting now!After waitng nearly 4 months for this order to arrive( it should have taken 6 weeks), we were beginning to think maybe it wasn't going to come at all. The Yarn is a very expensive hi-tec mix of 60% superwash wool ( the best kind) and 40% Polypropylene, we can't find one better, any where in the world. We have this one imported for us from Germany, Aussie grown wool, processed in Germany, and brought back in to Australia. We wouldn't bother if it wasn't for the fact that this stuff-Climawool*-is so bloody good. The people wearing this expensive fibre blend, love it, live and work in it, with these high performance socks, our customers get what they pay for. No consumer can ask for more than that, and we wouldn't offer less.

Tasmanian dollars and sense.

We’re big fans of all things Tasmanian. Not only do we proudly manufacturer ( and wear) our own Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, Tuff Mongrels, Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/Leg Warmers and Head Warmers, we always seek local product when ever we can. If it’s shopping for vegetables or browsing for a gift, we regularly look for a locally made product over an imported line. We do this for many for reasons. The main being we see the higher value of a dollar spent locally rather than spent on imported goods. A local dollar employs, it enables local enterprise to grow, it stays in the area, ready to be passed on again. It’s not only economic benefits that entice us to spend locally, more often than not, the quality of the local product is superior to the imported equivalent. One huge plus not to be over looked when buying locally is the environmental benefits. Obviously with less transportation, there is less carbon impacting, locally and globally. All good! So it’s more than dollars and cents, its dollars and sense. I’d like to introduce a few of the great Tasmanian made products I’ve found, here in this blogg space over the next few months. All can I personally recommend.
Meadowbank Estate Vineyard is located only a few kilometres from our place, in the beautiful Coal River Valley, over looking the Coal River. Not only is the situation idyllic, the wine is superb. Check out their website www.meadowbankwines.com.au and you’ll see all they have on offer, or even get out there and have a tasting and a bite to eat, the food is impeccable. Check out the FGR Riesling and Pinot Gris both are stunning, and are personal favourites.

Argh! One of those days!

Some days things just don't run smoothly. For no rhyme or reason, things just go pear shape. We're having one today. Wish I could go back to bed and start all over again. Good thing every day is not like this one. Generally, when we hit the sock shop, things are pretty predicable, chores that need doing, get done. Today we made the necessary changes to one of our old Bentley Komets to go in to the Pure Wool Arm/Leg Warmer mode. Nothing too complicated, but changes never the less. Every thing we did was standard but a little fault appeared. Nothing that affects the end product, but it does make it more time consuming in the finishing off process. Not something we want to continue, when time is money. With these old machines the smallest of adjustments can make a huge difference. Hard to believe that a quarter turn of a screw, will result in dramatic changes to the end result. The rigmarole involved in identifying the cause of our problem is particularly time consuming. With every stab at a solution we have to knit more test runs. This is all very slow, and eventually tiresome. Especially when we are running out of things to try.
Anyway, these things are sent to try us.
Best I get my backside down to the shed and get back in to it.
Typically, I did try to upload some photo's of the machine, but my blogger won't let me post any photo's. Why? Who knows. Although it does seem par for the course today. I'll try to get some photo's up soon, well, whenever the cyber gods will allow it.