Delicious Socks

I have always thought some of our pure wool Mongrel Sock colours are good enough to eat but this lass took it a bit too far.

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?

Singing socks!

One of the little joys in our Mongrel sock making
day is when we get to change colour, or even better
still when we have the opportunity to create a
new colour for our range. We generally stick to
a core range of 9 colour mixes, but sometimes
when there's a dye lot change, or unavailability
of a certain colour, the old mix just doesn't work.
It's strange how, for example, a slight change in
one colour of our 7 colour mix, changes the look
of the socks entirely. When the colours don't sing
together, we keep adjusting the differant wool
mixes 'til it pleases us. Funny thing is 'though
often our approval of new colour blends will
depend on our mood at the time and a colour mix
we initially reject, will get taken up at a later date.
It just grows on us. It's a joyous thing for me when a
customer zero's in on a particular colour of Mongrel,
and then will take ages checking out all the colours
we have, then go right back to that first colour.
Another one of Murphy's Law's. Oscar Wilde got
it right when he penned the quote below.

Mere colour, unspoiled by meaning, and unallied
with definite form, can speak to the soul in a
thousand different ways".

Oscar Wilde

Mongrel Socks on the go!

Our Pure Wool Mongrel socks are great! We enjoy making them, creating new colour mixes, and to be quite honest, they are all we wear, ever. One of the best things about making great socks, is seeing them on other Mongrel lovers. It is such a buzz for us. It always makes me feel like I'm doing something right.So I thought I'd share a few pictures of Mongrel socks I spotted when I was out and about. These people have incredibly good taste in socks!

Ecological Possum Socks

Did you know that buying a pair of possum wool socks not only makes you a happy owner of the finest naturally made wool socks, but also makes you an active contributor to preserving New Zealand’s forests? But what has buying a pair of possum wool socks got to do with preserving the forests of New Zealand? Read on to know everything about it.

The brush tail possum is destroying New Zealand’s forests - its native plants, trees and bird life.

Introduced from Australia to New Zealand about 150 years ago, Possums have multiplied alarmingly in New Zealand, partly because of the lack of any natural predator that would arrest their population growth. These nocturnal animals devour the new leaf growth of trees; destroying whole trees and depriving birds of their natural habitat. They also feed on berries, insects and bird's eggs. Unlike the trees in Australia, the native trees of New Zealand do not have protective spines, prickles and poisonous leaves which work as natural defenses against possums.

According to statistical estimates, the total possum population in New Zealand is a whopping 70 million. This means possums are eating their way through roughly 20,000 tons of vegetation, no, not in a year’s time…but all in one night! If this doesn’t give you an idea of how the possums are devastating New Zealand, try to imagine 20 possums attacking the plants and trees of your garden – devouring a quantity that would fill up 2 plastic shopping bags per night. Every year, the possums devour approximately 8 million tons of vegetation – a major threat to the forests and wildlife of New Zealand.

With millions of dollars being spent on trying to eradicate possums, commercial initiatives utilising possum fur are an economic and ecological necessity. The commercial use of possum fur in possum wool socks and other possum products contributes greatly to the preservation of New Zealand’s forests and wildlife.

Possum wool socks and other products thereby serve as an eco friendly way of controlling the possum population. And as luck would have it, not only is possum fur an ecological option for socks, it is luxurious, good for insulating and wicks moisture away from your feet. In fact, our possum fur and merino wool blend makes the perfect sock. They are also machine washable.

So the next time you buy a pair of possum socks you know you are supporting the fight against possums and are helping to preserve the ecological system of New Zealand.

Socks not lost-found!

Yay! A rare day off for me. I thought I'd go and visit my sister at her new digs. I could remember the street name not the house number. How hard could it be to find? Surely I'd see her car in the driveway. Nup! Up and down the dashed road I went, just about to give up when like a shinning beacon there they were. Socks! Our socks! Yes, I'd found the house simply because they were strung up along the balcony railing, who else has nearly every colour of Mongrel Socks( apart from me), my brother in law and sister. We're always hearing about lost socks but hey, now we have people locating socks.