Smelly Feet - step right up.

Better Health Vic has a bit to say about smelly feet. We already knew our wool, cotton, bamboo and possum socks were wonderful to wear, but it's nice to see the word getting out. Here in Mongrel Socks Land we love natural fibre's. Check this independent recommendation of natural fibre worn for health.   www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

Back to the drawing board...

The pure wool socks gauntlet/cuffs liner needs tweaking. Oh well, Rome wasn't built in a day. After doing the 5 washes just to see what it does or would do for a potential customer - BIG FAIL. I'm glad I bothered, as impatient as I am. Not that I am worried, best it fails on me, eh? Now looking for a stretch binding to tidy the edging, that won't shrink. A few more trials ahead but we really want to get this product happening. It would be a great to turn our waste socks in to some thing useful. Not only in the dollar sense, in the ethical sense too. Less landfill, completely recycled, showing corporate responsibility for reducing "end of useful life" waste. I thinking we could even offer this as a service to our customers as a way to further the life of their old socks.

It's been ages since I last blogged. Lots happening. Busy sorting a new supplier and product, I can't talk about it just yet in case it puts the mockers on it like the gauntlet/cuffs. New fabulous natural fibre socks is as much as I can divulge. What I can talk about is( yay!) the Fine Possum/Merino socks are finally replenished. The socks are once again available online.
Here's a few pictures of our wonderful customers out and about wintery Hobart.

Polars Bears, Caribou and Possum.....same,same but different.

Mongrel Tasmanis Possum Boot Socks













 image credit
www.firstpeople.us








image credit : Bob Stevens; 
US Fish and Wildlife Service; license: public domain

image credit
Me



These hollow fibre fur wearing animals, from very different environments,  enjoy the fantastic thermal qualities of natural hollow fibre. Now you can too. New Zealands feral Possum ravaged bush appreciates it as well. A sustainable environmentally and economically sound product.

Every time I turn around.

...a week has gone by. Here I am again. Big busy weeks, still finishing in our tax stuff and the usual. I'm really excited, I am sitting here trialing our long await new Possum Socks. First time I've been out of our pure wool Mongrels since I can remember. I love my mongrels but these feel great. Our long awaited ( and still waiting) new supply of possum/merino yarn is due at the end of August, and we are all but sold out of the last run. Not wanting to be unable to meet demand ( in the middle of winter) we have sourced a New Zealand made hi-tech construction Possum/Merino sock for our customers to try.

They are very different to our fine possum sock. With arch support, soft rib top, reinforced and padded sole, toe and heel, light weight and no seam. Wow! These babies have all the bells and whistles. They feel good. I'll be interested how they'll be after a few washes. Will keep you posted.
Our property abounds with wildlife especially birds. We love it although it can be noisy. Yesterday afternoon the birds were particularly noticable. I grabbed the camera thinking I'd get a few up close bird shots, while  drinking a cuppa on the verandah. There were birds every where, but do you think I could get a shot, not a chance. I did manage  to grab this shot, although a nano second earlier the tree had 20 odd western Rosella's in it. It reminds me of my friend Nerines beautiful clothing, click on the link and you'll see why.

Spam or is it?

With winter here we've been flat out making socks. As usual our customers are often a source of delight. There are some great people out there. Business through our new website has been very encouraging, but there is a down side - we are getting a lot more spam and unwelcome emails. Yin/yang, I guess. Some have a certain quality about them. Here's a couple I have received lately, as they came......



I really liked your produktsiya.V our area so do not prodayut.Ya would like what would you send me free samples for tests, and, if I like it I will recommend you to our shop!  Mailing address in Russia also supplied.


I think not.

And this one speaks (screams) for itself


Just when I thought I'd get through the bloody day without somebody once again kicking me in the guts!!! WHAMMO !!!! thanks for nothing.

After listening to this fool rabbitting on for 10 mins about how bloody fantastic these mongrel socks were, I thought I'd check them out on the net...YOU LOST ME COMPLETLY WHEN IT CAME TO THE PART OF THE POSSUM SLAUGHTER...CHRIST ALLMIGHTY WHAT NEXT???????????? WHERE THE HELL DOES THE HUMAN RACE GET OFF THINKING IT CAN KILL ANYTHING THAT THEY DEEM A PEST TO END THEIR OWN SELFISH MEANS...IF THEY ARE EATING THE NATIVE VEGETATION...PLANT MORE BLOODY TREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!DON'T WIPE THE POSSUMS OFF THE FACE OF THE PLANET, JUST TO MAKE FREAKING SOCKS FOR THE SPECIES THAT'S ALREADY GOT MORE LUXURIES THAN THEY DESERVE.BUT IT'S JUST TYPICAL ISN'T IT? IF IT MOVES .....KILL IT !! SHOVE YOUR BLOODY SOCKS WHERE THE SUN DOES NOT & WILL NOT EVER SHINE...

Nothing I can say to that.

An this last one below, some one with too much time on their hands, just like me -  noting my lengthy response. One I was rather proud of.

Dear Mongrel Socks, 

In your professional opinion, where do all the missing left socks disappear to?

Best wishes, 


Hi Alastair,
I have over the years giving your question some thought - I'm a conspiracy theorist.
I think the big multi national hosiery companies know that thier sales increase when socks go astray long before being worn out so....... to encourage a natural separation of socks they knit in to the sock positve magnetised threads that will ensure the law of physics will not allow any pair to come together once they have been taken out of thier wrapping. It should be noted our socks do not feeture this addition and as such our buyers have a far greater chance of simply wearing our socks out rather than losing them. I must remember to note this on our web site as a key feeture.
Have a good day!
Cheers,
Helen.
ps there is such a thing as sock clips attached before washing to keep them together, might be worth a try for you. Sorry we don't sell them but they're online somewhere.


mmm?

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.

Love it! Treasure it!

I was checking out our web site stats etc today and noticed a bit of traffic coming from a source I wasn’t expecting. Most of our traffic is via direct address or the most common search engines. Today’s little surprise made me smile. We are a family of readers, reading all genre’s, with a particular liking for Aussie authors. So when I noticed we had traffic coming from a website of a best selling Australian author, one whose books I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I had to check out the how/why/where. I was so happy to read her blog and find she loves our pure wool socks and is giving our Possum Socks a go. It’s always’s nice to hear good things about what you do, especially from someone whose work you respect yourself.
She’s a local girl, turns out we live only a few hills apart. Not close by road but not far at all “as the crow flies”. What are the chances of us making one of our favourite authors, some of her favourite socks? It’s a small world. The authors name is Rachael Treasure, rachaeltreasure.com , a woman of many talents. Not only does she write great Aussie fiction and has particularly good taste in socks, she’s I also a wife, mum, farmer and busy writing a guide on dog training. Those mongrel socks she wears must sure get a work out. Anyway, if your in the market for a guide on how to get your mongrel to toe the line, keep an eye out for her next literary offering, and in the meantime check out her books, “Jillaroo” “The Roustabout” or “The Stockman”, they’re a good Aussie escape.

Possum Mayhem

Living on the edge of native bushland, as we do, we have wildlife aplenty. Generally, its a delight, and a special treat to have creatures both furry, feathered and scaled, close to us. An unexpected pleasure watching them go about their business. Not having any domestic pet's (since our dear old dog died), has seen the native population explode. Having lost our much loved and irreplaceable family mongrel, the gorgeous staffordshire bull terrier, Zac, we just couldn't take on another. He'd be a very hard act to follow. He was placid, obedient, and pretty tolerant around other animals, (even cats didn't get his attention), but would still play-up like a puppy well in to old age. All good except when it came to possums. Zac was a very effective deterrent. So we never really had the problems with possum damage we are now experiencing. As cute looking as possums are, we really do regard them as vermin, the rat's of the Aussie bush, around our house. Being a protected species here in Tasmania, there's not a lot we can do about them. They are voracious eater's, and not fussy either. Not only is our garden being knocked around, all the natives tree's we've planted on our acreage are taking a hit. Worse still, they some how are able to un-clip the lids off our garbage bins and rip, spread and scatter all our household rubbish. And just to add insult to injury they cover the lot (or so it seems), with urine and the other. Urgh!
Today, as I repacked our rubbish, again, totally pinged off with the rotten little buggers, a thought sprang to mind, making me laugh out loud. I'm still smiling :)
There I was up to my elbow's in yuck wearing the lovely, warm, possum fur/merino wool socks we produce. Ha! I'm gonna thumb my nose at those furry little possums from now on. I've known for along time what Possum's are good at, now I know what they're good for.
Keeping warm!
They say "Revenge is a dish best eaten cold" They're right.

Free Socks!

For the months of Oct-Nov '07 we are offering all our online customers a chance to try either our Mongrel Tasmanis Possum Socks or cotton rich Dr Socks for free with online purchases over $50 (for a free pair of Dr Socks) or with orders over $100 you'll receive a free pair of Possum Socks to try. Both are a completely different product to our ever popular Pure Wool Mongrel Socks and our Tuff Mongrel Socks, both are a fine sock rather than the thick and woolly nature of our Mongrels. The Dr Socks are a healthy fine cotton rich(95% Cotton/5% Elastine) featuring a loose non-restrictive top with no toe seam to irritate sensitive toes. These socks are great worn in warm weather, when bare feet is not an option. They are light weight and very comfortable. We have sizes from Ladies right thru to XL men's size, with a good range of colours.
Our Possum Socks are also a lighter weight sock, good worn in shoes that won't allow a thick sock comfortably. These socks are incredibly warm for their weight, featuring a top that is generous, so won't grab tight on your ankles. They are made of Possum Fur blended with Merino Superwash Wool (33% of each) with stretch nylon(33%) to give the user decent usability. These socks are machine washable unlike many of our competitors offerings.
All you need to do to take advantage of this offer is type in special notes area of our online order form "free socks" with your size when ordering and you'll received your free gift.

Yay!

We are jumping for joy, our new range of Possum Socks are finally finished! It seems to have taken forever to get these babies knitted. The wait was worth it. We have added a plain black sock in both ladies and men's sizes, and continued with oatmeal, blood red and blue. We had the yarn processed to our specifications, mixing possum fur with a 19 micron superwash(worsted) wool, making our Possum Wool socks machine washable,(unlike many of our competitors). Who wants to hand wash their socks? Not us! We've come up with a light weight, but incredibly warm sock. One that can be worn with the snuggest of dress shoes, which you can't fit your thick & warm woolly socks in to, not compromising your warmth and comfort. We love them!

The wait is almost over!

Finally the Possum Wool Sock drought is over (nearly). Our great range of Possum Wool Socks is soon to be replenished. The possum’s plucked, the sheep’s shorn, yarn's spun and landed at the factory door, are being knitted and finished as I write. The yarn we commisioned is 30% Possum Fur and 70% 19 micron superwash Merino Wool. We are very happy to be adding another colour to the range too. These socks are a fine, incredibly warm dress sock. These babies are so good, our Salamanca outlet customers will purchase and put them straight on!

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.