An otherwise ordinary Friday.

Friday is always better with a little knitting, felt, or jewelry love. Wishing you all of them.

It would be a typical Friday, if it weren’t for the fact that I’m wearing my favorite recycled cashmere sweater (with a hint of lace) and my new Cara Romano earring, acquired at VKLive. They’ve got tiny turquoise felted beads placed in a silver setting. I’m smitten.

This weekend, Cara is at the American Craft Council show in Baltimore.

You can see more of her lovely jewelry here. Her beautiful site is FLASH, so I can’t pin all the lovely photos, but here’s her felt ball color chart, really, do you need more?

My RISD friend Anna Katherine Johnson Curfman will also be there. She owns a great felt clothing company called Indigo Crane.  This is one of her pieces. She sells on her website and in galleries. Her work is lovely.

I hope your Friday is filled with crafty clothing and hand-made jewelry. I’m off to New York Monday for the lingerie trade show, booth 123, so if you are in town, do visit. -j.

Meet Holly, Our Newest Soak Contributor!

Hi, I’m Holly, and used to be an awful lingerie washer. I was one of those people who put all my bras through the washing machine and the dryer, and then wondered why the wires popped out six months later. Which didn’t really matter, because most of them didn’t fit properly anyway.

Years later (read: now), I’m a professional lingerie copywriter, blogger, and collector. I also wash everything the right way: by hand. I’m the owner and copywriter behind The Full Figured Chest and I was recently named the number one lingerie copywriter on the Internet by The Lingerie Journal. When I’m not working for clients, I write several columns for places like The Lingerie Addict, Bella Bella Boutique, and multiple trade journals. I’m really excited to be writing for Soak, as I currently have an entire shelf in my house dedicated to Soak products.

I first found Soak as a lingerie wash, but later discovered that there’s a whole knitting community of there who love it as well. I can’t wait to get to know all of you, but today I thought I’d start with some of my personal favorites from the Soak line. I’ll also talk a little bit about how I use them on a daily or weekly basis.

First up is The Phil Basin. Before I discovered Soak, I was washing my lingerie in a plastic tub from target. While this worked on a technical level, it was really hard to fit a lot in and really get things clean. The Phil Basin makes all of that much easier. I use it as a laundry hamper for my lingerie during the week, and then do one big wash on the weekend. The Phil Basin is large enough for me to wash a week’s worth or more of lingerie (and I go through an awful lot of it due to review samples) without resorting to my sink or bathtub. I’m not sure what amount it technically holds, but as my 20 pound springer spaniel mix dog has taken to hanging out in it recently I suspect it’s big enough for anyone’s needs. As an added bonus, it keeps my guy happy since he doesn’t have to deal with worrying about separating my lingerie from the rest of the wash.

As far as scents go, I’m currently alternating between the Citrus scent and the Lacey scent. I was a little nervous about the Lacey scent at first, because my strongest association with bergamot is Earl Grey tea, but it smells wonderful and light. The Citrus scent is a great pick me up, and I love how it hangs around once my lingerie is neatly stacked back in my drawers.

Last up is the Heel foot cream tubs. I’m currently on Spearmint, but I’m definitely going to grab some of the Cucumber scent this month. I’ve got incredibly sensitive skin, but these creams are thick and feel great. I use mine at least once a day as a pick me up or a way to relax. I’d honestly love to see Soak put out a full range of cosmetic products like bubble baths and body creams.

I’ll be back once a month writing about the lingerie world and Soak, so please leave a comment and say hi! I can’t wait to get to know all of you. If you’ve got any lingerie or lingerie washing questions, leave them in the comments as well. I’ll come back through and answer them all individually in the next few days.

We saved a little Maven, just for you.

We are back from an exciting weekend at Vogue Knitting Live.

There were a shocking number of requests from those of you not attending VKLive for our new and exclusive Maven Gift Sets. We are thrilled with your passionate responses to our product launches. We decided to hold a few back, so you (try to hold back the excitement) can buy them from soakwash.com without having been at VKLive.

Each skein of Solemate yarn is signed and numbered. The Heel included is our famous and wildly popular Cucumber scent. We’ve included a Lacey (what else?) minisoaks as well. No excuses now. Get one and get knitting. I’m aspiring to have a skein on needles by the time I head off to TNNA Thursday. We shall see!

While you are shopping with us, support The Heart Truth® by ordering our StitchRed gift set. Five percent of gross profits from sales from this Flora gift set will benefit the Foundation for the National Institutes of Health (FNIH) in support of The Heart Truth®. This great program was created by our friends at JimmyBeansWool.com. There are several other products available, from all your favorite knitting industry companies.

You may have not heard, but Flora as been put on the side lines, giving space to new fragrances, so this is the only way to purchase Flora Soak at this time.

We’re off to catch up and prepare for TNNA. We can’t wait to see what you knit with Maven (and how happy your hands and feet are with matching Heel). Don’t forget to send pictures! Enjoy!

Maven: trusted expert in a particular field, who seeks to pass knowledge on to others.

We’ve got a special treat for you, exclusively at Vogue Knitting Live. (booth 2801)

With great success we launched our Lorna’s Laces + Heel gift sets, just in time for holiday. With VKLive right around the corner we thought we’d up the ante with an exclusive Soak colorway and gift set. We also thought you might want to know how custom colorways come to exist. So, here it is.

We’ve got 60 custom, numbered and signed skeins of Maven (our new colorway), with matching custom heel labels, in cute little gift boxes arriving just in time for VKLive. Be there, or be square. Once they are gone, they’ll be history (or socks, scarves, mittens etc.).

So, where to begin. We sent this photo to Beth and Amanda over at Lorna’s Laces. These are our top scents to carry us forward (you should be very familiar with them by now!). We love our colors, we always have. Then, they went to work. Really, just like that! Before we knew it, we started receiving pictures back. It was super exciting. This is what newly dyed yarn looks like when it’s drying. Cool isn’t it?

Then, we received this photo. It helped us decide exactly which shades worked, and which order the colors should be in. We thought and thought, discussed and discussed, and finally agreed on tones, intensities, colors and stripes. It was quite the challenge. We even consulted a couple of industry experts. 

Where to next? Well, all 60 skeins were dyed up and Beth (yup, really), signed and numbered each one. (isn’t she the best?)

This is the final skein (lovely, if I do say so myself). And here is the Heel label. It’s cucumber. Your favorite.

60 and counting. See you in New York (Jan 13-15, Friday 5:00 p.m.–8:00 p.m. Saturday 9:00 a.m.–6:00 p.m. & Sunday 9:00 a.m.–4:30 p.m., if they last that long!)

A little summer in December (and a chance to win a bottle of Lacey).

We just received these great photos from Julie, owner of The Needle Emporium in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. She meant to send them in the summer, sometimes it’s nice to see green grass in the winter. We live in Canada afterall.

“Roko loves playing ball. I had just finished blocking something and had clean water in Phil to wash him (we assume the sweater, not Roko) out. My sister was throwing the ball and it landed in Phil. The dogs thought it was great. Melo (who has the soccer ball) isn’t so much into playing ball but loved getting the ball out of the water.” says Julie.

We love great uses for our Carrie and Phil basins. What have you done with yours lately?

Send us a photo of your basin in use, and you could win a bottle of our new Lacey!

Email photos to jacqueline@soakwash.com  by January 31st, 2012. Plenty of time to get through holiday! Winners will be selected and our favorite pics will be posted here.

If you are near Ancaster, stop in at The Needle Emporium. It’s a lovely local shop carrying the full selection of Soak products. May summer come soon, so we can all get back outside and play!

Free shipping this holiday, with best wishes from Soak!

If you’re already a Soak lover, now is your chance to stock up. Check out our newest fragrance, Lacey. Invite Carrie or Phil home. If you’ve a knitter in your life, it’s the perfect time to grab one of our gift sets.

We are offering free shipping on all orders placed by December 14th at soakwash.com

No promo code needed so share the love, tell your friends and don’t forget to treat yourself as well.
Thank you for your continued support. We really appreciate it. Really, we do. We appreciate every order, every tweet, every kind word of support for our growing business. We love the passionate support you show for what we do. -Jacqueline.