Stick & Soak tattoos
Posted: 25/10/2011 Filed under: Design, SWhowto, SWProducts | Tags: tattoos 5 CommentsAs you may have heard, we are now selling knitting inspired tattoos. From frogs, to yarn balls, to rulers, these tattoos are great as stocking stuffers, treats for guilds, or just to share with your knitting friends. We made this quick video to show you how easy they are to apply and how great they look on.
Buy your own sheet at soakwash.com.
Monkey baths
Posted: 24/10/2011 Filed under: SW101, SWCustomerContributions, SWhowto, SWsoak | Tags: stuffed animals 1 CommentCaroline, our new office administrator, has been sharing Soak with all her family and friends. I loved this photo of her nephew’s monkey. Because he carries this monkey everywhere, her sister-in-law had to wait until he was peacefully asleep before she could sneak in and grab the monkey. 
He looks like he was really enjoying his relaxing Soak bath.
Remember, Soak is gentle and non-toxic, so it’s great for all of your children’s clothing, stuffed animals, and baby blankets.
Inked in LA.
Posted: 30/09/2011 Filed under: Design, SWmain 1 CommentAs many of you may have heard, we launched our newest product, Stick & Soak tattoos, over the weekend at Vogue Knitting Live. We wanted to share some of the fun photos we took of the fantastic people that stopped by our booth and got ‘inked’. Do you recognize any of these faces? 
Didn’t get a chance to buy a sheet at VKLive? You can order yours today at soakwash.com.
From Maker to Making a Living
Posted: 16/08/2011 Filed under: Business, Craft, Design, school, SWevents, SWpress 2 CommentsDo you ever feel like your entrepreneurial skills are not up to par with your creative instinct? Do you wish there had been just one business class at art school? Are you facing more questions than answers related to your craft business? Our very own Jacqueline Sava has the solutions for you.
From Maker to Making a Living is a workshop series designed to guide craftspeople through the process of understanding, designing and building their individual businesses. Led by maker and award winning business leader Jacqueline Sava, attendees will be guided through an eight-part series of lectures, exercises and activities focused on the development of their own craft-based business practices.
The knowledge and skills obtained in these workshops will allow makers to successfully balance their personal craft philosophies with the realities of marketing, selling and profiting from their businesses. At the end of the workshop series, each craftsperson will have a custom plan to ensure a successful transition from where they are to where they want to be, and balance their personal craft philosophy with the realities of marketing, selling and profiting from business.
WHEN: From Maker to Making a Living will take place as eight evening sessions between 6:30 – 8:30 pm on the following dates, in Toronto, ON Canada:
• Monday, October 3: Myth busting. Making money is okay.
• Tuesday, October 4: Options. Exploring without losing your soul.
• Tuesday, October 11: Personal branding. Understanding your purpose.
• Wednesday, October 12: Business goals. Defining a vision.
• Monday, October 17: Costing per product. Am I really making money?
• Tuesday, October 18: Costing in general. All the other expenses.
• Monday, October 24: Selling. Wholesale, retail, pricing, and all that jazz.
• Tuesday, October 25: Charting the course. Deciding which way to go.
To register for this course, visit the Ontario Crafts Council website here.
Travelling Soak – Southern Africa
Posted: 15/08/2011 Filed under: Soak Worthy People, SWCustomerContributions, SWmain Leave a commentOne of the best parts of my job is reading emails from happy customers. I especially enjoy them when there are photos attached that show all the great soakworthy items that they are caring for with Soak.
Last year, I had a customer call and tell me that our mini-soaks were great for her son who is a volunteer with the Peace Corps over in Southern Africa. After chatting with her for a bit, I mentioned that I would love it if she could send me some photos for our blog and then just last week, I opened my inbox to find these great photos! She had a difficult time getting him to send her photos (I believe due to the lack of computer and internet connection on his end), so she had waited until her trip to visit him to take these photos.
There is very limited running water where he is stationed so doing laundry can be quite a challenge.
- When doing your laundry at home, we do recommend using enough water so that your garments can move around freely.
We hope all the best for her son! You can visit this link for information about joining the Peace Corps. Continue making my day by sending me your Soak photos! ngoc@soakwash.com.
CurveNY 2011
Posted: 11/08/2011 Filed under: Business, lingerie, SWevents, tradeshow Leave a commentAfter spending 5 days in Portland, Chris and I boarded a plane to meet Jacqueline in New York City.
- These great ruffle panties are from our friends at Lavit
I’m usually the behind the scenes person that handles all the logistics for tradeshows so it was nice to attend and meet many of the faces that I only knew through email correspondance. I stepped into the showroom and was surrounded by the most beautiful and luxurious lingerie. You know, the kind that you save up to buy that will make your partner’s jaw hit the ground. I actually aquired a few new pieces that I’ll talk about in a later post.
Lacey was formally introduced to all of our lingerie stores and she was an instant hit. Our customers couldn’t wait to add her to their store collection.
- Lacey at the Soak booth
While walking around and taking in all that New York has to offer, Jacqueline and Chris stumbled across this great vintage shop full of clothes, purses and shoes. Of course it wouldn’t be a complete New York trip without trying on a pair or two of beautiful shoes.
While on the topic of pretty shoes, I wanted to share some great whites ones that we saw at Lille Boutique in Portland. 
This lingerie boutique was very minimal in their selection but every item looked like it was carefully hand picked and beautiful . 
All in all, it was a very successful and fun week but boy was I ever happy to sleep in my own bed again.
Sock Summit 2011
Posted: 05/08/2011 Filed under: Business, Knitting, SWevents, tradeshow Leave a comment
Chris and I are finally home after a long week of beautiful yarns, delicious donuts, and friendly people. I think I will have to add Portland to my list cities that I love. The weather was great, the transit system was efficient, and their downtown had great restaurants, cute shops, great food carts and one giant book store.
We saw people carrying these bright pink boxes around and heard that you can’t go to Portland without having a VooDoo donut. 
I choose the maple bacon which actually have a full strip of bacon on top of it. As we walked along the river, we noticed that there was a beer festival being held and stopped in to look around. 
We met some sheep that were about to get sheared. Look at that face! 
We saw a lot of beautiful yarns. The Sincere Sheep is a company that uses all natural dyes to create these beautiful colours. We’ll talk more about them in a later post.
Hundreds of people showed up to participate in the super secret flash mob dance incorporating colourful skeins of yarn! Here’s the youtube video of the dance courtesy of ‘knittinglikecrazy’ 
Along with all the yarns, there were also great embellishments including these cute buttons from Jennie the Potter. 
There were lots of great pairs of hand knit socks! 
And of course it wouldn’t be a knitting show without some yarn bombing. 
We had a great time and can’t wait until next year! Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth to say hi.
Last Chance to buy Sola
Posted: 25/07/2011 Filed under: Design, SWpromotions, SWsoak | Tags: limited edition, Sola Leave a comment
We were going through our warehouse the last week and came across our last few bottles of the limited edition fragrance, Sola. We’ve been holding on to these bottles as they have all been specially signed by Amy Butler herself. Since we’ve had some customers asking us if we will carry Sola again so we’ve decided to put the rest of our stock online. Order your bottle today before they are all gone from soakwash.com.
Lacey, she sure has kept us busy.
Posted: 14/07/2011 Filed under: Knitting, Soak Fragrances, SWProducts, SWpromotions, SWsoak 1 CommentMeet Lacey. The newest fragrance in the Soak family. She’s an original. A new design. Front runner in a new look for Soak, just in time for an array of summer events. Stick with her. She’s going places.
First things first. What does it smell like? That’s always the first question. Before commenting on how pretty the bottle is, before the new design, before availability. This modern scent combines spring blossoms with sweet bergamot creating a light yet alluring fragrance. Lovely, in a word. Just lovely.
You’ll start to see bottles pop up at local shops, in magazines and online. While you wait for it to show up in your local shop, you can purchase it online at our shop. Own a shop? Email Chris to get a case sent out immediately.
Feedback from the front line? So far, it’s all fantastic.
Becky, manager at La Maison d’Eva Fine Lingerie says, “LOVE LOVE LOVE the Lacey! It has almost sold out, everyone loves it! Love the bottle design too, it’s pretty and looks very chic.”
Secrets from your Sister staff say, “The labels look great!!!”
Our favorite tweet thus far, from hand-dyed yarn company Lorna’s Laces when they saw the first photos, “I wish my computer had scratch and sniff!”
You may notice that Lacey has many personalities. She’s unique, yet different. We’ve worked long and hard to develop a unique production process allowing us to have a series of bottle designs for each new fragrance. You can collect them. They’ll appear and deliver randomly. More on that later.
We’re also working with leading edge designers, including Tall Poppy, who designed the graphics for our first new bottle. We’ll feature each designer in upcoming posts as we introduce both them and our unique design process. You’ll simply fall over when you hear about the roster of designers we’ve got lined up. Trust me, you’ll jump for joy, start collecting bottles and twirl with excitement over our upcoming designs.
This summer our first stop is Sock Summit in booth 607. Catch Carrie and Phil, Heel and of course Lacey at our booth. Meet Ngoc, our marketing coordinator. This’ll be her first big show. She’ll be there with knitter extraordinaire, Chris. Where’s Jacqueline you ask? She’ll be heading up the booth at Curve (lingerie show, for the knitters out there) in New York. Soak will be in booth 427.
Later in the summer, after some much deserved rest (and a lot of shipping) we’ll be at the NorthWest NeedleArts Market in Seattle, then at Vogue KNitting Live in LA. Fall will be here before we know it, bringing more new scents, innovations and great ideas you’ve come to expect from the experts at Soak.
Enjoy.
Meet Lacey
Posted: 08/07/2011 Filed under: SWmain, SWProducts, SWpromotions, SWsoak Leave a comment
Here she is, our newest fragrance, Lacey. She’s a material girl, soft and sweet. One glance and you’ll fall in love. Invite her home and you’ll never let her go. We are at her first photo shoot. You’ll see more from her over the next few days!
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