Knitter’s Frolic in TWO days!

Knitter’s Frolic

We’re busily preparing for this year’s DKC Frolic!
We’re packing new bottles of Yuzu Soak and Handmaid luxury hand creme,
Yuzu Twosome
Soakboxes galore,
Soakbox #1
Basins,
Carrie
Stick n’ Soak tattos,
Temporary Tattoos
And of course bottles and bottles and bottles of Soak!
Soak bottles staggered
Come see us. Come shop. Come say hello. We look forward to seeing you there!

Knitter’s Frolic

15th Annual Knitter’s Frolic

Saturday & Sunday, April 27-28, 2013

Marketplace: Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Workshops: Saturday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Sunday 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre
6 Garamond Court, Toronto, Ontario

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Weekly Affirmation: White Quilt Rescue

Every Thursday we post a comment, tweet, email or secret message we’ve received from one of our Soakworthy customers (stores, fans, consumers, friends). Sometimes, on a rough day, it’s really helpful to read an inspiring message from someone in our community. Someone who appreciates what we do. Someone who is as passionate about Soak as we are. We appreciate all the love that comes our way. Really we do.


Anonymous posted on the blog a while back.

“At the Guild we had a white quilt with marking pencil tracings that would not come out despite trying several different methods that usually work. We had a small sample of soak so decided to try it. We diluted it with a bit of water and dabbed it on the lines. Magically they disappeared leaving no residue and we had a much relieved quilt maker.”

So glad to hear that the quilt was saved! You can hop on over to our 101 Soak Uses to check out other creative uses for Soak products.


Weekly Affirmation: Soakworthy events

Every Thursday we post a comment, tweet, email or secret message we’ve received from one of our Soakworthy customers (stores, fans, consumers, friends). Sometimes, on a rough day, it’s really helpful to read an inspiring message from someone in our community. Someone who appreciates what we do. Someone who is as passionate about Soak as we are. We appreciate all the love that comes our way. Really we do.


From Lisette D & Danielle Bowen, Knitique, A Yarn Boutique, via email.

Dear Chris (she’s our Chief Soaksperson),

Thank you again to Soak for your donation of the Soak samples for our fund raising event for Louisa’s charity Macmillan Cancer Support. 

Our event was an overwhelming success and we raised over $1, 400.00 for Macmillan Cancer Support. 

The attendee’s loved that their Louisa Harding hat kit came with a Soak sample!

 

Thank you again for your donation and thank you for being a company that cares.

It’s our pleasure. If you are a Soak retailer and you’ve got an event. We would be honoured to hear about it. Thanks Lisette!


Weekly Affirmation: Travelling with Soak

Every Thursday we post a comment, tweet, email or secret message we’ve received from one of our Soakworthy customers (stores, fans, consumers, friends). Sometimes, on a rough day, it’s really helpful to read an inspiring message from someone in our community. Someone who appreciates what we do. Someone who is as passionate about Soak as we are. We appreciate all the love that comes our way. Really we do.


From Karen, in a comment on the blog.

“As much as I overall suck at packing the one thing that I always pack now is Soak soap. A lingerie store in Toronto got me on to it. I use it for all my hand-washables at home but took it with me when I travelled to Europe. I can wash tanks and camis in the sink and throw them over the shower rod to dry. In Europe we used it to wash socks, underwear and sweaters.”

Thanks Karen! Soak is a great way to stretch your clothing a little further while on vaction. It is especially handy now that we have our minisoaks and  flight friendly 3oz sizes.

Soak 3oz


Weekly Affirmation : Soak Scents

Every Thursday we post a comment, tweet, email or secret message we’ve received from one of our Soakworthy customers (stores, fans, consumers, friends). Sometimes, on a rough day, it’s really helpful to read an inspiring message from someone in our community. Someone who appreciates what we do. Someone who is as passionate about Soak as we are. We appreciate all the love that comes our way. Really we do. 


 
From Facebook
“The best washing solution for your hand knit items! I love using SOAK!! Smells are awesome without being over the top.” – Sandie Russo
 
Thanks so much Sandie! We agree that the scents are just right.
 
We are up and blogging on a regular basis again! Please feel free to leave a testimonial of your own about in the comments here, on Facebook or via email and twitter.

Soak, on the Shopping Channel! Watch it now.

We’ve been busy, and a bit out of touch with the blog. Thankfully it has been all in the name of good things and lots of work! We’ll be more on top of this moving forward.

Yesterday, as you may already know, we had our debut on the Shopping Channel! It was a very exciting day, full of new friends, new activities and selling Soak!

Jacqueline was the guest on-air, and Chris watched the numbers and helped from the sidelines. When experiencing such new and exciting adventures, it helps not to be alone!

We are very pleased to share with you the link to the great gift set we made, exclusively for them (you have to click to see it), as well as some awesome photos of the television that Chris took in the green room (the nice place where guests wait when they aren’t on air) and Jacqueline’s Dad took from home (the nice place where parents watch proudly as their children sell stuff on TV). We love the grainy look of the shots, combined with the TV buying information. All scents are available online, so get them now! Thanks for watching. We’ll let you know our next air date as soon as we have it.

Oh, and did we mention, you can even watch the video of our on-air episode too! (you have to click on the video link above the image on the Shopping Channel page selling Soak…)

Check it out! Thanks again for choosing Soak. We wouldn’t be where we are today, without you.


101 things to do with Soak | 038 Halloween costumes

Author: Ngoc

Lions, goblins, princesses and super heroes. These are a few of the interesting characters that you may have seen roaming the streets a week and a half ago (or perhaps you were one of those interesting characters).


If your house is anything like mine, then you’ll have an endless supply of single sized chocolate bars, chips and jujubes. Discounted candy after Halloween gets me every time. I am also notorious for not taking down decorations once the occasion has passed (this is reinforced by the ‘Season’s Greetings’ banner that still hangs in my mom’s house from the time I wanted to decorate in Gr. 10. Let’s just say I’ve finished highschool… and University… and that banner still hangs. It’s a running joke now amongst my friends).

I digress, let’s get back to the topic at hand. If you have kids or you chose to dress up yourself, I’m sure you have a crumpled up costume either thrown into your laundry basket or in the corner of a room somewhere. It’s been a week and a half, it’s time to wash and put it away for either next year or to be donated to your local Goodwill shop for someone else to enjoy. Or maybe you have a toddler at home that loves being a princess or superman more than just 1 out of the 365 days of the year. Or perhaps, you had on a slightly risky costume (a mistress Claus? Wonder women?) that may be pleasing to your partner on days other than Halloween. Either way, it needs to be washed.

Many of the store-bought costumes aren’t made to the highest quality and may not survive a trip in your washing machine. A lot of the time you will see costumes with lace, satin, nylon, sequins and other fun materials, that need extra care. A nice gentle wash in Soak is exactly what your costume needs.

Washing your Halloween costume

  • Check the label of your costume for care instructions. A general rule is, if it can get wet, then it can be wash with Soak.
  • Make sure you take out any left over candy that may have found its way into the pockets. If your costume was battery powered, make sure you remove the batteries and the hardware.
  • Fill up your sink with cool water, add some Soak.
  • Put your costume in to soak for 15 mins. 
  • Give it a gentle squeeze to remove excess water. Roll in a towel to remove more excess water. 
  • And as always, hang or lay flat to dry.

I also made a Where’s Waldo costume this year. Can you do me a favour? If you have young kids in the house, can you ask them if they know who Waldo is?  I walked by a boy who looked about 12 and he looked at me with zero recognition of who I was dressed up as. Do kids still look at Where’s Waldo books? Has Waldo gone the way of cassette tapes? 

I love home-made costumes and would love to see your wonderful craftmanship. Send your photos to ngoc@soakwash.com.


101 things to do with Soak | 037 The walking cast

Author: Ngoc

Our ankles have been having a bad summer here at the Soak office.


A few months ago, just as the weather was warming up, Chris showed up to work with a broken ankle. Since it is illegal to drive with a cast, Jacqueline graciously acted as Chris’s chauffeur, driving her to and from work, and on small errands for a good 2 months.

Chris was just absolutely ecstatic when the 2 months was up, and she could walk around in her walking cast without crutches, and drive herself wherever her heart desired. Jacqueline’s duties as a chauffeur were finally over. But as luck (or bad luck?) would have it, shortly after, Jacqueline limped into our office with a defeated look and tells us that she too has broken her ankle.

Crafty Jacqueline decided to spruce up her cast with racing stripes, and pretty fabric straps.

She had thought that when Chris said, “I owe you one for driving me” that her favor would be repaid in the form of a delicious meal. Never would she have guessed that her favor would be repaid in the form of a chauffeur. How ironic.

Now whenever we have visitors to the office and they hear our ankle stories, they always look at me and jokingly say “looks like your next”, where I then let out a very nervous laugh and quickly look around for some wood to knock on.

If you’ve ever worn one of these walking casts, then you will be familiar with that indescribable odor that builds up after wearing one of these. Imagine walking around all day with your leg wrapped in foam, in the middle of the summer. Needless to say, the cast is often drenched in sweat by the days end. Luckily for Jacqueline and Chris, (and for me too!), we work in an office where Soak is readily available.

How to: wash your walking cast.

The foam in the walking cast is hand-washable, and you can wipe down the hard exterior shell with a gentle detergent. It is best to do it in the evening before you go to bed so the cast has time to dry overnight.

  1. Remove the foam piece from the exterior.
  2. Fill a basin/sink with water and some Soak.
  3. Leave the foam in to Soak for about 15 mins. Give it a dunk every once in a while if it is floating.
  4. Gently squeeze out the excess water, then press between a towel to absorb the rest of the excess water.
  5. Hang to dry or lay flat on a drying rack.
  6. Take a soft cloth, dip it in some water and Soak and gently wipe the hard shell of the cast.

 

If you find yourself in the situation where you have to wear one of these, I wish you luck and hope that you recover quickly!


How to: Block a hat

We were tweeted by one of our friendly customers who had just finished knitting her very first hat and had no idea how to block it. We thought that answering her question would be a great way to start off what we hope to be a series of helpful videos about caring for the items you cherish most.

If you have any questions, requests or suggestions for videos, we’d love to hear them! Send your thoughts to ngoc@soakwash.com.


101 things to do with Soak | 036 Hand wraps and bag gloves

This week’s story is submitted by my friend Benson. He gets his weekly workout by sparring and working his punching bag.  


He uses hand wraps and training gloves that he has admitted to not having washed since he bought them over a year ago. They’re at the point where he’s about ready to retire them so he figured he might as well try washing them with Soak. The gloves were still in really good condition but your hand sweats in them during a work out, and after a year of sweating, they have developed quite a distinct odor.

Make sure you read the washing instructions to see if it is ok to wet your gloves before attempting to wash your gloves.

Fill your sink with warm water and add some Soak. Put in your hand wraps and gloves. The gloves will likely float so give them a dunk and swish them around every now and then.

Leave to soak for about 15 mins. Squeeze gently to remove most of the excess water. Benson chose to hang his to dry but you can also lay them flat on a hanging rack.

There was still a faint lingering scent left in the gloves, though it was a significant improvement. Keeping your gloves clean will help prevent the build up of bacteria and germs that can develop in warm moist material.

Thanks for the story and the photos Benson!

Do you have a unique use for Soak? Send me your fun stories along with some photos and we’ll feature it on our blog!