Lustrum Concessions

You know, I hadn't even heard of the word 'lustrum' before I moved to Holland - they use here it to celebrate or commemorate a 5 year period between big events.  It was, according to the internet so it must be true, originally to mean the period of time between censuses being taken in Ancient Rome - 5 years.  Nowadays an orchestra, or company, for example, can celebrate its lustrum every 5 years after its founding.  And when cake's involved, I heartily embrace this tradition.  And cake is frequently involved, at least over here in Clog-land.

But here it is - my first Ravelversary Lustrum (if one may mix these up a bit) and the first lustrum of my blog.  Hell yeah!  Has it really five years already?

I can't give everyone cake, much as I'd like to try, but I must celebrate this momentous occasion, and why not by giving five lustra to all.  

...

Okay, what I really mean is that all my patterns have 25% (see what I did there?!) off from now until after the second lustra of February!  Okay, I'm getting a little too taken with the whole lustrum thing...  So, from NOW until the 14th of February all my patterns will have 25% off.  No special codes or coupons needed!
 

It's a LUSTRUM SALE!  But in case it's not obvious enough:

You can find a link to the design page with all the patterns HERE!  

And to make the checkout much simpler, I've changed all the prices to Euros to stop the problems people were having if they were buying patterns in a mixture of € or $.  Sock pattern buying: now with new added simplicity! ;-)

p.s. lustrum

Turducken Sale

It sounds fowl (heh) but legend has it the Thanksgiving 'treat' of a turkey/duck/chicken roasting hybrid is beyond delicious.

I on the other hand, not being of a Thanksgiving celebratory nationality, have decided to commemorate this long weekend instead with a mini sale of all the House of Socks patterns.  

Indeed.  You can get 10% off any and all House of Socks patterns from now until the end of Monday 26th of November by using the coupon code TURDUCKEN in the checkout page.  (You see - there was method in my title madness!) The patterns are in 2 different currencies - the latest ones are in euros, the earlier ones in dollars - so you need to check to see if you're mixing and matching as otherwise you'll get Bob's 'crappers' problem page.  If you need to go to the checkout more than once, don't worry - you can use the coupon code as many times as you wish!  :)

In other news, you may be thinking to yourselves 'what's all the sudden emphasise on 'House of Socks'?'.  Well, that's a very good question, and I thank you for asking it.

A few days ago I bowed to popular (more than 4 whole people) demand that I make a facebook page for the patterns.  I did, and saw that it was good.  I had been thinking about changing the name to something a little more grown-up, but decided in the end to stay true to my adult-but-not-grown-up persona.  What wasn't so good was, it must be said, the rather lame profile picture.  So, after looking online for sock fonts (more prolific that you'd imagine) but rejecting them as really just replacing one lame with another, I decided to get my socks and camera out for the boys.

This was the result:

I have to admit that I *may* have had a lot more fun than expected photographing the socks in these different letters.  I may, if I have some more spare time, (hah, if, she says!) do the rest of the alphabet! You never know when a TRUE sock font will be needed by the masses.  

Or just by me, even.

It's That Competition Time Of Year

Of course, the implication is that I do something at this time every year, but having missed the occasion for the past 2 years, I thought I'd commemorate both the occasions and the remembering of said occasions this year, at the same time.

wahey - she remembered!

The occasions?  Both my Ravelversary (31st Jan) and my Blogoversary (4th February).  Or, as I'm bang-slap in the middle of them at the moment, I shall call it my Ravelblogoversary.
I can see this catching on...
So, what's the deal, I hear you ask.  Or I do in my head, which is enough for me to write a sentence or two about it.

The deal is this, dear blogowers (that's 'blog followers' to those not aware of the entry in the RedScot Dictionary of Made-Up Words OUP 2018): I'm offering a complete set of my 'to buy' patterns to the winner of the competition.  That's 9 patterns to the worth of... quite a lot.  My arithmetic skills are currently off partying somewhere.  Probably with my calculator.
And don't worry if you're not a member of Ravelry!  Anyone can see them if you click on this LINK and all I need is an email address so I can send the winner the PDF collection.  If you ARE a member of Ravelry, however, I can send you the patterns there and you will be able to keep them in the online library!

prohibition

gloriana

pom star

bloody mary

honey socktails

strawberry mohito

irish ale

piña colada

irish coffee

But, HOW to win them, I hear you ask. Again. Because I've not been dithering with picture placement at all.  Oh no.  Well, it's simple really. All I need to know is what you think my favourite colour is.  And don't think checking on my Rav profile will help, as I've unhelpfully removed any mention of my preferred palette choice.  

But because I'm actually really a helpful person at heart, I'll give you a heads-up and let you know you have a choice of 3 favourite colours - so you have 3 times the chance of guessing one of them.  (And I should be clearer - give me one colour - if it's one of my 3 favourite colours, then you're in with a chance!)  You don't need to be specific - I'm not looking for a Crayola-perfect colour name, just the general colour umbrella will be sufficient!

All you need to do is write a comment here on the blog telling me what you think the answer is. The winning entries who mention any of the 3 colours will be put into a computer generator thingy (technical wordage notwithstanding) and the winner will be announced after the end of the competition.  

(If blogger is playing silly-bluggers, then hop over to THIS THREAD on Ravelry and let me know what you think the answer might be!  Not a member of Rav and blogger playing silly-bluggers?  Click on the contact me on the profile and send a message.  I'll have that open for the duration.)

The closing date?  February 14th at a minute to midnight CET.  I may as well have something to look forward to on Valentine's Day, eh?

Happy guessing!

Red's January SALE

Yes indeed! For the first 2 weeks of January, you can get 25% off the price of ALL REDSCOT SOCK PATTERNS!  Oh yes!  Buy one or buy 'em all - you'll get 25% off the total price!

Don't say I'm not good to you!

Click HERE to go to the pattern page on Ravelry!  (You don't need to be a member to access the page or buy the patterns!)

Sale starts 1st January 00:01, ends 14th January 23.59
all times GMT

If You Like Piña Coladas...

...then you'll love my new pattern: The imaginatively named (wait for it) Piña Colada Socks!

piña colada socks by yours truly

You can't have a sock theme of cocktails without including the infamous Piña Colada! Starting with a liberal splash of rum, add generous quantities of pineapple juice and cream of coconut, then you *must* finish with the most famous drinks garnish of all: the cocktail umbrella! 

The Piña Colada sock is a cocktail-umbrella-cuffed, heel-flapped, pineapple-legged sock, with a toe that continues the pineapple design! Worked from the top down, this sock is almost good enough to slurp through a bendy straw!

I found this yarn (Zitron 'Trekking XXL' in Peaches and Cream) in my local wool shop last Summer and knew immediately that this pattern was going to be the result (give or take a few false starts and lots of tweaks). 

I wanted to create a pseudo-pineapple pattern that echoed the wonderful thick rind of the fruit - somewhat rhombus shaped, but with shading in each half of the diamond to give more depth. The result was a really lovely texture, which was still quite stretchy, given that there are a lot of twisted stitches involved!

The heel-flap uses the wonderful Eye of Partridge.  I was tempted to try an continue the larger diamond leg pattern in the heel-flap, but in the end the E-of-P was just the ticket, as it has its own diamond pattern already built in - a shoe-in!

For a final flourish, I had to add something fabulous and bright. And kitschy.  The cocktail umbrella ticked all those boxes, so I went back to the drawing board and added the Cocktail Umbrella Cuff to the design.  The first one I made used a coordinating colour (Beyond Basic Knits 'Superwash Sock' in Love Struck - the same lovely yarn I used for the Strawberry Mojito socks), but the second went off in a slightly more garish route, (BBKnits 'Superwash Sock' in Color me Happy - the same yarn I used for my Gin and Tonic socks) but I thought bright and gaudy clash was appropriate, as I can safely say that I've never seen an understated cocktail umbrella in my life!

With such a cool cuff, I had to finish the sock with a wee bit of flair, too, so I continued the pineapple pattern down to the toe - I do like seeing a pattern worked the entire length of the sock, I must admit!

This little beauty of a pattern can be yours for the excellently small price of $3.50 (or, and here we go with the current rates of exchange: €2.53 or £2.21 or ₪12.77 or ￥270 or A$3.43.)  A bargain in any currency!

(You can click HERE for the Ravelry pattern page for more details and buying options - and you don't have to be a member of Ravelry to look at, or indeed buy, any of my patterns!)

(Please excuse the massive differences in lighting/colours on the photos - my camera dislikes certain times of day/low level lighting.)