The Tale of the Sock Blockers

 Hello everyone! We woke up to a light dusting of snow this morning which was just delightful! There are so many things I love about snowy, frosty weather. The only down side is that it is taking an age for all the yarn I dyed up over the weekend to dry. Right now it is draped over a clotheshorse in front of the fire in an effort to get it dried quickly so that I can list it in the shop.

Anyhoo, lets leave the woes of wet yarn behind for the moment. I want to share with you a new exciting product that we are now stocking in the shop. 

A few years ago I bought a pair of sock blockers off Etsy. I always have a pair of socks on the needles because lets face it, there is nothing like a pair of handknit socks. They are warm, durable and beautiful. The sock blockers are really useful in blocking your freshly knit socks and give a great shape.

Of course they are not essential to sock knitting but once you have used them I think you may agree that they certainly make a very nice addition to your knitting armory and I certainly would not be without a good pair of sock blockers!

As I mentioned in my newsletter this month, I really would like to build Under An English Sky Yarns into my full time income so I am having to change my approach and attitude to what has up to now been a hobby business and start thinking about how I can expand the product line.

I have a very practical and talented husband. He can turn his hand to just about anything. So I asked him if he would be keen to get involved with Under An English Sky Yarns and be my official sock-blocker-maker. Happily he is always happy to turn my ideas into reality and he was more than pleased for an excuse to buy a new tool to add to his growing collection!

I explained what it was I wanted and showed him my own pair of sock blockers. He took the design and tweaked it which I think has made it much better. Off he disappeared into his work shop and returned with a few sets of raw sock blockers.

Next I commissioned my illustrator daughter to work on a few mock-up designs. I knew that the first few sets of sock blockers simply had to have my logo because lets face it, we all would like to spend warm summer days daydreaming in the shade of a lovely tree under a beautiful blue English sky!

We had a brainstorming session on the method of illustration and settled on woodburning. Its something neither of us have had much experience doing but my daughter, who has recently graduated from her graphics and illustration university course seems to be able to turn her hand to many things and this was no different. She has done an fantastic job in burning a modified version of my logo into the top of each sock blocker.

Then it was back to my husband to add the finishing touch. He rigged up this nifty system for spraying the water-based varnish onto each sock blocker.

and TADAAAA....

There we have it, beautiful and practical sock blockers. Our beautiful illustrations are individually burnt by hand and make our sock blockers unique. When I was looking online for sock blockers I found lots of cheaply made lazer-cut sock blockers with standard stamped designs - functional but certainly not unique.

I'm really proud of my family, they are very talented and have taken my ideas, made their own design adjustments and together we have come up with sock blockers that I am extreamly proud to have in our shop.

If you would like to grab a pair of unique sock blockers for yourself or as a gift for a yarny friend then please hop on over to our shop and grab a pair. If you are on Instagram then please do tag me at underan_englishsky with your photographs. I would love to see what you are making with Under An English Sky Yarns and how you are enjoying our haberdashery products.