Sometimes it seems that my knitting life started at Sock Summit 2009. That is when I first met a lot of people who have ended up having a lot of influence on my knitting career! One of those people was Allison, of SSYC.
I was teaching how to knit Argyle Socks, and was always on the lookout for sock yarns with clear colors, a large range of color, and good quality. Also, finding skeins that weren’t 400 yds (enough for a pair of socks, but too much for a couple of argyle diamonds) was a challenge in 2009. Allison’s booth was a revelation to me, an answer to prayer.
SSYC carries lots of sock yarn.
Lots of Very Good Sock yarn. But for Annetarsia purposes, go straight to the page for Simply Sock Yarn, solids. 175 yds, 61 very nice colors to choose from (good luck making a decision), and the yarn quality is terrific. SSY became my favorite yarn for argyles, and I knit a bunch of them with it. Whatever the mood I was in, I could build it from her color set. Springtime, Gothic, Patriotic, you name it – she has the colors to make it happen. Shipping is no charge when you spend $85, which is enough to get you a fair stash to draw from. Unless you get stuck on wanting one of every shade of a certain color. Trust me, choosing is tough (or, is that just me? Am I the only one who wants every color available of everything? Sigh.)
Allison didn’t make it to Sock Summit in 2011. I think she was busy having a baby, or something. Fine, it was a good excuse. Taking pity on me, she sent me a bunch of color cards to hand out to students. SSY continues to be a super choice for Argyle socks that are traditional, but updated. Argyle knitters of the 1950’s would never believe such color possibilities existed. They probably only had about 8 colors to choose from – if that.
I didn’t put any argyle sock patterns in “Annetarsia Knits” , but I did use SSY for one of my favorite designs in the book, the Namanu shawl – otherwise known as the “Paperdoll shawl”. I’ll blog more about the design, later. But, the dolls were created from leftover SSY from my Argyle stash! I had to order some yarn for the MC, but the dolls were stash-busters! 
In other news:
The Oaks Park Sock landed in Ravelry’s Hot Right Now list! Whoo hoo!
I’m getting lots of notifications that you are pre-ordering the book and pdf, and signing up for “Next Steps in Intarsia” on Craftsy. Click on the link to get $10 off the enrollment fee!
