New Colours

Finally we have just taken delivery of some new wool supplies. Lucky for us with this delivery we were able to secure (long story) some 18 micron superwash pure wool merino. We usually go with 20.5 micron superwash as any smaller micron counts are hard to find and outrageously expensive. So as a result of the global financial crises, some else's loss is our gain. The colours are great, just what we wanted and as of today we're off and knitting, and it looks like this lot will take us right through to the New Year, so now is an even bettert time to buy our Pure Wool Mongrels, Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/leg Warmers and Head Warmers.

Good folk

Thank goodness June 30 has come and gone, we've spent days counting socks, all the while having to keep business ticking over. Mid winter and we've lot's of orders coming and going out for our Pure wool Mongrels. I'm constantly delighted at the little notes our customers, the good folk that they are, leave with our orders. It is so nice that people still take the time or even bother to personalise their orders in this, the age of "it's all about me". Here's a few of the notes I received last week, all gratefully accepted.

Thanks Helen,
I get everybody to say hello when they are at Salamanca market! (and to buy socks!!)
Cheers,
Gerald

Hi Helen,
my shoe size is 8. Thankyou - your socks are fantastic! I bought a pair last winter and they are so cosy AND cute! Now i want to get them for my friends, too!
kind regards, Tanya


Hi ther helen

Just letting you know that my socks arrived this morning (they made pretty good time!) and they are gorgeous and very cosy. I am already getting lots of positive commnets - you might have to start selling them in NZ (if you don't already)!

many thanks - I'm looking forward to a warm-footed winter.

Alix

The land of no socks.

Yay! Heading off to the Northern Territory this morning for a few sunny days, make a great escape from the really very crappy weather Hobart has had for the last week or so. Not that crappy weather isn't good sock weather, it is, just the sweatshop has turned in to a freezer, making sock production not much fun lately. A prefect time to get away. The far north of Australia isn't really the land of no socks, because we sell quite a few of our Pure Wool Mongrels there. Not for warmth, but strangely for keeping feet cool in the tropical heat. If you'vre got to wear shoes/boots you have to wear socks and the best ones are pure fibre, which takes sweat off the skin in hot conditions. Any enough of sock talk, socks will be along way from my mind for the next few days.

Winter is here!

Waking up to snow on Mt Wellington is a sure sign that winter is here, and along with winter comes our busiest time. We've had a flurry of orders coming through online, very encouraging in these precarious economic times. Our sock machines have been working over time, and we have been madly trying to get a lot more of our Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/leg warmers made. They're one of my personal favourites, at our house they are always at a premium, first thing on and last thing off though winter. They're soft and warm. We are so glad we have not bowed down to the pressures of reducing our business costs and gone for a cheaper quality wool like most other sock manufacturers- the wool we have always used is the best quality that money can buy. The 20 micron superwash merino we go for, Aussie grown, is processed in Germany to cutting edge environmental and sustainable standards. A far better "bang for our buck" than the cheaper alternatives. Sure, it make's our products more expensive than some others but you can always rely on on the quality. "To get what you pay for" is something we have always done and will continue to strive for, and is a key to our business success. From 2010 all our wool will be free from "mulesing", and we thank PETA for putting pressure on the industry and forcing chance.

It's only the begining!

I can't believe its a new year already. It seems all of sudden we're back in to it again. After a couple of go-slow weeks in our sock making-just doing the minimum, this week we've been swamped. So as I write, late on this Friday afternoon, I feel like I'm just catching up with myself. In these uncertain economic/financial times I feel very lucky that our sock business seems to be weathering the storm. We've got a big year coming up, spending a bit of time and money, getting our web site re-done. It is a slow process, but worth it, I hope. I'm guessing it will be another 6 months before it's all done and online line. If we can come up with an easy to use, attractive looking web site I'll be happy. That's the royal "we" as I'm so IT retarded, I am reliant on experts to do the sock web site building and seo.
This year we'll continue to not only make our beautiful pure wool Mongrel Socks, Tuff Mongrels, Possum/merino socks and all the other products we produce, but we will trial some other unusual blended yarns, like bamboo/cotton, camel/wool, organic spacedyed cottons etc. I'm excitedly looking forward to see what these are like.
We're just about to head in to our yearly production of Arm/Leg Warmers. We manufacture them only for a month each year, as the machinery is such a cow to change over, we like to get them all done at once. Our stocks are way down at the moment-lucky it is summer and the demand for those has dropped off a bit. It's always a bit of fun in the work day coming up with new colour mixes, that perhaps we haven't tried before, or haven't done in a while.
Anyway, all looks good for the future for us, especially my very near future as a put my feet up and knock the top off a wee drop of fine Tasmanian Meadowbank FGR Reisling (my personal favorite). Cheers!

8 sleeps 'til Xmas

I can't believe it's been a month since I last wrote. Here at the home of Mongrel Socks it' been a big month. Lots of orders coming in and going out. It's that time of year. I mentioned inthe last pot that I had been having a stab at making beanies, I did try to post some pictures but I couldn't get them up online. Anyway, I sold the lot! Which I'm taking as a very positive sign for the future of Mongrel Tasmanis Headwear. I'm still fiddling with the designs, and have come up with a one that I'm hoping will be a stayer. It's very unusual, loose and comfortable, and suitable for people who have lot's of hair or dreadlocks and even no hair. It can also double as a neck warmer-yes, a very versatile thingy. The beanies will go on the back burner, while we get ready for Xmas and the New Year-but I'm am happy to say they are evolving, and even happier with the fact we are able to make use of what would be waste knit otherwise.
We've got a new lot of Possum/merino socks due to be finished around the end of January, which will replenish our depleted stocks, they have gone off in the last few months. Yay!
Busy working towards our new website, will take a while but will happen.
Our pure wool Mongrel Socks will still be our focus for the next month at least, then we'll start on this years Mongrel Tasmanis Arm/leg warmers. Looking forward to playing with the colour mixes again to see what we come up can come up with. Oh well, best get back to work.

Socks to hats

Here at the home of Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, we are doing our best to reduce waste. It is a sad reality that when we produce our socks, sometimes the machinery chucks a wobbly and we make a few faulty socks. I just hate that because it costs the same to make rubbish as it does to make good ones. It's a crying shame to see our beautiful wool wasted. So over the years I have always packed and saved this excess in the hope that one day it might be useful for something and can be recycled. Well that day has come! I spent the best part of my day developing patterns for a new range of hats I hope to produce. I've posted a few photo's below. I intend developing these designs further, utilising knitted fabric I can't currently use, with a view to ending up with a funky (even a bit silly) range of unique pure wool head wear. The beautiful range of colours we knit our socks with,really lends itself to be shown off, not hidden under boots and shoes. Loud and proud! Wish me luck.

Blown away!

I know I shouldn't be surprised, but I just can't help being blown away by the reach the internet has. Anyone who knows us or even has read a few entries on this blog, knows we use some wonderful antique Bentley Komet sock machines to knit our pure wool Mongrel Socks and from time to time experience problems with them. As they are so old and the technical knowledge we need is hard find, even small issues can be a production stopping event. Well.....it is kind of comforting to know there's some one halfway around world dealing with the same thing. Even I have resorted to trawling the internet looking for more information on these mongrel machines, without any success I should add. This morning an email greeted me, a plea from a man in the UK, having problems with his own old Komet. Here's how our our email volley went
(complete with our shocking spelling)..............

I see from your blog your a bit of a hand with a Bentley Komet. I have a Komet BR model and due to well a few issues I had it part stripped due to a break down but got dstracted for a while father was taken ill and the machine got left.I've got back to it now but it keeps locking up when the recip.clutch disengages, I've timed it to the marks but does the cylinder have to be in a certain position also when timing. Ive varied the quadrant mark on the recip pinion a tooth either way but then it either locks going in or coming out of the toe / heel. Any help would be apreciated my UK contact has been taken ill with cancer and I don't want to bother him with my problems.

Richard

My reply...
Hi Richard,
Argh! I sorry we can't be much help to you. We still have to get our guy in when problems with the clutch arise. Thankfully that only happens very occasionally. These BR's are great old machines, but we have found over the years, the less fiddling with them the better. The only thing I can think of tht might be the problem-hard to explain because I don't know what the parts are supposed to be called-it the 2 cogs that lock together @ the top of the machine in the top right under the insection plate as you stand in front can be 180 degree's out which will cause jamming as you've decribed.
Don't know if that'll help but worth a try.
Goodluck.
Helen.

His reply....
Well many thanks for the reply; its late now so just a quick thank you, for your prod in the right direction it was indeed half a turn out due to me misreading what in my defense is a poor quality drawing. It looks like a fine tune and all will be well again now it’s timed correctly. Do you have any set up information on your machines, I have a little and it may be of use to you also, perhaps we could pool what we have, information is hard to come across. The cogs are called the clutch the one on the left which reciprocates is the reciprocating pinion. I know the names but couldn’t get them to work.

Thanks again
Richard

Yay! what a nice result. I'll definitely be getting back to him in the future and organising an exchange in information, I think this may be the beginning of a mutually beneficial e-friendship.
PS I was also delighted to see he hails from a place called North Kelsey Moor in the UK, our daughters name is Kelsey too. She's gorgeous inside and out, and I bet so is North Kelsey Moor.

Good Socks!

We know we make good socks, we use nothing but the best quality wool, knitted in to a tried and true style of sock. We do what we can to have as little impact on the environment as possible, tree planting, recycling waste, natural lighting and drying processes and so on, but......up 'til now we really have been in the dark as to the eco impact the processing of our yarn has and no idea as to the animal and farm practices used in the wool production. Well that's about to change! We are now in the process of sourcing our wool from the farm gate, a farm right here in Tasmania. We're excited!
Like all good things it will take time and probably a lot longer that we think, but the results will be worth it. We are undertaking to make sure we do all we can to make a pure wool socks; good for the earth, good for the conscience, good with a halo.
I'm guessing it will be many months away before we are actually knitting up this yarn. First supply has to be secured, then processor chosen (probably oversea's), then testing and trials, and lots more incidental stuff. One step at a time we'll take this journey. I'll keep it posted here, and you can take it with us.

check 123

I'm still busy taking sock photo's-it's driving me loopy! Our pure wool Mongrel Socks come in a lot of different colour's, and getting shots that show clearly the variation is proving difficult-even with my home made light box. I'm so glad I didn't go and buy one retail as I really haven't been happy with the "true" colour I'm getting. On a pure white back ground the colours look so washed out-not at all like the vibrant colour mixes they are. I know I'm probably doing something technically wrong but I've gone back to natural sunlight and taken a few shot's with a garden greenery background, I don't know why, but they just look better to me, so I'm going to post a couple here to have a look how'll they'll appear on screen. I know the back ground is not how other product's are presented online-and all the experts recommend plain white backgrounds for product shots, but I am leaning toward this greenery background for our soon to be renewed web site.

Cool Customers

Plying our wares at Salamanca Market, every Saturday, gives us a great opportunity to talk to our customers, and get first hand feedback on what they really think of our products. It's all very well to make the sale, but what we are really interested in is what they think of their purchase down the track. Are our sock's as good as we said? Are they loving them? Usually the comment's we get back are all good, the only one negative we ever get is dissappointment when they wear out. Sadly the only way to own our socks and not have them eventually wear out....... is not to wear them at all. Most hosiery company's plate their product's with nylon or other synthetic's to give them a longer life and make them cheaper to produce and are nowhere near as soft and warm as Mongrels. Our Pure Wool Mongrel socks are a one of life's little luxury's. We won't compromise on the quality of the wool we use, we want our customer's to get and enjoy what they pay for. Last week-end as happens every week-end, we had customer's rocking up wearing their Mongrels, which gives us a warm feeling, knowing they are their socks of choice. One lovely lady, was telling me she was up and around before dawn that day, heading out she realised it was colder that she thought, so ducked back home to put on her pure wool Mongrel's, knowing she wouldn't feel the cold in them. Yep, that's why they're great!

Mother Nature gifts.

There may be snow on the mountain but the sun is out, doing its best to get our pure wool socks dry the natural way. Yay!

Bring it on!

After the last few weeks of winter weather, this week we have had some beautiful days, which is all good as far as our sock drying goes. It is only in the midst of winter that we struggle to get our socks to dry. Endeavouring to be kind to the planet, we have made a conscious decision to not artifical drying processes, we get lots of sun here in Tasmania, and it is only for a few weeks in winter that it's not possible to get our pure wool socks to dry. So although we have still been busy knitting, we do have a bit of a back log to steam and dry before they can be labeled and ready to go out. It is alway's a good feeling to be ahead in production, we really hate playing catch-up. Just not having to stress about our stock levels, when the order's come in, knowing we can fill them is a good feeling. We have had a few hiccups with the old machines this last couple of weeks, which left us scratching our heads, unable to get them going properly. Lucky for us, a friend, whose a wizz with machinery took a look, and as embarrassing as it is for us, he had the problem worked out in under an hour. We'd been picking over the glitch for many hour's, and we know the old Bentley Komet's well, he's waltzed in and had it sussed in record time. Bless his heart. Never a dull moment around here in the Mongrel Sock business.

Loving and hating winter!

Snow blanketed Hobart last night, Mt Wellington is pretty as a picture. It's a good time to be selling warm woolly socks, and while business is brisk, the working conditions are not too inviting. It was hard to tear ourselves away from the roaring fire this morning to head down to the Antarctic-like workshop. We delayed the inevitable, with bookwork, phone calls and numerous other excuses, as long as we could. We rugged up, putting on almost every product we make....pure wool socks, arm and leg warmers and head warmers. Lucky for us, we don't just say they're warm as a sales pitch, they really are warm! The local news website has some fantastic photo's taken in Hobart today. Check it out www.news.com.au/mercury

The long weekend

There's frost on the ground this morning, winter here in Tasmania has really set in. And with winter our pure wool sock sales step up. We have been busy making, making. Not too busy to take a the long week end off, however, which we did. We went up to a visit friends, who run a 3ooo acre property in the lake district of central Tasmania. The property is called "Currawong Lakes", and what a magic place it is. As a business, it is a very private game and fly fishing park, it has abundant wildlife. We were blown away by the quality of the facilities at the property. It has 5 or 6 cabins, a rustic lodge/restaurant with a state of the art kitchen, lake's stocked with trophy sized trout, clay target shooting range with another lodge there, breeding set up from egg incubation to pre-release pens for quail, pheasants and partridge and much more-all this is miles from anywhere. I am once again amazed at the diversity of endeavors here in Tasmania. This little island is a place where idea's (with a lot of hard work) can become a reality. Currawong Lakes is an idyllic property, not by accident, by design. The staff work hard to ensure it stays that way. Not only in so far as land management, but the guest's needs are always attended to, actively seeking to exceed their expectations. It wasn't all leisure while we were there. We did get around to discussing socks. Fly fisherman in their plastic waders, would really benefit from the comfort and warmth our pure wool socks can provide, so we are packing up a parcel of our pure wool Mongrel Socks for management to have on hand for any cold guests, we're also sending up some of our heavy duty Tuff Mongrels for the gamekeeper, who does a million miles on foot around the property, and needs socks that will stand up to a whole lot of hard work. Yep, the Tuff Mongrels will be just the thing. We will also, time permitting, get ourselves knitting up some over the knee wool socks. At the moment the game shooters have to import them, at great expense, from the UK. We'll be happy to fill that niche. Anyway best get in to my sock making day, but here's a link to Currawong Lakes, if anyone would like to have a look. www.currawonglakes.com.au

Customer Questions?

We're always happy to hear from customers, and get emails with basic sock questions, to some that are hilarious. I got this one yesterday, and have included my reply.

Hi!
I recently visited Tassie and bought a pair of your lovely warm socks. I was wondering how to speed up the wash-and-dry cycle... they took about 4 days to dry completely (indoors, out of direct sunlight). Do you have any advice?
Thanks!
Kylie, Sydney. Australia.

Hello Kylie,
Hope your liking your Mongrels, although I guess it's not quite cold enough for them in Sydney-yet.
The beauty of pure wool socks is (luckily) that they don't need to be washed after every wear. In fact they can be comfortably worn for a few days with out the festy smell most socks would acquire. They are natural fibre and as such less washing is better than lots, as heavy detergents can weaken the fibre, making them not as durable as they can be.
To get them to dry as quickly as possible, it is OK to have them in sunlight, it won't readily fade the colour, unless they are left for days on the line. It is also OK to machine wash on a short cycle including the spin to remove all excess water before hanging.
We don't recommend using a clothes dryer as it is really important not to use hot heat and most domestic clothes dryers aren't that reliable in the temperatures they generate. That said if you have a decent clothes dryer that does have a good, ie not too hot, warm setting, it would probably be OK to use for 10 mins to ensure the socks are really dry after they've hung for a while.

I don't know if that's helped or not, but the thought did just occur to me that perhaps you need more than one pr of Mongrels so waiting for them to dry won't be an issue.

Kind Regards,
Helen.

Times ticking!

I can't beleive it's already February. We've had a flat out month, it feels like we've been on fast forward. Hoping it's going to start slowing down soon, but I doubt it. Making our Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, has been keeping us most busy, keeping up supplies of our dozen'ish colour mixes in the four sizes, is a challenge alone, but when our other products like our Head Warmers and Arm/leg Warmers need replenishing.....we're running! We've had a bit of a wait on the production of our Tuff Mongrel heavy duty socks, but the new yarn supplies arrived yesterday so the Tuff Mongrel drought is over. We had sold out of a number of sizes and colours. We are knitting now!After waitng nearly 4 months for this order to arrive( it should have taken 6 weeks), we were beginning to think maybe it wasn't going to come at all. The Yarn is a very expensive hi-tec mix of 60% superwash wool ( the best kind) and 40% Polypropylene, we can't find one better, any where in the world. We have this one imported for us from Germany, Aussie grown wool, processed in Germany, and brought back in to Australia. We wouldn't bother if it wasn't for the fact that this stuff-Climawool*-is so bloody good. The people wearing this expensive fibre blend, love it, live and work in it, with these high performance socks, our customers get what they pay for. No consumer can ask for more than that, and we wouldn't offer less.

Christmas here and there

Tasmania has experienced its hottest November in many years, not very good conditions for the sales of wool socks. Luckily, there is a northern hemisphere that is cooling down as I write. We have had plenty order’s coming through from Canada and the US where winter is just beginning. Yay! One of our long time customer’s in the Yukon, told me about his 2 daylight hours of Christmas day, and below zero temperatures, where every thing happens indoors. Now I know why socks are hung by the chimney with care, it’s not for filling with gifts (they always seemed far too small for anything on my wish list) but putting in frozen toes to thaw before they break off.
Here we must have around 14 hrs of daylight, lots of time for the obligatory Aussie games of back yard cricket, the riding of new bikes, visiting the family, afternoon snoozes, BBQ’s teas, and evening strolls. It’s a completely different experience. Just once I’d like to see a white Christmas, and probably one will be plenty for me.
It’s nice to think that people halfway around the world will be pulling on their new Mongrel Socks on Christmas morning and discovering the luxury of pure wool right when they’ll appreciate it. Makes me smile!

Love it! Treasure it!

I was checking out our web site stats etc today and noticed a bit of traffic coming from a source I wasn’t expecting. Most of our traffic is via direct address or the most common search engines. Today’s little surprise made me smile. We are a family of readers, reading all genre’s, with a particular liking for Aussie authors. So when I noticed we had traffic coming from a website of a best selling Australian author, one whose books I’ve thoroughly enjoyed. I had to check out the how/why/where. I was so happy to read her blog and find she loves our pure wool socks and is giving our Possum Socks a go. It’s always’s nice to hear good things about what you do, especially from someone whose work you respect yourself.
She’s a local girl, turns out we live only a few hills apart. Not close by road but not far at all “as the crow flies”. What are the chances of us making one of our favourite authors, some of her favourite socks? It’s a small world. The authors name is Rachael Treasure, rachaeltreasure.com , a woman of many talents. Not only does she write great Aussie fiction and has particularly good taste in socks, she’s I also a wife, mum, farmer and busy writing a guide on dog training. Those mongrel socks she wears must sure get a work out. Anyway, if your in the market for a guide on how to get your mongrel to toe the line, keep an eye out for her next literary offering, and in the meantime check out her books, “Jillaroo” “The Roustabout” or “The Stockman”, they’re a good Aussie escape.

Longterm feedback

The feedback we receive from our customers is a cornerstone to our business success. As a micro business we don’t have the means or the time to constantly chase the “NEW” customer to improve the bottom line. We have to (and want to) satisfy both the immediate and future expectations/needs of our established customer base. As makers, we are not buyers. We would be foolish to presume we know what the customer wants. Which is why we actively seek opinion from purchasers. Prior to purchase, where possible, to provide the product that would most suit the individual, and after purchase to ensure the customers level of satisfaction and area’s that perhaps can be improved on. It is the buyers that ultimately guide our business direction. On occasion, we contact customers to see how, with time, they view their purchase. One such reply was received today, you’ve gotta love it.
The lady, whose response I’ve included below, contacted me in 2005, unhappy. In 2003 she had purchased a pair of our Pure Wool Mongrel Socks whilst in Tasmania, loved them, wore them around the world,(she’s a travel writer, based in the US), wrote lovely things about them and two years on they wore out! We commuinicated with her, that we felt 2 years from a pair of our pure wool socks ( actually any socks) wasn’t too bad, but obviously, more important to her was socks that stood the test of time rather than the ultimate comfort and luxury, premium quality pure wool provides. Same as why top end car buyers choose a Hummer over a Jag. Grunt over Luxury. In a gesture of good will we provided her with a pair of our high performance Tuff Mongrel 60%Wool and 40% Polypropylene socks.

So….. what does she think another 2 years on in 2007.

Hi Helen,
I know how important it is, when dealing with customers, to track product satisfaction (or dissatisfaction). As you may recall, I originally contacted you because my favorite pair of Mongrel socks, which I purchased in Hobart, developed holes in the heel portion of the sox. When you became aware of that, you sent me theTuff's.
I love your sox, whether the Tuff or the original multicolored Mongrels. The solid red is a more conservative color and I found them tough-wearing and warm. I still have them and am going to put them to the ultimate test soon --a winter with me in northern Wisconsin.
I was fortunate to find a Russian lady, who knows how to darn sox. She got my multi-colored Mongrels up and running again with her expert repair.
Who markets your product in the US? Are you in need of a rep?

Happy Halloween,
Dxxxxxxxxxx

For a good cause

I received the this letter to day, it's nice to know the when we are able to support funraising for a good cause it is appreciated.
My husband, his 4 siblings, and now many of their children have attended Mullumbimby High School, with a few more still to go through. So when we received the request for a donation, we felt it was just the right thing to do. We supplied a selection of our pure wool pure woolMongrel Socks, and our Mongrel Tasmanis Possum Socks, which were given as prizes at their functions.

Dear Friend

Fundraising for shade
Thank you for your kind donation.

As you are aware Mullumbimby High School P&C Association has identified that providing more Shade around the school will be a priority for fundraising this financial year

To date we have raised over $2900 from Bingo and our Trivia night.

Mullumbimby High School P&C Association and the students of Mullumbmiby High thank you for your kind donation towards our fundraising efforts.

Your assistance was instrumental in raising this amount of money and we are continuing our fundraising efforts as well as looking for grants that might assist us in achieving our goal.

Again thank you for your support and your kind donation.

Yours sincerely



Deborah Gower
Secretary
Mullumbimby High School P & C Association
PO Box 123
Mullumbimby 2482
22 October 2007

Free Socks!

For the months of Oct-Nov '07 we are offering all our online customers a chance to try either our Mongrel Tasmanis Possum Socks or cotton rich Dr Socks for free with online purchases over $50 (for a free pair of Dr Socks) or with orders over $100 you'll receive a free pair of Possum Socks to try. Both are a completely different product to our ever popular Pure Wool Mongrel Socks and our Tuff Mongrel Socks, both are a fine sock rather than the thick and woolly nature of our Mongrels. The Dr Socks are a healthy fine cotton rich(95% Cotton/5% Elastine) featuring a loose non-restrictive top with no toe seam to irritate sensitive toes. These socks are great worn in warm weather, when bare feet is not an option. They are light weight and very comfortable. We have sizes from Ladies right thru to XL men's size, with a good range of colours.
Our Possum Socks are also a lighter weight sock, good worn in shoes that won't allow a thick sock comfortably. These socks are incredibly warm for their weight, featuring a top that is generous, so won't grab tight on your ankles. They are made of Possum Fur blended with Merino Superwash Wool (33% of each) with stretch nylon(33%) to give the user decent usability. These socks are machine washable unlike many of our competitors offerings.
All you need to do to take advantage of this offer is type in special notes area of our online order form "free socks" with your size when ordering and you'll received your free gift.

Mongrels-the matchmakers!

It warmed my heart to hear this little story from a customer this week, who was stocking up on Mongrel Socks. As I served this women, she told me about being on a sent on a mission, specifically to get our gorgeous pure wool Mongrel Socks for her soon to be sister-in-law who lives interstate. She then went on to tell me that her brother met his future wife while attending a Buddhist Retreat, and that Mongrel socks brought them together. The retreat involved much meditation and silence, and during one of the meditation sessions the "universe" seated these two adjacent to each other. She noticed his far from ordinary socks, and later struck up a conversation, in passing, about them. There began a beautiful thing.

Why are Tuff Mongrel Socks so good?

Because they just are.
We scoured the world to find a blended fibre that not only felt good, it lasted. It took a lot of trials to find something good. We have never been fans of synthetics like nylon and acrylic, that it seems most sock makers use to give their products a long life and provide "cheap" bulk in their socks. Never mind the fact that in the end their socks lose their body ( after only a few washes for acrylic blended socks) and make their wearers feet stinky(high nylon content socks), because they don't breathe. We don't think either is good enough for our customers. And although we and our customers love the feel and nature of good quality Pure Wool, for heavy duty work/recreation day in, day out, the wear factor has to taken in to account. Nothing can and will replace the absolute luxury and warmth of our Pure Wool Mongrel Socks, but we have found the next best thing. After a year of real life trials, on hard working tradesmen, we settled on a 60% Superwash Fine Merino Wool blended with 40% Polypropylene. It's Aussie grown wool, blended in Germany. CLIMAYARN*.
Here's what Schoeller say about their product....
Because of the homogeneous fabric composition of both the high-performing Polycolon*(polypropylene) and it's natural product Wool, Climayarn* is very effective in maintaining body temperature. The wools thermoregulating function gives warmth in cold temperature. At the same time, the Polycolon component sees to it that a fast channelling of extra heat moisture away from the body takes place. This results in preventing heat accumulation as well as higher elasticity according to the knit type. Climayarm* dries considerably faster the comparable cotton materials. This functional yarn offers a truly convincing technic.

Key Facts:

• Climayarm* combines the advantages of natural wool with the strength of Polycolon* high performance fibre
• Wicks moisture outwards, off the skin
• Warms in cold weather
• Prevents heat accumulation
• Ideal for socks
• Machine washable

We have found this is all true, not just spin. So if your looking sick of wool work socks that just don't perform-check these out. You won't be dissapointed.

Mongrel Socks on the go!

Our Pure Wool Mongrel socks are great! We enjoy making them, creating new colour mixes, and to be quite honest, they are all we wear, ever. One of the best things about making great socks, is seeing them on other Mongrel lovers. It is such a buzz for us. It always makes me feel like I'm doing something right.So I thought I'd share a few pictures of Mongrel socks I spotted when I was out and about. These people have incredibly good taste in socks!

Wool socks in the desert!

I'd like to share this picture a customer sent to me recently. They live way out woop woop, beyond the black stump, right in the midst of Australia, about 500ks out of Alice Springs. It's harsh country out there, night time it can be freezing and daytime, stinking hot. They value good pure wool socks there. Only pure wool can give you the warmth you need, when you need it and not over heat as the day warms up. When you live and work in extremes of temperature, your day can start at 0 degrees C (or less) and head in the 40's with in hours. So it's important your foot wear can cope with both. Wool with its great thermal properties is just the thing, cool in the heat and warm in the cold. They tell me our Mongrels are also used as stubby coolers out there, with great success. Maybe that could be a new product for us in the future-I guess I could do a few trials-and drink a bit of beer at the same time. It's a hard life, I know, but some-ones gotta do it. From the look of it, seems there's a sad lack of clothesline's outback as well.

We love our customers!

We just love our customers! Not only do they have the good taste and judgement to choose to wear our fantastic pure wool socks, fashion arm & leg warmers, & head warmers etc, they let us know how just what they think. As manufacturers we need feed back, we need to know what you, the consumer, likes about our product, and we really need to know if your happy with you purchase & why. For us, a small business, we don’t have the budget to employ “focus groups”, “product development consultants” and the like. We rely on the honesty of our customers to let us know what we are doing right or what we could do better. Thankfully our customers know we are interested in what they have to say, good thing it’s almost always terrific! There is nothing quite so motivating as bit of feed back. We plug along day, in day out, its socks, while we love what we do, sometimes it can be ho-hum (like most jobs). And then there are those days when someone can be bothered to let you know your doing OK. Yay! its positively energizing! A few days ago I received an online order from a bloke. He took the time to write this;
Girlfriend bought me a pair of these (blue/green/aqua) arm warmers for my birthday recently and they kick butt! They’re very comfy, warm and they look totally cool too! Keep up the great work. renegade wolf 31/3/07
So……Thanks, & keep it coming.