In January 2009, I thought it would be fun to join some sock clubs. I checked sites out on Ravelry. I asked other knitters. I looked at colors in Etsy shops.

I signed up for a few sock clubs. I signed up for a few lace clubs too but that is a different post. I heard alot about the number of sock clubs that I had joined from my knitting friends.
I also got emergency phone calls.
"XYZ is having sign ups for their knitting club in 20 minutes. You have to sign up. Their yarn is great!"
I signed up. I got purple yarn. Nice yarn but purple. Tangledarts is now the happy owner of that purple yarn and strangely enough, she is also the person who phoned to tell me about the sign up. hmmmnnn???

Some of the yarn came with extra goodies. I now have a fabulous collection of stitch markers, project bags, notebooks, magnets and various other knitting gadgets. I also have many more patterns for socks and other small projects.

But my main reason for joining sock clubs was for the yarn. I got some fabulous yarns from dyers that I didn't know about before.

These are people who dye yarn who have a great sense of how colors work together. They also realise that you can't just throw dye on yarn and make good yarn.

The colors are vibrant and clear and made me want to cast on a new pair of socks immediately.

Other dyers are not so good. These skeins remind me my the first skeins that I dyed in class last July. My thought then was that I needed to re-dye my yarn and I feel the same way about these skeins.

I recognise that we all have our own likes and dislikes and that someone may actually like these colors but I don't.

And there is not a speck of purple in those three skeins.

Colors I like and want to knit can be vibrant or pale. If you check the top photo, not only is there purple in one skein, the other one is completely, totally unapologetic purple. It has a future as the cuff and toes for the matching sock yarn.

I have recently signed up for 2010 sock clubs. The number is smaller.