Cold Water Wash, Line Dry

I can't say that socks changed my life exactly but they were the reason I started doing my own laundry. You see, for most of my life someone else took my worn things away and returned them clean each week. And during that time I wore what in retrospect were utilitarian socks. Respectable stuff, but essentially I could be found in navy blue over the calf hose from that store we in America once called The Brethren.

That situation changed after I was introduced to better quality hosiery. I think it must have been a couple pair of cashmere socks, purchased at what seemed then to be great cost, that were returned to me in a no longer wearable condition. After one wearing. It was then that I learned that quality socks, particularly the over the calf version that need some tension around the calf to be wearable without sock garters, don't survive rough laundering. On the other hand they last indefinitely when washed on the delicate cycle in cold water and dried on a line. So I began washing them myself.

One thing leading to another, when I polled people about the ASW store this summer regarding what they wanted to see on the store, the most requested item was socks. That happened to be top of my list as well, so no further encouragement was necessary. And this week, the first of them have arrived.

I will be adding more patterns and more colors over the remainder of 2010 and into next year, but one thing will never change. And that is cold water wash, line dry.