Monthly Archives: September 2017

You’re Going To Love These!

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UPDATE:   All the yarns that were not claimed from the preview rack below have now been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page; click through to see which ones remain available at the time of your visit.   Here are the group shots.

Earlier this week I was pondering what type of yarns to dye this weekend.  Then someone appeared on the horizon asking for a particular type of yarn in a custom dye job, making it easy for me to decide which yarns to pull out.

As it turned out, I blew it on the custom dye job and will do it over again this afternoon.  But, I learned something along the way, so it’s not a total loss, and the first attempt at the custom job is now included in this weeks rack of Blog Reader Specials.    Some of you may recall the early days of Knitivity, when experimental dyes, mistakes, and extras were shown on the blog and offered at a special price, hence the name Blog Reader Specials.

So, anyway, I dyed up a bunch of Phydlbitz Sock last night, and since the custom job didn’t turn out as I wanted, it was added to the regular wash and rinse cycle.   One of the Twinsets had fuchsia in it, a color notorious for bleeding out excess dye.  Even after rinsing and rinsing separately, apparently there was some free-floating fuchsia still in the yarn and it smudged up against a couple of the other yarns.  Boooo!    It’s not horrible, but I’ve shown further down the two yarns that have slight pink smudges — hardly noticeable, but I’d be remiss to not point it out, so no one comes back later to complain about it.  🙂

Shown below are the 16 hanks of Phydlbitz Sock, 75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards, $26.00 each.   They were all dyed as Twinsets, and for each pair I have rotated one of the hanks so you can see all the colors that exist on both hanks of the Twinset.  These will be ready to ship on Saturday.

The brown and blue halos on 631-632 are why the custom job failed.  What I wanted to do apparently can’t be done, or at least not in the way I was trying to do it.   :-/

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered choices, and make sure I know you state or country so I can calculate the right shipping amount.

ALREADY CLAIMED: 632, 635, & 636

And these are the two that got bits of pink

This is #625

and this is 631:

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From Dyepots to Runway, Knitivity’s there!

Knitivity Posted on by

Joni’s Planned Pooling Scarf

If you are a teacher or mentor, you are involved in one way or another with the shaping of a young person’s future, and may often wonder what becomes of all those whose lives you touched early on. Then one day, one of your little wards grows up and is suddenly the talk of the town and you feel so proud.

In my work, I take plain undyed yarn, give it some color and send it on its way. Once in a while I get to see pictures of socks, shawls, scarves, and so forth, and I am delighted to see these glimpses into what my yarn becomes. This weekend I got to see pictures of the process involved in one of my dye jobs ending up on a fashion show runway! But I’m getting ahead of myself…..

Last January, I sold a Twinset of Phydlbitz Sock. They started like this after dyeing. Wtth matching Twinsets I always rotate one of the skeins to show all the colors that exist on both skeins.

And after rewinding for presentation they looked like this:

Little did I know what would become of it. Well, until this past weekend, that is!

These yarns were bought by Joni Lawver, who used my yarns to make a wonderful shawl. She started by warping her Cricket loom…. 

using a chip clip to hold the strands taut and aligned as much as my dye job would allow … 

so that the colors would stack … 

Joni used a light blue 8/2 Merino/Tencel yarn from WEBS for the weft.

In her own words:

“A twinset of your yarn has been a big hit at Stitches Texas. I just finally finished the planned pooling scarf I was going to weave from them and have been wearing it this weekend.  Tons of compliments and as I’ve been telling folks, they all go to you. [Even StevenBe…] stopped me as I was walking through his booth to ask about the shawl/scarf.”

With so many compliments on her scarf she was encouraged to enter it into the fashion show at Stitches Texas. And boy, was it a hit!  Check this out!  

In fact, several people messaged me on Facebook to tell me a project with my yarn was featured! How cool is that?

Joni said she would be sharing the project over on her Ravelry page – click here to see. 

In recent months I’ve been wondering if the neatly segmented dye jobs were a thing of the past, since many dyers are moving toward gradients and other techniques. Knowing there is still a market among weavers for the segmented dye jobs, I may just have to produce some more this week! 🙂

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Introducing “Luxury Fingering”

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After many weeks of anticipation, I can finally show you the first batch of what I’m going to call “Luxury Fingering” – a blend of 85% 19.5-micro Merino and 15% Mulberry silk, at 550 yards per hank (~4 oz.).  As I’ve said previously, this is a heavy laceweight or light fingering, it is NOT superwash, and will be perfect (in my opinion) for lacework or other projects where you want good stitch definition and lovely drape.

I BLEW IT — These were supposed to have 550 yards apiece.  I miscalculated and only put 460 yards into each of these skeins.  Those who have already paid for the BRS have been refunded $3.00 per skein.   For those who ordered custom dyes on the new base, I am ordering new cones and will correctly measure your yarn out.  I sincerely apologize.

These were all dyed up last night, including the pair I showed you last night with the strange dye results (see previous post).   By the way, that Twinset is now showing as 583 and 584.   I dyed most of them at monochrome semi-solids and mild gradients.    Please ignore the last yarns showing in the second picture — that is a pair of custom dyed Primo Lace, but it was easier to hang those 2 with the other 18 to make the pictures the same size.  🙂

You  do not have to claim both hanks of a Twinset — these were dyed as Twinsets merely for convenience (on my part) and to ensure ample yardage if you want more yardage for a single larger project.

To claim the ones you want, send me an email with the item numbers, and be sure I know your state or country so I can calculate appropriate shipping to your location.   These will be ready to ship on Monday, Sep 18.

Already Claimed:  579, 580, 581, 582, 583, 584, 585, 586, 589, 590, 591, 592

 

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My Dye Broke!!

Knitivity Posted on by

We’ve all had the experience of dye ‘breaking’ during the setting process — some dyes set faster while other dye molecules wander around a while.

This evening I was dyeing up some of the new Luxury Fingering aiming mostly for nearly solids, or monochrome fades.

But this Twinset….. well, I have NO idea what happened because I was using ONE jar of dye.  Granted, it was leftover from *that* jar (which was a mix of a mix of a couple other mixes, so thoroughly blended), and leftovers from *this* jar, which was a tiny bit of blue-gray, into which I put a bit of pink.    So, anyway, I remixed ALL of this leftover stuff, added a little supplemental citric acid for good measure, covered the jar, shook it thoroughly and it was a single oddly sexy musty dirty green…..  I poured it onto the yarn …. and

OHMAHGAWSH!!!!

How the hell did that happen?  It broke even as I poured it!      I mean, it IS sort of cool-looking, but I am mystified completely.   Even so, after almost eleven years doing this (Yeah, for real — October 1 is my 11th anniversary!), I still say, “If I knew what the hell I was doing, I might could get a job somewhere.”    Hahahaha  🙂

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