What a week it has been.  Samsung repair service was out to explore why the clothes dryer wasn’t heating.  They said the plug was bad, not providing enough juice to the heating element.  So the landlord sent out his electrical person, who solved the problem quickly — the old receptacle slots had simply gotten loose and weren’t gripping the plug prongs.  He tightened them up and got it working just fine.  And then the house heater went kaput, and today the landlord is dealing with that.   It got down to 36º overnight, but I was bundled up under 4 blankets on the bed, and I’m none the worse for wear, and I got up to finish this week’s collection of Blog Reader Specials.  Never dismiss the warmth of hand-made afghans and quilts!

My thumb continues to prevent me from really doing any active knitting or crochet, due to a trigger joint and messed up tendon.  The first orthopedist I consulted prescribed a 6-day course of a steroid, but didn’t really help in the long run.  I’ll be consulting with another orthopedist in February to see about a cortisone shot or possibly minor surgery to release whatever is blocking function and mobility.  Frustrating to want to do projects and can’t.  Even dyeing yarns requires some modification to my normal techniques, but I’m able to get it done.

With my workflow sort of skewed and interrupted with the electrical work, I wasn’t producing the colors and combinations I had hoped for, and ended up making a lot of nearly solid colors from the color palettes I had laid out for each dye session.  None of them were planned ahead of time, I just went ahead and did the best I could, and I’m not displeased.

I’ll leave it to you to decide if this week’s efforts are an Oh Wow or a Golly Gee. 🙂

I usually avoid trying to make solid colors as they are normally difficult to make them look actually solidly-solid, and many of these came out surprisingly well.  Some of them seem to have an overtone rather than a full saturation, but they are more even than I would have expected.  The very last Twinset I did (#51-52) was a dump dye of all the remaining bits of dyes from all the jars, and when it was wet it reminded me of fresh lawn mower clippings.

Any of the solids would be super for your fancy lace work, as the overall colors wouldn’t distract from lace textures … or even cables or other texture work.  And none of the solids are so dark as to obscure your fine stitchery.

There is no obligation to take both skeins of a Twinset if you don’t need both.

These are all Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards) and are $27.00. They will, of course, be reskeined, labeled and properly presented for shipping; they should be ready to ship on or before Wednesday.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered requests.  I will mark them off here in the tally just below, so you can see which have been claimed.  Once all the yarns are reskeined, the unclaimed yarns will have individual presentation photos posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.

All of the yarns not claimed during the preview period have now been posted with individual presentation photos on the Blog Reader Specials page.

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