Follow
I hope this finds everyone well and healthy.
It’s another sweltering summer weekend, eh? If your part of the world is simmering in this heat, you don’t need me to remind you about triple-digit heat indices and the discomfort that is traditional southeast Texas in August. Of course, our friends Down Under are in their wintertime now — like, for example, in Sydney, Australia, it’s a cool 55ºF/12ºC today. Whatever the weather, it’s never a bad time to park yourself under the heater or air conditioner, grab a pleasant beverage and knit on some of the newest Phydlbitz II colors!
This week’s collection began with a custom dye job; I took the remainder of that dye and built a palette to mix and match with it.
There is a specific recipe I normally use for green (Knitivity Green #1) as it holds true and doesn’t separate. But I used a different recipe to make the green of Twinset #698-699, and I discovered that when it is allowed to rest the yellow separates from the blue, which results in a sort of halo effect of yellow in some areas and the undyed portions take up a slight hint of the blue.
Not sure if you can see it, but I definitely notice the separation of dyes on the yarn. It’s not a bad thing, but I wanted to point out that most of my sprinkle/splatter colors remain true and don’t spread this way. It is an interesting effect that I may use on purpose in the future. This time it is just a happy accident. I like happy accidents.
#692-693 is a wet fade (very wet) of brown and red; #694-695 is a handprinted blue on a field of pale yellow-green — instead of putting dye on the yarn, I squirt dye on my hand and pat it onto the yarn in random places. I use the handprint method often and usually force it to blend or migrate, but it is quite noticeable on this Twinset, so I wanted to point out that the splotches of blue is deliberate; I expect it will knit up into a very random distribution of the blue.
If you would like a close-up shot of any of these before they are reskeined for their presentation photos, just email me and ask.
All of this week’s dyes will work up into some very nice socks, scarves, shawls, or whatever else you create. Has anyone use Phydlbitz for stuffed toys? I’d love to see that — animals, play cubes or balls, Tooth-Fairy pillows…?
These are all Phydlbitz II, 75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards, and will be $27.00 when they are posted to the Blog Reader Specials page. For Saturday and Sunday (Aug 14-15), you can have any of these at preview price of $25.00 each.
To claim the ones you want, send me an email with your numbered selections. I’ll send you a PayPal invoice*, and upon payment I will prepare your shipping labels so it is ready when the yarns have been reskeined, labeled and made ready to go. This week’s collection will be ready to ship on or before Wednesday.
Update: The yarns not claimed from the preview racks below have now been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.
