Monthly Archives: September 2021

Fifteen Years??

Knitivity Posted on by

TL/DR: To celebrate Fifteen Years, everything currently available on the BRS page can be purchased at $15.00 per skein now through Friday, October 1. Not fifteen percent off, but Fifteen Dollars each skein! Click over to the Blog Reader Specials page to make your selections and email me your requests. 🙂

Can you believe it? I’ve been at this adventure for Fifteen Years! I officially started Knitivity on October 1, 2006. I’d moved to Houston from New Orleans a month prior with the idea I could make money dyeing yarn for other knitters. (I know I’ve previously shared the events with Hurricane Katrina that spurred my interest in leaving New Orleans and starting over.) I’m not particularly clever creating knitted designs and patterns, but I really enjoy playing with color on fiber, especially wool yarn.

The undyed yarn comes to me like a blank canvas. Not many painters will paint the same scene repeatedly, but will create a new image each time. I tried for a few years to create a consistent line-up of colorways that could be repeated on demand, but it was grueling work and often disappointing because I don’t have a consistent work environment. The local water source sometime has different chemicals to make it safe for drinking; humidity and air temperature sometimes affect how dyes turn out; I don’t have computerized color matching for consistently repeating what I’ve done. It was heart-breaking taking orders for colorways that simply refused to turn out now what I’d done just a few weeks prior.

Because of my disappointments in not producing consistent colorways, I ended up selling a lot of mistakes on my blog, along with some experiments and extras. Over time, I simply stopped pushing for custom dyed yarn on demand, and now nearly all of my yarn is Blog Reader Specials. I still do offer custom dye jobs on a case-by-case basis, but I don’t have a regular line-up of colorways for people to request. I just need a clear picture of what is wanted, but don’t send me a forest picture and ask for yarn like the little flower at the base of the third tree from the left. Get a close up of the flower. 🙂

When I started, not many people believed I could make money doing this, at least not in the long term. Having left a fairly ‘safe’ income working for the State of Louisiana, I had put myself in a position where I had nothing else to fall back on if this didn’t work out. And for a time it looked like I would have to quit and find something else to fill my time and pocketbook.

But, after 15 years I am still here. I’ve seen dyers come and go. It’s a hard way to make a living, for sure, and I am by no means living high on the hog. Even now I struggle to make ends meet.

My main consolation is that there is nobody else depending on me for food and housing. It’s just me. But that also means there’s nobody here for me to commiserate with at the end of a hard day. I don’t have a regularly employed spouse to help cover the bills. I don’t have someone to help bind up the yarns or help with any of the other processes required for me to do what I do.

At one point early on I did hire a couple teenagers to help with pulling individual hanks from cones. That was before I was given an electric 3-skein skein-winder, so it was all manual work winding off hanks individually. But I discovered my helpers weren’t accurate and consistent in counting off the required yardage, nor could they form the knots I required for various steps. No matter how many times I showed them, they just didn’t do it the way I needed. In fairness, one of the boys did try, but the other was simply too disinterested to pay attention and always complained about my methods and my knots were too hard to remember.

When I started dyeing, I watched a few YouTube videos. This was back in 2005 and there weren’t so many. I also read the tutorials at Dharma Trading and a couple other places. But nearly everything I have learned was from trial-and-error, discovering what worked and what didn’t. Nobody showed me how to reskein a hank and then twist it correctly for presentation. Everyone has their own work space; I have a small kitchen.

I had to learn or invent my own methods based on what equipment and space I had available at hand, because I started on a shoestring and could not just go buy everything to create the ideal space. This is not to say I didn’t benefit from other dyers sharing their experience; I did. But I didn’t sign up for classes. In various dyers groups I would catch a tip here, note a hint there.

Would I do it again? I don’t know. I suppose there is a reason we can’t see too far into the future. If I had stayed on at my job in Louisiana I would be nearing retirement and would have somewhat more monthly income than I have now, that’s for sure. But because of the aftermath of Katrina and my work situation, I would have been stuck in a terribly discouraging job (aka,“Journey Of Boredom”) and been incredibly unhappy for the last 15 years.

But, for better or worse, I’ve been here for FIFTEEN YEARS, and I have earned the right to thumb my nose at the early naysayers who doubted and scoffed and didn’t think I could do it. Whether by talent, luck, or sheer stubbornness, I’m still here. And definitely with the help of some incredible friends and supporters through the years. I’ve had (and still have) financial challenges as well as some significant health challenges and other bumps along the way. I have no idea how long I will be able to continue, but I have no other way to earn money and I don’t think I have exhausted all the different ways to take a blank canvas of yarn and apply color to it.

I could be mistaken, but I do believe my work has improved over the years. I will, of course, leave that for others to decide. Meanwhile, I will just keep on playing with color on yarn and see what works and what doesn’t.

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A Perfect Autumn Day!

Knitivity Posted on by

The Fall Equinox occurred on Tuesday, and today Houston is enjoying a nearly perfect autumn day – low- to mid-80s, light breeze, low humidity.  I hope everyone else is having a good day as well.

Yesterday I had a wild thought in my head about how to dye this week’s collection.  And, as so often happens, the dyes must have been asleep during our planning conference because they just did their own thing.   I’m not entirely disappointed, though; there were some stunning yarns coming out of their steaming pouches, a few looked almost like marbling.  Once washed, rinsed, and spun out in the machine, they weren’t quite as impressive (yarn always looks better fully wet), but they’re still pretty, and I will do that technique again.

There were also a couple “oopsie” Twinsets.  For as long as I have been doing this, you would think I should remember than when doing a technique that involves actually touching the yarn with a multi-color dye process, that I would remember to rinse my gloved hands EVERY time before touching a different section of the yarns.  Thankfully, and mostly because I work each week with a limited palette of colors, I was able to repeat the mistake and make it look like I did it on purpose.  A useful skill to have.  So is the ability to laugh at myself when I make mistake.  Some of you may recall that “Blog Reader Specials” were born out of a need to market mistakes and experiments that occurred while dyeing custom skeins.  Now nearly all I do is Blog Reader Specials and I am free to play all the time.  More fun, less stress.  Win-win.  🙂

I may go out later when the yarns have full direct sunlight; I don’t know if it is the daylight or the camera but some of these don’t look as bright as in real life.  Or it could just be my monitor.  No matter — if you need to see a Twinset laid out in better or different light, feel free to ask.  I do try to make the pictures as accurate as I can.

The last Twinset is truly a “Dump Dye”, where I combined all the leftover dyes into the dye bath where I gave the yarns a double dip to take up as much dye as they could.   When appropriate, I have rotated one skein of a pair so you can see the color distribution of both;   #834-835 are a two-tone half-and-half; #840-841 is a two-tone fade; #844-845 is a mix of various bands of browns, pinks, reds, and light blues; #846-847 is a straight sprinkle with purple; #850-851 is a straight sprinkle in light blue; #848-849 is mostly deep pink with a deep brown tone across the center of the skein at around 36-inch centers.

These are all Phydlbitz II sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards), and are $27.00 each.  They will be reskeined and labeled before shipping, and I expect to have these ready to ship on or before Tuesday.

Preview Pricing:  If you claim any of this new collection (#830 – 853) on Saturday or Sunday, you may have each skein for $25.00 each.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered selections.

Note:  I took some daylight/sunshine pictures this afternoon; they are included here below each of the morning photos that show individual numbers.  I didn’t want to simply swap out pictures.

Edit:  All the yarns not claimed during the Preview Pricing period have been reskeined, labeled and posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.  Click through to see which yarns are available at the time of your visit.

 

Rack 1 –

Rack 1 – Daylight/Sunshine photo – Click to enlarge

Rack 2 –

Rack 2 – Daylight/Sunshine photo – Click to enlarge

 

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Say: “Fiddle-Bits”

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A gloriously cool(ish) September Saturday!

About 11 years ago I had some significant difficulties with a previous supplier and nearly had to stop dyeing.  Then, thanks to another dyer, I was able to establish an account with a different supplier that just happened to have a superior wool/nylon blend sock yarn.  Since I was (and still am) primarily interested in sock yarns, this was a great benefit to me.

But I still had to rebuild my clientele and following.  I called my yarn PHYDLBITZ  – Positively Helping Your Dyer Land Back In The Zone.  I’ve heard some interesting pronunciations, but I pronounce it “Fiddle-Bits.”   And every purchase helps your  dyer (i.e., Me!) land in and stay in “the zone” — the happy place where yarns come in and yarns go out.

Side note:  I’ve also heard some interesting ways to say Knitivity.  It’s definitely not “knitty-vitty”, cute as that may sound.   Knitivity sounds almost the same as Nativity.  🙂

Shortly after last week’s collection was shown, I posted this Twinset:

Since it was almost immediately claimed off the racks, I didn’t show the BRS numbers, but there were favorable comments about it, so I decided to use the same technique on this week’s collection.  I didn’t pre-mix any dyes this week, but used dye powder directly onto the acid-wetted yarns to let the dyes interact, separate, and migrate on their own.

I know I’ve mentioned how some of the dyes come to me from the manufacturer, having been preblended with various color molecules, and how sometimes the dye molecules don’t completely dissolve.  Since I didn’t prepare the dyes by dissolving first in boiling water, but simply sprinkled the dye powder onto the wet yarn, it is not surprising that some of the yarns are sporting “freckles” of color — tiny molecules of dye that didn’t break up until they were in the steamer.  When this happens, the little freckle of dye is just one of the colors that went into manufacturing the dye, and which would have gone unnoticed if I had prepared the liquid dyes and everything was dissolved and filtered.

One of the cool things about this technique is that I have little control how the dyes will react, so it’s usually a surprise how they turn out.  But, that is also one of the frustrating things, since it means I can’t easily duplicate a particularly spectacular dye job.  I guess that’s what makes me an artist rather than an automaton cranking out same-same yarn after yarn after yarn.

Obviously, when a client needs a larger quantity of a particularly colorway, I will make whatever notes are needed, and I’ll dye all the required yarns the same way at the same time with the same dyes.  I know how to do that, but I save that for special requests, and spend my days just playing with colors.

I hope you enjoy this week’s collection.  These are all Phydlbitz II sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards), and all were dyed as Twinsets.  Because of the technique I used, even though I tried to apply the dye equally across both hanks of a pair, each Twinset has the same colors, but not necessarily identical distribution or spread of colors.  I recommend alternating hanks every 2-3 rows to minimize pooling and avoid the obvious new-yarn change of pattern or sequencing.

Each of these will be available on the Blog Reader Specials page at $27.00 each, but for this Saturday and Sunday, each of this new collection (#782 – 805) is $25.00.

I expect these to be ready to ship on or before Wednesday.

To claim the ones you want just send me an email indicating the BRS numbers you would like.

Available Yarns
Rack 1:  782, 783, 784, 785, 786, 787, 788, 789, 790, 791, 792, 793
Rack 2:  794, 795, 796, 797, 798, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805

 

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Happy September!

Knitivity Posted on by

I hope all y’all are doing well.  There is a LOT going on in the world – natural disasters, public health crises, political issues, and many people I know in real life  are also experiencing personal crises of all sorts.  Since I am neither a doctor, public health scientist, spiritual advisor, or politician, I can only offer what is in my power to offer — compassion, empathy, kindness … and some amazing yarns to help occupy your hands and minds during troubled times.  🙂

Yesterday I was able to dye up another collection of Phydlbitz II sock yarn (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each) as Blog Reader Specials.   I had planned to do a few Twinsets similar to the previous collection, with some black-and-orange, black-and-green, and others, but as I noted last night on Facebook, when I am facing a bin of undyed yarns and a palette of prepared dyes, sometimes the yarns and the dyes seem to conspire against me.   My black dye didn’t behave well at all, and came up as a very dark, “almost-black” charcoal ash sort of color.  Nearly black, but not truly the kind of blackety-black that I wanted.

Among this week’s collection there are some long-span and short-span fades and two-tones  My skeins are about 72-inches around, and when I lay them out to work on them they are about 36-inches long when pulled straight.  Long-span means a roughly 72-inch color  repeat, and short-span is about a 36-inch color repeat.

For the long-span repeats, I have rotated one skein of each Twinset a full 36-inch rotation.  Examples of long-span repeats would be #758-759, or 766-767,   Examples of short-span repeats would be like #770-771, or 780-781.  If you are unsure of a particular Twinset, I am happy to photograph and/or explain them for you, until they’ve been reskeined.

Twinset #778-779 was dyed as a Twinset, but they didn’t behave identically, so 778 appears to have somewhat more of the gold and other colors appearing than 779.  If they are knit together, alternating skeins every couple of rows, the colors themselves will of course be the same, just not the same percentage of a particular color.

All of these are Phydlbitz II Sock, and will be available at $27.00 each, when they are processed and ready to ship from the Blog Reader Specials page.   For Sunday and Monday (Sep 5-6) you can claim your favorites from the rack for a Preview Price of just $25.00 each.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered selections.  I expect to have these processed and ready to ship on or before Thursday.

Available Yarns:
Rack 1:  758. 759, 760, 761, 762, 763, 764, 765, 766, 767, 768, 769
Rack 2:  770, 771, 772, 773, 774, 775, 776, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781

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