Monthly Archives: November 2021

I Topped One Thousand!

Knitivity Posted on by

edit to add:  All of the yarns not claimed from the racks shown below have been reskeined, individually photographed and posted to the Blog Reader Specials page. Here are the group shots of the unclaimed yarns:

Happy Sunday!

Here in the U.S. this coming Thursday is observed as Thanksgiving Day, a time to share a plentiful meal with friends and family, and to show gratitude for all that you have in your life, however much or little it may be.  We’ve all had our struggles this year, but we are here and we have each other.  In whatever way you observe the day, I want to give thanks to you for making this a great year. Besides buying the product of my dyeing efforts, many of you have reached out to share with me in other ways.  Your friendship and patronage have encouraged me and help me continue this adventure. So, truly — I Thank you!

It’s probably not a big deal to anyone else, but in 2018 (my best year up to that time), my BRS roster showed I did 1202 skeins that year — averaging about 100 skeins a month, which was my goal.   Toward the end of 2019 my health started going downhill and I only show 904 skeins. I started 2020 with the Big Surgery and  ended the year with a smaller surgery, so with recovery times I managed to do less than 400 skeins. for the year.   And, of course, this year I started in recovery mode, plus some weather interruptions, so I am tickled that I’ve dyed this many (1002 as of today).  I should be in the 1100 series by now, but I’ll accept being in the 1000s, and hope be into the 1100s to finish this year.  So, I’m mildly excited to see tangible evidence I am getting better.   🙂

Anyway, I had some custom dyes to do on Friday, and then yesterday dyed up a bundle for you to view as BRS this week.   These are all Phydlbitz II sock yarn (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each).

They always say “stick to what you know, do what you do best.”  I tried for years to get solid color dye jobs, but invariably there were undyed sections and other disapointments.   Fairly recently I discovered a way to dye solid colors, which fairly well tickled me, but I subsequently found that the colors were “flat.”  I find flat colors to be boring, so I probably won’t be doing that any more; better I should stick with my layering techniques.  That’s what my customers seem like and that’s what I do acceptably well.

After all, the big commercial dyers can manage the solid colors just fine and I don’t need to try competing there.  The big commercial dyers can’t create one or two skeins on demand — they set their colors months in advance and create thousands of identical skeins.  I think I would shrivel up and die having to make even one hundred identical skeins, never mind thousands.

The most notable Twinset this week is #982-983 — It started as a purple fade, but it wasn’t “fading” enough for my liking.  I deepened the darker end, but I couldn’t lighten the other end, so I gave it some black freckles.    I also added freckles to some of the other Twinsets, and #996-997 is just black freckles.  🙂

Solo #1002 is a true Blog Reader Special — It’s a leftover DumpDye from a custom job during the week.

Today’s yarns aren’t layered to be visual solids but they all have more than one color or dye involved in all of them.

Phydlbitz are normally $27.00 each, but for Sunday and Monday, you can claim any skeins of this week’s collection (#976 – 1002) at Preview Pricing for just $25.00.  And by way of giving thanks to you for sticking with me through thick and thin over the years, when you claim  any two or more on Sunday or Monday, I’ll give you free shipping as well.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered selections.  I’ll mark your request off on the  Available Yarns tally shown below, then send your PayPal invoice.  Looking at the weather ahead, we may have rain this afternoon, but it looks good for Monday and Tuesday, so I expect to be able to get these into the mail on Wednesday, since Thursday is a mail holiday.

There is no obligation to take both skeins of a Twinset, just take the ones you want.   I have altered the pricing on the Blog Reader Specials page with a discount on Twinsets, but even there you don’t have to take both skeins of a pair.

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It

I Made a Thing!

Knitivity Posted on by

Long time coming.  After power-crocheting my daughter’s shawl over a year early, early last fall,  I developed a trigger joint in my thumb.  Then while I was recovering from hernia surgery last November, I tried to comfort myself by knitting my own simple shawl, but that just made my thumb worse.

So I basically stopped all knitting and crocheting to see if not using my hands that way would help avoid the inflammation along the tendons.   Way last spring I did manage to crochet the front and back for a potholder, but the pain was too much, so the pieces just sat and stared at me for the longest time.  Finally this week I got around to joining the two halves, but it took a couple days to do a single round of double crochet to join them.  I will find out tomorrow morning if it aggravated things further.

Having been knitting and crocheting since I was a teenager, it’s hard to just not do it any more because it hurts my hands.  But I need to be able to use my hands for other things, like working and taking care of these of my life.   I will likely need to have surgery on my hands, both my thumb and middle finger now on my right hand.

But, at least now I do have a new potholder, which I seriously needed.    I used to favor the basketweave single-layer style with alternating front-post and back-post double crochet, but I discovered that two layers of simple double-crochet makes a thicker hot pad.

I used Lion Brand Kitchen Cotton, which I’ve had in my stash well over 15 years, with a size G hook.  Lion Brand no longer makes this particular Kitchen Cotton, but I have enough left to make a few more dishcloths for washing dishes.  My last two dishcloths are coming apart, so I really do need to make some more.  It is 35 stitches wide and 6 + 8 + 6 rows tall.

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It

A Short Collection

Knitivity Posted on by

Well, we had a couple of cold fronts move through this week; the first brought a swift-moving band of thunderstorms on Wednesday morning, and then Friday it just brought noticeably cooler weather to Houston.  Feels nice in the afternoons.

I have a short collection to show you today, but I’d rather show what I have rather than wait  until all the other yarns are ready to choose from.  Some of this week’s dye work needs to be processed, and one of the other Twinsets  (#774-775) had to have a second session to set the dyes, so it isn’t as dried in the picture as the rest and thus looks slightly longer than the rest.

I started the dye session making a set of custom dyed yarns. The solids that you see are leftovers from that custom set BUT for each of the dye jars I used initially, I added other dyes to make quite different solids.  Sneaky, eh?   The four remaining Twinsets (the not-solid ones) were done with all different colors in a different technique entirely.

Twinset #762-763 is a blend of something in the red family and something blue, not a straight purple dye.   #766-765 is a blend of brown and one of the custom blues.  Since the custom job was mostly a monochrome set, it was interesting to see what would happen when I mixed them with definitely not-blue colors to create the solids you see here.

I did the custom job for my client as Twinsets, and once they approve the picture I sent, my client will get their six yarns and the other six will be put to the BRS page.  Those will either be presented as they are done during the week, or perhaps included in next week’s BRS collection.

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

Phydlbitz yarns are normally $27.00, but for Sunday and Monday they are available at preview pricing for $25.00 each.  You do not have to claim both skeins of a Twinset during the preview period; just claim the ones you want.

I anticipate these will be ready to ship on or before Thursday (probably Wednesday).

I’ve not mentioned this in quite a while, but when you refer a friend and they make a purchase of Knitivity yarns and tell me with their first order that you sent them, you will get 15% off the full price of yarns in your next order,  so please to feel free to invite your friends to knitivity.com — the more the merrier, right?

OMG!!! A glaring error!!!  Somehow I screwed up the numbering on these — they are supposed to be in the 900 series, not the 700 series (which was done a few months ago).  I’m not going to change the picture or tally chart here, but your yarns WILL be numbered correctly on their labels.  I sincerely apologize.   

edit to add: all the yarns not claimed from the racks below have been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page. 

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It

Much Better Results!

Knitivity Posted on by

Edit to add, 10Nov2021:   All of the yarns not claimed from the preview showing on the racks down below have now been posted on the Blog Reader Specials page.  Click through to see Twinset pictures and pricing.  And remember you do not have to take both skeins of a Twinset; just take what you need.  🙂

Here are the group shots of the unclaimed yarns:

Happy Saturday to all.

Cooler this week, bordering on almost chilly, I woke to about 46ºF this morning, and it probably won’t even reach 70º all day.  One of the local weather folks said that one chilly morning this week that it hasn’t been this cold in Houston since the first day or two after thawing from that horrendous week last February!   I just hope we don’t have to repeat that awful week!

Anyway, on a whim I decided to dye 32 skeins instead of my usual 24.  It does fill the rack more fully, and I do have enough mesh bags for rinsing 16 Twinsets.   But I did use a rather limited palette this time, so it may or may not have been worthwhile.  More yarns with fewer colors available meant I had to get more creative in my combinations.

As I was pulling skeins from the rinse and getting ready to hang them, I was musing over the fact that I no longer attempt to name colorways.  Giving a name would mean I might have to repeat a colorway, and we all know how poorly that works out here; it’s just difficult for me to repeat something I’ve done previously and hope for the same result.  Others manage to make it work somehow, but I’m a perfectionist, and I get really disappointed if I can do *exactly* what I’ve done before if that’s what was requested.   But, having said that, if I were to name my colorways, there is a Lemon-Lime in a Blender, as well as a Lemon-Lime Fade.  And there are a couple Twinsets that would be Petrichor, if petrichor even had a color.

I am really happy with this week’s Fades because I did them differently from how I’ve done them in the past.  These would be Twinsets #940-941, 944-945, and 948-949.  I may keep doing Fades in this new technique.

Twinsets #934-935 and 940-941 remind me of something in the line of raspberry or black cherry.

Twinset #930-931 is a spattering of royal and black;  #932-933 is a smoosh of a yellow base with overlays of brown and greens, maybe “forest camo?”

Twinset #956-957 is a true Dump Dye, combining the remains of several dye jars into a single dip bath.  Sometimes a DumpDye has dyes poured onto the yarn; this time the dyes I used were poured into the dipping vat and the yarn dipped several times, after each new dye jar was pour into and stirred around.   Since I do these with whatever dyes are remaining there’s no way to repeat these — sometimes they tend toward browns, but other times toward greens or purples.  It just depends on whatever is left in the jars.  🙂

These are all Phydlbitz II Sock yarn, 75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, at 430 yards each skein.  For those unfamiliar with this yarn, it is a dependable blend for items needing frequent washing (like socks or infant sweaters), but holds a blocking well for lacework like shawls that you want to look “finished”, yet can also go into a gentle wash cycle to be reblocked when needed.

I will do my best to have these ready to ship on or before Wednesday.  I’m sometimes a day earlier than projected, but if there’s a delay beyond Wednesday, I will let you know.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email (ray@knitivity.com) with the item numbers you  like.  You do NOT have to take both skeins of a Twinset; just claim the ones you want. I’ll send a PayPal invoice; PayPal will collect your shipping information, but if you are requesting shipping outside the U.S., I’ll need to calculate your shipping and handling charges. Inside the U.S. your s/h charges will be based on how many skeins you request.  Four skeins or more will go by Priority mail based on your ZIP code.

Each of these will appear on the Blog Reader Specials page at $27.00 each, but for Saturday and Sunday, you may claim any of this new collection (BRS21 – #926 – 957) for $25.00.

If you are new here, please consider joining the Knitivity Insiders — I never add customers to a mailing list, but everyone is welcome to request the weekly announcements do you can get the first announcements and viewing of each week’s collection and get the weekly code for discounts or free shipping offers.  You can sign up using the link at the top of the Blog Reader Specials page.

 

Email, RSS Follow
Pin It