udpate 23June22 – All of the yarns not claimed from the preview racks below have now been reskeined and their presentation pictures have been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.  Shown here is the group shot of all the unclaimed yarns from this week’s BRS collection:

Earlier this past week I had a crazy idea — creating some yarns with Shades of Black; i.e., various colors to which black was added.   I tried it the first time with some leftover red-based dye to which I added some serious black.  The yarn did come out black, but with a very slight hint of redness to it.  Actually it was quite similar to what came out this week as Twinset #519-520, although this has more of a blue-ish cast and my original one leaned slightly more red.

So I was thinking about dyeing up other blacks  using different colors to see what would happen, if there was a noticeable hint or overcast of other colors.

As I got my work space ready to go, it dawned on me that black yarn, regardless any other colors, would always just look black when wet.   And then I worried that if someone had a blackened blue and a blackened green or red, it might look all black while knitting, but out in the daylight it might be really obvious that the knitter changed balls and this would not be a good thing.

So, I thought, “why not make it really obvious what colors had been used along with the black?”   And that’s what I did.  I only had six dyes mixed for the day.  One Twinset would get a near-solid wash of the straight color, and the next Twinset would be the same dye with black added.   I used the exact same amount of black in all of them.   I think the only thing I would change if I do this again would be to add a straight all-black (I call it blackety-black) section at the end opposite the colored end.

And a couple of times I accidentally dropped a couple specks of black dye powder on the parts where I didn’t want any black.  I quickly devised a way to block that from happening.   I also learned to rinse my gloves allllll the time to avoid transferring black to the color areas.   Yes, live and learn, right?    But we all know what I do is a constant learning process, and I did learn a LOT from this experiment.

Having taken them from the washer, I realize that I should have added more black into the mixed solution and also done a solid black tip fade at the end to blend in.  Well, what’s done is done and I will know better for next time.  Even so, you can (hopefully) see what I was trying to do.  I will do things differently the next time I attempt a similar collection for you.  As I have learned from past experience it is very difficult to overdye properly due to the acid content and the way I dye, so I won’t try to add more black to these that are already done.  They are already beautiful in their own ways and offer plenty of inspiration for your knitting projects.

This is a slightly larger collection than normal, and I’m also processing some custom dyes this weekend, so I will say that I expect these all to ship on or before Wednesday of this coming week.  They’ll all finish drying today and tomorrow and I’ll start reskeining on Monday.

These were all dyed as Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards) and will be $27.50 per skein when they go to the Blog Reader Specials page.  That’s where I post the final presentation pictures for all the previously posted but unclaimed yarns.  For Saturday and Sunday (June 19-20), you may claim any of this new collection (BRS22 – #507 – 534) for just $25.50.

Please note that while these are all dyed as Twinsets, there is no obligation to take both skeins of a Twinset.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered requests.  I will mark them off on the Available Yarns tally chart below so that others will know what is already claimed or still available at the time of their visit.  Then I’ll send your PayPal invoice and will prepare your postage label immediately on payment to ensure when the yarns are ready there is no extra delay in shipping.   If you are outside the U.S., please let me know your destination shipping address; I can ship to most countries, but it is expensive so I will calculate the charges at usps.com and let you accept or decline before I prepare your invoice.

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