Happy Saturday!

I think most of the rest of the country is suffering the pre-summer heat.  Houston is no better.  Yesterday was a struggle working in the kitchen to dye yarns with the steamer going.  It’s just before noon here right now as I type this and it is already 94F/34.5C outside (feels like 115F/46.1C), and we’ve not even hit the forecast high for the day.  Thankfully my air-conditioning is working (it’s only 82F at the moment), I took my walk early this morning, and I have nowhere to go and nothing to do outside the rest of the day.  I hope wherever you are that you are able to protect your pets and your people, stay out of the heat, and check on your seniors and others who might need help dealing with the heat.

So, anyway, I did get a regular load of Phydlbitz Sock dyed for your consideration yesterday, got them washed and rinsed and hung out for pictures early.  The yard man is supposed to come to day, so the yarns are going to finish drying in the fan room — fresh air drying is optimal, but I don’t think anyone wants yard trimmings stuck into the fibers and I sure don’t feel like plucking random bits of stuff as I reskein the yarns after the dry.  🙂

Last week I had a large load, and had to replenish most of my dyes partway through the session, which left me with 8 jars of remainder dyes.  I consolidated them down to 4 full jars of blended colors —  I combined all the various blues in one jar, all the red-leaning colors in another, brown and golds together, etc.  I then had to create only 6 fresh jars of dyes, and some of these new ones were also blends (like salmon with a bit of sky blue, for example).  One color I did not use at all is purple – anything that looks like purple did not come from straight purple dye, but from blending one or more reds with one or more blues.  And while I never give out the details of my recipes, it is nearly impossible to guess the proportions when I mix, then remix, then blend again various remainder dyes. What I did do yesterday, however, is use up all the available dyes, so you see some very rich colors this week.

A few of the Twinsets were ‘sprinkled’ from 3 or more squeeze bottles of dye, but most of the solid-looking colors were layered by dipping into one dye, then dipped into another dye, and then a third, building up colors layer by layer, until the yarn would hold no more and left dye in the dipping vat.

I was particularly tickled when I bound up one of the pouches and it reminded me of a big fat pickle.  I think that was Twinset #571-572.   Twinset #564-566 struck me as a cloudy summer sky, while #569-570 reminded me of a rich butter cream lemon frosting.  I really should remember to eat before dyeing so that the yarns don’t remind me of treats from a long-forgotten youth.  Hahaha.

These are all Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards) and are normally $27.50 each.  For Saturday and Sunday, when you claim any two or more from this new collection (BRS23 – #561 – 584) you may have the Preview Pricing discount price at $25.00 each. While I dye my yarns as Twinsets for those larger-than-socks projects, you do not have to take both skeins of a pair to get the Preview Pricing discount today or tomorrow.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email (ray@knitivity.com).  I’ll mark off your requests from the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send your PayPal invoice.  PayPal will process your credit/debit card if you don’t have a PayPal account.

I expect to have these all ready to ship on or about Wednesday or Thursday.  I usually announce on the Facebook Knitivity page when the mail carrier picks up so you’ll know when to start tracking your packages, but you will also get a tracking number as soon as I purchase your shipping label.

eta:  All of the yarns not claimed below have now been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 568, 569, 570, 571, 572
Rack 2 – 573, 574, 575, 576, 577, 578, 579, 580, 581, 582, 583, 584

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