Happy Saturday!

It’s been crazy hot for a few weeks now.  I think my a/c turned off just once, the middle of last week after a brief rain and the temperature got down to 78º.  The only way I know it is actually working is when I go out for a while and come back inside, it is definitely cooler inside.  But it hasn’t been below around 82º inside for over a week, and that’s only been during the wee hours of the morning after midnight.  It’s part of the curse of living inside a mobile home, I guess.  🙂

So anyway, as it hit 100º in the afternoon, I waited until the evening after supper to start dyeing.  I knew I had to aim for more solids and not so many wild-and-crazy segmented combinations.  But at the same time I didn’t want to make solid colors just straight from the dye jar.  So all of the apparent solids are actually layers of color, some more obvious than others.  As always, these are one-of-a-kind dye jobs, as I don’t typically take notes or try to create exact recipes.  After all these years it is still more fun to experiment and play “What If…” with various combinations.

As with all my pictures, I use an automatic setting and I don’t filter or edit the coloring or adjust the  lighting to be anything but regular daylight.  I do, however, sharpen the focus on each image once I start to crop the images to fit the page and to add text.  I feel like this method gives you the most accurate representation of the yarns.

Also, because some of my Twinsets have several colors, I rotate one skein of a pair, and then twist the bottom of each skein so you can see all the colors on both skeins of a pair.  Thus, you can see the color distribution as well as the color sequence on each skein.  I dye Phydlbitz Sock as Twinsets, and while I do my best to ensure they really are Twins for color and sequence, there are small differences between the skeins.  When knitting a larger-than-socks project with multiple skeins, I always recommend alternating between skeins every 2-3 rows to get a more even distribution of colors throughout the knitting and minimize pooling.

All of these are Phydlbitz Sock, 75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each, and are normally $27.50 each.  For Saturday and Sunday, you may claim any two or more from this new collection (BRS23 – #657 –  680) for just $25.50 each.

To claim the ones you want, send me an email with your numbered requests.  I will mark them off on the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send you a PayPal invoice. It is fine if you don’t have  a PayPal account — they will process your credit/debit card for me.

I expect to have this week’s collection dried, reskeined, labeled and ready to ship on or about Wednesday.

Available Yarns
Rack 1 – 657, 658, 659, 660, 661, 662, 663, 664, 665, 666, 667, 668
Rack 2 – 669, 670, 671, 672, 673, 674, 675, 676, 677, 678, 679, 680

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Happy Monday!

I hope this finds everyone healthy and in good spirits.  Here in the U.S., Tuesday is observed as Independence Day, and that means we’ve already been “entertained” (?) by neighborhood fireworks, loud parties, and all the rest.  Never mind that we’ve been under extreme heat advisories for a few weeks, barely any rain, and people are out trying to water the front yard  kindling lawns.  Anyway, we’re supposed to be getting a bit of rain later in the week.  We had barely a spittle of rain last night but it didn’t really do much for the dry conditions.  Having high humidity doesn’t seem to help a whole lot, but I’m no expert. Moisture in the air does make it longer for the yarns to dry.

I managed to work around the heat of the day to dye up another amazing batch of Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon).  Normally when I dye, the resulting colors conjure up food-related names, but I ate plenty enough yesterday, so the names that came up in my head were Tortoiseshell (Twinset #613-614) and Smoked Algae (#611-612). Colors wet are almost never the same as when they dry, so these names don’t really make sense now.   The Smoked Algae had a more noticeable green-ish cast when it was wet, for example; now it looks more like a faint suggestion toward pale green.

I did most of the Twinsets as splatter dyes, all of which will look good in overall stitch patterns like seed-stitch where the changing colors will add to the visual texture of your handwork.  The clearly segmented combinations (#621-622, and 627-628) will look amazing as self-striping spiral stripe socks.  The two Twinsets that were done using the BabySoft technique (#625-626 and 629-630)  will look great on chevrons or ripples where you can depend on the changing colors to contributed to the visual effect of the stitch pattern.  The two nearly solid Twinsets (#611-612 and 623-624) will work especially well for lace or other openwork where you want to see the stitches.

Phydlbitz Sock is normally $27.50 per skein, but for today and tomorrow (July 3-4) you can have any two or more skeins (matching Twinsets or not) for $25.50 each.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email (ray@knitivity.com) with the numbered items you want.  I’ll mark them off from the Available Yarns tally chart below and then I’ll send your PayPal invoice.  Please let me know if you are outside the U.S. so I can calculate correct shipping to your country.

It has been suggested (more than once) that in order to expand my audience I need to be doing videos — either showing off my weekly collections as they are done or even doing a live feed streaming as I dye.  I know how to do a straight video, but not a clue how to do a live feed as I dye.  This concerns me as I know live feed audiences like to interact with the host, but if I’m dyeing I can’t easily monitor feedback and answer questions.  I’m going to be looking at various options this week and see what I can do, but I am also open to your ideas and suggestions.

My Tuesday and Wednesday this week are already booked up, so this week’s yarns should be ready to ship on Thursday or Friday.

Available Yarns
Rack 1 –  609, 610, 611, 612, 613, 614, 615, 616, 617, 618, 619, 620
Rack 2 –  621, 622, 623, 624, 625, 626, 627, 628, 629, 630, 631, 632

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