Happy Saturday!
It’s a semi-sunny day here in Houston, for which I am grateful. This coming Thursday in the U.S. is observed as Thanksgiving Day, often (but not always) with friends and family to share in a large meal, either as a formal sit-down affair with fancy dishes or as a pot-luck gathering with everyone bringing their own favorite dishes to share, perching piled-high plates on their knees to sit wherever there’s room. I hope your Thanksgiving Day is an opportunity for reflection and gratitude.
I especially want to extend thanks to all the friends and fans of Knitivity this past year. You have brightened my world in so many ways.
Last week there were multiple requests for certain Twinsets, so this week I tried to imitate what I’d done, even though last week I had used re-blended remainder dyes and it would be nearly impossible to re-create those exact color combinations. I did my best to repeat the technique with similar colors; I’m just not sure I achieved the desired results. Given the way I work, it is often (or usually?) a toss-up whether I can achieve on purpose what I previously achieved by chance.
This week there are four Twinsets using the “sprinkle-and-smoosh” technique similar to what was requested — #1080-1081, 1086-1087, 1092-1093, and 1100-1101. Any of these would make some amazing socks, baby blankets, or even bright scarves for milder winters.
Because I strong dislike wasting dye, I do often use the run-off dyes from one Twinset to create an Accidental Fade. Run-off collects in a large bowl beside my work space, so whatever colors were used create (just for example) #1088-1089 is the blended run-off from a Twinset like #1096-1097. I don’t keep track of which Accidental Fade came from which other Twinset; I just know that such accidental fades are a unique combination that I could not recreate on purpose, done only to redeem or reclaim dyes that would otherwise be wasted down the drain. If I am particularly inspired I will occasionally add a darker color after doing the fade process, such as the navy blue I added to the tip of #1082-1083.
Accidental fades are, of course, different from my deliberate fade dye jobs, such as my Navy Fade or the Midnight Green Fade, where I carefully prepare the dye and do a fade process; these can be done fairly consistently.
The cool thing about the fades is that they work with long rows, such as on a shawl. Depending on your stitch count, they can appear as stacked pooling or random striping, which works great for stockinette stitch knitting or even for weaving. My skeins are roughly 72-inches around, so you could easily create a six-foot scarf by stacking the dark sections for weaving.
All of these are Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each) and are normally $27.50 apiece. For Saturday and Sunday, you can claim any two or more, matching Twinset or not from this week’s collection (#1078 – 1101) for $25.50 each.
To claim the ones you want, just email me with your requests. I’ll mark them off from the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send your PayPal invoice. It’s okay if you don’t have a PayPal account — they will process your credit/debit card and collect all your shipping details for me. Please let me know if you are outside the U.S., so I can calculate your invoice correctly.
Because Thursday will be a mail holiday, I plan to get this week’s collection all processed and ready to ship on Wednesday.
Available Yarns:
Rack 1 – 1078, 1079, 1080, 1081, 1082, 1083, 1084, 1085, 1086, 1087, 1088, 1089
Rack 2 – 1090, 1091, 1092, 1093, 1094, 1095, 1096, 1097, 1098, 1099, 1100, 1101