The day is gray and dreary,

My legs have grown quite weary,

And the rain just hangs without falling.

I took a long hike,

on foot, not my bike,

To StarBucks I did go a-calling.

Actually I debated doing today or tomorrow, but since the yarns weren’t quite ready to ship today I didn’t need to wait around for the mail carrier, so I went.   It’s a 40 minute walk there, but I was pleased to see a place to lock my bicycle for future visits.  This is a plus, in my mind.   The place was busy but not crowded.   I sat and knit for about 40-45 minutes on the Pi Shawl and watched people come and go, but hardly anybody actually came in and sat down.   I thought that was rather silly, actually, for people to drive up, park, come in and walk back out again, because they also have a drive-through!    But I realize it takes several minutes to mix up a coffee beverage, and in this day and age, it makes sense to turn off the car than to sit in a drive through lane with the engine running the whole time.

So anyway, I think there may be a place for knitters to gather in a place almost close enough to get to.   In New Orleans I could walk to my favorite coffee house and knitting joint in about 20 minutes, a straight shot up Magazine Street.   This place today is about twice as far (at least) and it is an uphill slope to get there.  But if I can ride my bike that will be nicer.

On the other hand, my legs are hurting.   (I think I might need to find a way to safely carry my cane on the bike so that I’ll have it when I’m off the bike.)   And I didn’t sleep well at all last night.   So I’m not on top of my game at the moment.  If I turn on the TV and start knitting I will likely fall asleep, so I’m trying not to do that …. but I might just do it anyway.   Now that I’ve done the 4th increase round on the Pi Shawl and have 288 stitches on the need, and have 40+ rounds before the next increase round, I’m sure I’ll get plenty bored.

Anyway, into the evening I go.  See ya!

Yesterday or the day before (?) I mentioned I was going to try EZ’s Pi Shawl on the flatbed machine.  It all made sense in my head, and it really looked good on paper.  It looked like it would work.

But I discovered that it is virtually impossible to double your stitches across a flatbed machine.  It just does not work the same way.

There ARE ways to manipulate things and eventually end up with the right number of stitches across.   But then it wouldn’t be a Slice of Pi shawl of the same type as EZ’s shawl.

So…   I started doing a Pi Shawl by hand.   OHMAHGAWD!!!!!

I started with a ball of the Whiney Cheez:

and came up with this around bedtime:

I totally absolutely unquestionably adore the circular motion of the colorings.   Now I need to hurry and finish this so that I can confidently announce how many skeins of sock yarn it takes to complete a Pi Shawl.  (I am guessing probably 2, but it might be 3).     I’m following EZ’s Pi Shawl directions, of course, using the strange Merino sock yarn that didn’t go well, doing it on Size 5 needles.

The original Pi Shawl was plain, and then there were some added lacy bits inserted in between the increase rounds, but the lacy bits would just be lost in the swirling colors so I’m not even bothering with those at all.  Just nice brainless mind-numbing knitknitknit all around, as long as I remember to tick mark my rounds to keep a good count.

And, now that I’m seeing it in motion, there are a few other ideas popping up in my head, like trying EZ’s Mystery Blanket with circles instead of squares.  Wouldn’t that be just too cool?

Anyway, I have to check if Thursday’s dyeings are dry enough for wrapping and shipping today.  If not, they’ll go out Monday morning.   Of the 10 or 12 hanks I dyed Thursday, only 4 are paid for, so there will definitely be more additions to the Specials page tomorrow, too.  Yippeeeee!

Into the day we go!    See ya!

Okay, so the ones I dyed yesterday aren’t my favorite.   I might need to do some of them again.   But they’re still drying on the rack, so I will fight my inner demons and resist the rush to judgment.

In other news, I’ve put in another order for another 10 pounds of sock yarns (40 hanks).   LIke I told Tracy at the mill, my goal is to have 50 pounds a month flow through here, which will just barely cover rent and expenses and business expenses.  Barely.   But it’s okay, because I’m approaching about 10# a week almost, so it is growing.   I need to get another bundle of the laceweight, so I can have it on hand in case someone orders some.   But mostly it’s still sock weight that people are looking for, so that’s what I’ll stick with.

As most of y’all know, postage has gone up.   The cost of a single postage stamp only jumped from $0.41 to $0.42.   But the flat-rate priority box went from $8.95 to $9.80.   HOLY SHIT!    My shipping rates for both US and International have gone up just enough that I’ve had to increase the shipping calculations.   I can still get 6 or 8 skeins into an envelope instead of the flat- rate Priority boxes, but the post office still requires priority shipping even on the envelopes if it is over a pound, so it’s not always cheaper to use the envelopes.  <*sigh*>

Anyway, it is a nice cool day, a bit overcast, but not oppressively humid which is what kills me the most.  So I’m happy.  And into the afternoon I go…. knit.  Just knit.  

First off, I think my clock is broken.  Or something.    It takes about an hour to do 10 hanks.  So I aim myself toward the dyepots around 5:00 … or maybe 5:30-ish… or was it closer to 6:00 when Katy Couric got finished….   And then it was nearly 7:30 when I finished.

I did two Stone, two Dusky Beach, and then tried to copy two of one of the playtime samples I showed (and sold) a few days ago.

Each of those colors was part of the DumpDye session and were combinations.   So I tried to repeat the blends.  I came pretty close, I think, but I won’t know for sure until they are out of the steam pot, rinse and dried.   But at least the two I  just finished were done from identical dyepots, so at least they’ll match.   hehehehe.   Oh yeah, and I wrote down what I did this time.  

And then I used 4 hanks of the Merino sock yarn and made 4 new FADES.   Sometimes a good idea isn’t always a good idea.   Some of the combos are okay, some are sorta not.   I think the fades will work better with lighter, less saturated or less intense colors.    Whatever.  They’ll all work and someone will love them.

And now I have more other stuff to do before bed.    Only got about 4 hours last night, so I’m sorta draggin’ ass at the moment.

Check it out…. a whole slew of new specials have been posted to the Specials Page, including all four of the Fades.  I like how they turned out, and I like how they are done (the technique).   I especially like the fact that it is easy to make custom fades of two colors — this may be the way I end up doing Team Colors, since the way I’ve been doing it in the past results in less than satisfactory results to my critical eye.  (Mind you, other folks seem pleased, so I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with how I’ve done it in the past; it’s my own perfectionism crying out for satisfaction, y’know?)  Anyway, I didn’t rewind them like I normally do, because I really REALLY REALLY REALLY like how they look with distinct color separations.  I think if I rewind them they will appear like any other <*yawn*> variegation or two-tone like the Hold the Vanilla, which is solid pink right up to where it runs into solid chocolate.

Anyway, here’s the Fades:

Burnt Orange to Harvest Gold

Burnt Orange to Deep Teal

Burnt Orane to Blues/Violets

Deep Teal to Blues

Plus those huge bulky bundles, and again, I decided NOT to rewind them into standard sized hanks, so that the colors are clearly visible and distinct.

My goal, objective, grand desire is to completely empty the Special Sales page this week, or at least by Saturday, so that Monday’s deposits will at least partially cover the gas and electric bills.   EEK!

On another note, I was sitting here last night and it dawned on me how to make EZ’s Pi Shawl on a flat-bed machine.  I’m going to test my hunch this afternoon.

Off to do more work.   See ya!

Awrighty, then!

Sitting here waiting for my morning rice and veggies to finish cooking, ran the trash out to the street for the mid-week pickup, and cruising through Ravelry to check out patterns and projects that other people are working on.

HOLY CRAP!    If you aren’t on Ravelry yet, you are missing a treat.  Sure, it is easy to get sucked into odd discussions over on the forums, but this morning I was looking at patterns.  I clicked on (specifically) shawls.  there are 500 pages of shawls.   OHMAHGAWD!!!!!! I was clicking ‘next’, ‘next’, ‘next, and then I noticed a little selection box that said “Hop” …. click there and you can hop directly to any page number you wish.   Several hundred pages through the pile I was still seeing amazingly unique and beautiful examples of fiberlicious handwork.   Oh yeah, and I picked up a few ideas for ways to use up my own excess yarns.   Duh!

One thing I noticed, however, is that there is a very visible phenomenon.   Over the last month or two or eleventy-seven, I’ve had ideas.  I’ve wondered “what if….”.    And really, there is nothing new under the sun, but it is personally exciting to see that other people have had similar ideas and executed them.  I love it.  It is silly to be upset that someone else took an idea and made something; better instead to acknowledge a good idea in action and be grateful someone else took the time to work out the mechanics of a particular thing.

Anyway, after b’fast I have a bunch of work to be done.   The weather doesn’t look like it will cooperate for a lot of dyeing (I do have a few things to dye, but not a lot), but I have big pile of yarns to be photographed, organized, formatted and prepared for selling on the Specials Page.  With luck and good timing, I can get the week’s specials posted and start making some sales before the day is done.

Back to work I go!

Wow… very cool.

This is what I did yesterday:

over there on the left are better versions of the Neapolitan and Hold the Vanilla. I had done them on Saturday, but wasn’t happy with the results (yes! more for the Specials page!) so I redid them yesterday and was quite happy. Also there’s a pair of Aunt Gail that I am pleased with. Only one Aunt Gail order is pending but because of the amount of dye involved it is incredibly wasteful to do just one so I did two — which means if you order one today, will be ready to go on Tues or Wed, whenever it fully dries). Then I used some leftover dyes to create four different fades in different combinations. I am pleased as punch with all four of them, and it gives me ideas for other fade combinations.

The one on the right is a different technique, and I am also fairly tickled with this one as well.

And then, once I got these hanging to dry, I hung out a couple of BULKY hanks that I’ve had for a while. These are also amazingly beautiful to me. If I saw them in a shop I would buy them. Seriously. I don’t know what I would actually DO with them, but I would definitely buy them just so I could look at them. The big one is a Corriedale, and the smaller one is a superfine Merino (not superwash, just superfine) both of which I acquired from an independent source. I might go back and get more from her, but I don’t know the market for hand-dyed bulky yarns. Anyway, whattaya think? Are these not just yummy-licious?

(yes, that’s a bowling ball in a planter filled with aquarium rocks — it’s the only door-stop that actually works against the winds around here!)

I’m thinking these bulkies need to go to the highest bidder, once I get them fully dryed and made ready for presentation.  I will probably rewind the smaller one, but leave the bigger one as it is and just form it into a bun for show.   Any thoughts?

While I was doing the dyes and making things work in various ways, it occurs to me that there are plenty of books about color and dyeing and fiber, and so forth, and I admit that I have not actually read very many such books myself. But I’m wondering if a book of my application techniques would be useful or marketable: i.e., the different ways I get the color on the yarns — rainpot dyeing, fades, gradients (two different ways), wet-and-press, and so forth — most of which I have developed in order to manipulate color into or onto the fibers.

Anyway, much to do today.   See ya!

So… y’member the other day (like last week) I overdyed all those orange thingies and had to go through washie washie washie ?

Well, this is what it looked like before:

See those little tinges of pink in there?   It really is a disgusting orange, but when I tried to pair it with greens for Halloween (for felted pumpkins or something), NObody wanted it.  C’est la vie, eh?

Well, after the washie-washie-washie, and then the overdyes, this is what it looks like now:

Now, to you it may look like there are 8 center pull balls of Merino Fingering, at about 440 yards apiece.  To me, however, it looks exactly like a classy chocolate-cherry houndstooth check.

I mentioned after the overdye that I failed to release the bindings, resulting in some spots that didn’t dye, creating little orange freckles.   But by winding it into center-pull balls you can barely see them.   Pretty cool, huh?

So now the question is whether that Chocolate Cherry Houndstooth Check takes the form of a scarf, a sweater-vest, or something else.    Any thoughts?

Wandering into the kitchen I realized I wasn’t actually in the mood for having the oven going long enough.

SO here’s what I did:

Into a pan of boiling water I tossed 2 cups frozen mixed veggies (the small kind — peas, limas, diced carrots, corn), and then 2 handfuls no-yolk noodles.   While those were boiling I grated about 1/2 cup Colby-Jack cheese, opened a can of “Cream of Chicken with herbs” condensed soup, and mixed up 1 cup water w/ 1/4 cup instant non-fat dry milk, and opened 2 cans of tuna.   The tuna was dumped in a strainer to drain.   When the noodles were done, I dumped the noodle-veggie pan through a colander, dumped the soup and milk into the pan, added the cheese, let that get good and hot; tossed in the tuna <*stir*><*stir*><*stir*>; then tossed back in the noodles and veggies.   Let it get good and thick.

Edible.   Quite edible.   And not nearly as heat-inducing as running the oven for 35-40 minutes.  I didn’t sprinkle the bread crumbs.  Oh well.   I’ll save them for the chicken bits to bake another time.

First up this morning:  catalog yarn orders, then soak yarn, then I get to run some packages to the postal pickup (which also counts as my daily walk — two birds, one stone, y’know?), then back to dye!  Wheee!!!  And take some pictures, too.

So, into the day we go!    See ya!

I wasn’t expecting this until tomorrow, so that Saturday would be a Dye Day.   Well, it just showed up today, so Friday will be a Dye Day instead!  How cool is that?  

Which means that when the kitchen in Dye Mode, tonight instead of tomorrow night I need to cook a tuna casserole to feed me while the kitchen is unavailable for edible cooking.

It also means that just about any sock yarns you order this week will be dyed this weekend, at one point or another.   Very cool.   I absolutely LOVE having yarn in the house because it means when an order comes in, I can plan on dyeing it in a more reasonable amount of time, rather than waiting and waiting for the mill.   (Remember the hassles from January??)

Seriously, I love my mill, they always try to treat me right, and get orders out quickly, and I know lately they’ve been pushing to get a new line out to market so other things have been set back, so it’s really cool when things arrive before I expect them.   But the customer service folks are fun to talk with, and even if they don’t know if something can go out, they don’t give me the corporate shuffle, “Well, I don’t know, but I’ll put you on hold and connect you to someone shipping.”   It’s always, “Let me put you through to K., she knows what’s going on.”

I’ve dealt with all flavors of “customer service”, and it is such a joy to know that when I pick up the phone to my mill, I will talk with A. or T. or sometimes D. (she only works part-time), and nearly always by the time I say “Hi this is Ray Whiting in Houston”, they’ve already got my account up on their screen, ready to go.  I’ve learned for proprietary reasons not to reveal all my sources for all my yarns, so I won’t say their name out loud here right now, I know I am supremely blessed and lucky to have this business relationship.

Soooo…. now that my tomorrow is charted out for me, I’m going to go into the evening and try my best to rest up and be kind to myself (my legs are hurting a lot today) and try to pretend in my heart of hearts that I really do actually like tuna casserole.   (But I don’t… haven’t ever made a real one before, but I got a craving for it last weekend, so I got all the ingredients … and then the mood passed!)

See ya!

Okay, so I got 3 finished packages out the door, everything else is waiting for the next shipment of sock yarns to arrive.  All that is left for me to do today is to wind off and photograph all the assorted collection of mistakes, mis-dyes, and other oddments.   very cool.

I was planning to take a walk up to the new StarBucks, as I’d mentioned before.   It is already 83°, projected to reach 90° by mid afternoon.   StarBucks is about a 40 minute walk from here.   Ummm… I don’t think I’m gonna do that.  Nope, probably won’t.  Besides, now that I have packages ready to go, I have to wait for the mail carrier to come around and collect them.

But I am pleased.   Mostly.

Those used-to-be-orange overdyes that I did yesterday are hanging on the rack outside drying.   Actually, they spent overnight indoors in the fan room so they are well on their way.   I can already tell that The Curse of the Vat-Dye has struck.   Actually it’s my own fault.  Y’see, these are previously dyed a variegated pink.  And then overdyed a ghastly obnoxious orange.   And so they are wound and bound.   I failed to release all the bindings and provide loose bindings for the vat dye.    So as the color struck the yarns the bindings acted as a resist.  So regardless how cool the general dye job turned out, there are pink-orange freckles throughout.  Dammit.

Oh yeah, and after dyeing, I could look into the vats and see the bottom so I could tell all the dye was spent.  Yippeeeee.   Into the washing machine for a wash.   NO, you don’t just turn it on and let’er rip.   Fill it with whatever soap you use, leave the lid UP, and allow the yarns to SOAK in the soap, manually crank the cycle knob around to “Spin”, and let it spin out.   After about 30 minutes of washing soak, I dipped a glass into the water.   Damn, it came up heavily colored.  Sheesh.

Long story short, it to THREE MORE washing soaks before the soak water was free of dye.   Then one more clear water soak (this time no soap), and then a final clear water final rinse with conditioner.

That process filled up the evening pretty well.

This is part of the reason I do not instantly run to dye a single hank, but instead allow 6-10 (at least) to wait, so that I don’t waste excess water; in reality, it is usually only 2-3 days tops.   And I try to work in batches — like having the Glacier Lake & Brindle group, or the Reds group or the Blues group.   They don’t all have to be the same-same, but at least in the same general families, so that during the washing and rinsing a batch of Blue Jeans won’t rub off color against a batch of, say, Magellan’s Orchid.   Two totally different color groups.

Hmmm… that reminds me.    over the last few months, as I add new colorways, I generally stick them near the top of the page(s).    I’m wondering if maybe I should group the colorways into their families.   Whattaya think?   Is that too anal-retentive?

The latest

has been posted to the Specials page. Usually the Biagio worsted weight is $17.95, but since these were a “dump dye” I’ll let ‘em go for $15.95. As of this moment, there are 5 Golden, 5 Chopper, 5 Cheery Cherry, and 4 of the Darks. As always, first come, first served. I’ll be away from the computer part of the day, so I won’t be able to immediately update availabilities right away.

There were actually only 8 contestant who posted a comment answering the question, “Why did I name the single ply line Biagio?” or indicate the significance of the name.

The correct response, of course, is that Biagio is named after Santo Biagio (St. Blaise), the patron saint of wool-carders.

I wrote the names of each correct respondent on a card, took the cards to my daughter’s house, laid them all face down on the table, and had my granddaughter pick one card.   She picked Denise in Iowa.  So Denise gets her pick of the four Biago colors posted a few days ago.   Once she makes her selection, I’ll put the rest of the collection over on the Specials Page, probably first thing in the morning, and all the rest of y’all can put in your orders.  With luck I will be able to ship out ALL of these before the end of the weekend.  That would be too cool.

<*sigh*>

Okay, so I re-did one of the sock yarns, as planned. Hung it outside. Realized another hank, which “should” have been black fading to gray, was more like midnight fading to navy. Whut-thuff??? Sh*t. (Tra-la-la- …. off to the specials page we go, I guess.)

And, since it was the last of the good sock yarn, I have to wait 2-3 days for next order of sock yarns to show up in order to do it again. It’s okay, because I’m still well within the 7-14 day window I allow at the top of each ordering page. Even so, I’m disappointed.

But hey, y’member those hanks of orange Merino fingering I mentioned this morning? Well, I put them into the normal pre-dye soaking solution to make them ready to over dye. I go back to retrieve them an hour later. The soak water is orange. Not tinted orange.

The Water Is ORANGE

WTF????   So, into the washing machine with a 2nd pre-dye soak.  (there’s a limit to how many times I can bend over a soak tub in the bathtub, so I’ll use the washing machine tub when I have to.)   Damn, still more orange.  and a 3d and 4th soak.  FINALLY the water was clear.  And suddenly (with the orange out of the way) I remember that I had done the orange as an overdye over a really bad batch of pink variegated long, long ago.    Uhhh… ooops.

Anyway, so now I have four hanks of the orange into a vat of black-brown-unknownmix, and four hanks of the orange into a vat of double-dose goldenyellow, and which was then topped with leftover blood-red.

I have NO idea what thrice-dyed yarns will do.   Mind you, this is yarn I bought while still in New Orleans, okay, so if it totally bombs and I’m not happy, I can always toss it, or knit up something weird to sell as felting yarn, or just sell it to someone who knows the back story and doesn’t care, “because it’s Merino.”   LOL

I was hoping to get some sun today so I can get better pictures of the Californication California Spring Collection.   :-)    I may have to do it with just the overcast sky anyway.    The original posted pictures are a little too orange (damn, can we stop with the orange already????).

OH!   And this evening I’m going to go visit my granddaughter and will have her pull one name from all those who have posted the correct answer to: “Why did I name my single ply wool yarn Biagio?”, so you still have a few hours to get your comments posted.   :-)    So far there’s not even a dozen people trying, but whoever is drawn gets their pick of one 1 hank of the four colorways posted a couple days ago (scroll down the blog).

And now I have other something else to do for the day, so I’d better get to it.

Okay, so I tried out the Mets colors,  and they seemed to go over well.  In fact, the 3 samples sold out without an hour or two of posting, and there are some orders pending against the shipment of sock yarns arriving later in the week.  After screwing up some other team colors, I’m grateful that this batch is going well.   Gives me courage to continue asking others what they’d like in team colors.  I realized that the long-span versions just weren’t viable in a useful way (notice all those still lingering on the specials page … the red and black with tan, and the red and navy … just sitting there so lonely and unloved <*whine*>), so I’m thinking that the short-span versions will probably do better for socks.

This morning I have a minor re-do already in the works, and later today will be overdyeing a collection of Merino fingering that didn’t sell last year.   It’s in a weird sort of orange color that I couldn’t even give away at Halloween (for felted pumpkins), so I’m going to overdye it, and give it a little shock value.

I continue to be grateful for my customers and readers, and super-grateful for those who tell their friends to come and visit.  Slowly the business is growing, and that’s a good thing.  Thank you.

Just by chance (and following link to link to link, we are knitters often do), I happened to re-discover Woolly Thoughts.   You could spend half a day just drooling over their mathematical knitting and crochet.  Like this amazing afghan:

called Revolution.   I found this by following a link from a woman who made a baby blanket using the mathematics of this original pattern.   Isn’t this just the coolest baby blanket?

Go visit Stick-LeggedGirl and tell her I sent you.    She used only four colors, each used twice, while the original uses 8 colors.  If I could figure out the math for 6 or 12, I’d definitely try to make a Gay Pride blanket.  

O’course, I still get a bit awestruck when I see the glorious things other people make, and then look at my own little pathetic pedestrian stuff.   <*sigh*>  OH well.  At least my colors are cool.

Anyway…. onward into the day.    See ya!

Yeah, I knew that would get your attention.

Lookie what came in the mail yesterday:

That is 3 balls of my Down Home Solids PimaRino blend (80% Pima cotton/20% Merino wool) in a fingering weight.  It’s for a special project, near and dear to my … umm …  near and dear to me.   We’ll leave it at that.

And, since my day’s dyeing is done, the orders have been placed, and all ready packages have been taken care of, the rest of the day will be spent casting on and playing with this project.   Dang.  It’s not even 1:00 and the workety-work is done.  WOW!

And it’s threatening to rain, so I won’t be going to try the new local Starbucks yet.   Tomorrow should be an excellent day for that.

Dang this stupid rainy stuff. I strongly dislike gray rainy days. They should be outlawed. Rain should fall every third day, between 2:30 and 4:30 a.m., with firm regularity.

Anyway, I promised you pictures, and I try to keep most of my promises. Try.

I showed you the dye jobs over the weekend.

First, here’s the yarns I came up with for the NYMets Fans:

And then there was the mix of playtime yarns with the lilac, blue, and spring-like colors. After winding them up, I decided to call this collection “California Spring”. It was either that or “Spring Break”. Anyway, here’s that collection:

BOTH of these groups shown above, the You Nork Mets and the California Spring are available on the Specials Page. All 9 of these hanks are done on that bunch of 80% superwash Merino/20% Nylon, and each are individually pictured and priced on the Specials Page.

The Contest Pictures

I told you I was going to do a Dump Dye with some Biagio single ply worsted weight yarn. And I did what I said I would do. Now, as I mentioned, anyone leaving a comment telling me why my line of single-ply wools is called Biagio will be entered into the drawing, and the person whose name is drawn gets to select their choice from one of these colors. Once that person has made a selection, the remaining 19 skeins will go onto the Specials Page. The drawing will be Wednesday evening (when I go see my granddaughter, and she will select the name), so on Thursday these will all be posted for sale.

First, here’s a representative shot. Keep in mind there are actually FIVE of each color, okay?

Sorta like a copper/chocolate, then a golden, then a deep purpley-blue-darkness, and then a cherry.These were all vat-dyed semi-solid. Here are close-ups of each:

Up-close this has a distinct copper or milk-chocolate cast, depending on the light. And, depending on whether you use it alone, or in combination with another striking color, I suppose whatever contrast color is used it will bring out the red/copper leanings, or the chocolate leanings. Very mysterious. There were about 4 different dyes into this one, starting with leftover pinks, goldens and fuschia!

This one is absolutely golden, you can easily see the gradient quality. Certainly an eye-opener! Of the four colorways in this collection, this is the only one in which the gradient was achieved by slow-dipping, rather than the Dump-Dye method. To be honest, I’d run out of leftover dyes to dump, and the ones I’d already done came up darker than I’d expected, so I just mixed a single batch of a single color, and slow-dipped it to achieve gradience.

This one is Darkly. In a good light you can see the dark bluepurple undercast running through it, along with suggestion of plum here and there. This one was created by slowly adding SEVEN different little jugs of leftover remainder dyes (some of which were orignally mixes of other colors!) so it is amazing how they all came together to create this super-rich, super-deep yarn.

And this one, is clearly a sort of cherry-raspberry sort of rich berry-ness, starting with the jug of leftover Blood-Berry red. This would easily ride comfortably next to any of the other three.

So, how ’bout that? Now I have more dyeing to do. I’ve ordered still more yarns to arrive later this week, so don’t be afraid to order more sock yarns.

Okay, so I got the dye jobs done.   Yaayyy….

I heard through the grapevine that a new Starbucks has opened near enough I can take a long walk to get there. Most of y’all know that I am NOT any fan of Starbucks.  What they charge for a single simple coffee beverage, I can buy ground coffee and have coffee for a week or more.   The ONLY reason for wanting to go and see what it’s like is that I found there is another knitter in this area — another knitter who is also feeling rather isolated. So, I’ll go scope it out, compare it to the Coffee Contigo on the other side of the WalMart, and maybe we can

FINALLY !!!!!!

have a knitting group in the area.  It’s about friggin’ time, eh?

I am pleased with both the do-over dye jobs on the sock yarns AND the 20 hanks of Biagio worsted.  As I said before, it was a Dump Dye session.  As it turned out I dumped tooooooo much into one of the pots and it came out REEAAALLYY dark.  Not black, but dark dark blueviolet in a very strange sort of way.   But I LOVE most of my Dump Dyes because the colors never EVER strike evenly, creating absolutely unique one-of-a-kind depth that I cannot possible recreate even if I tried.   They are drying over night now, and I’ll put them into hanks before posting pictures.

As I mentioned on the GLB-Knit list I need to design a wedding gown.  It popped into my head today to design a multi-tiered wedding gown with a lace skirting and train, but very form-fitting knit bodice, probably sleeveless with a very simple scoop neck of some sort.  I can see it in my head, I just don’t know how to execute it all the way.  Obviously this isn’t a project I can detail the progress on here.  And it’s not like anybody I know is getting married soon. Maybe what I’ll do is create something slightly less formal, and something that would ultimately be able to fit most women of average size.  That way I can sell it (maybe, I dunno) and it won’t require a lot of altering.

If it ever happens I’ll let y’all know.  

Not even 7:30 before I put this bunch out on the rack:

Those six on the left (can’t see the far-left) are my normal colorways:  Neapolitan, Cupid is My Hero, Go Ireland, 2 of the Graffiti, and an Iced Mocha.

The Go Ireland orange is tooooo orange, so that one will be re-done this morning.  Also, both of the Graffitis came out with toooo much black and not enough color.  Not sure how that happened, because I know for a fact that I had wide color bands and then put little bitty stripes of black.  Anyway, I need to do that again as well.

Then on the other side are 3 versions of what I was hoping to be for the NY Mets fans, but again, I think the orange is tooo deep.

In both cases where the oranges are too intense, I was aiming more toward the coloring that shows up in the middle bunch.   And there’s not a drop of orange dye in the bunch!   Those six in the middle are a mix of golds, pinks, salmon, and lilac, and a couple spots of blue.   I’m thinking the orange I’m aiming for is a mix of the golden yellow and the salmon together into a single pot.   Hmmm…   But I can’t do that for Go Ireland, because the recipe used in the picture on the ordering page was definitely Knitivity Orange (my own special mix) (and no, I’m NOT telling, so don’t even ask)  so I have to recreate that and try it again.

But it’s all good, all learning, all trying.

And, if you were really honest, you and I both know that deep down, in your heart of hearts, you LOVE it when I mess up and make mistakes, because you know in a few days these minor variations will show up on the Specials Page.  C’mon.  ‘Fess up.   All three mistakes on the left will be there on Monday, along with the six hanks in the middle (I’m not sure I want to keep any of them as regular colorways to be repeated), and probably the three on the left as well.    And because there’s nothing wrong with the yarns themselves, and someone is going to absolutely love exactly these hanks, there’s always a ’slight’ discount (usually $2.00 off).   The really bad yarns (too many knots, short-yardage, etc.) get much bigger discounts.

Anyway, back to the kitchen I go for dyeing.    I put in too many new hanks for soaking, so there will also be some more ‘playtime’ hanks available.   PLUS, there are 20 hanks of Biagio worsted weight for the Dump Dye session.

DRAWING FOR FREE YARN

Hey, just for fun… does anyone remember why my line of single-ply wool is called Biagio?  I’ve mentioned it several times over the last year and a half.   ALL of the people who post a comment and give the correct answer will be entered in a mini-drawing (because there aren’t that many people reading here, apparently).     Just post a comment here (click the comment link down below the post) and tell me the significance of the Biagio name.  I’ll write your name on a card and put it into the bowl.   From that bowl, I will have my granddaughter pull One Name to receive his/her choice of the resulting 20 hanks that I do today.   Yarns will be dried on Monday, so I’ll have her draw on Tuesday evening, I’ll post pictures on Wednesday and announce the winner.     That gives you three full days, so tell your friends to come try for a free skein of highly feltable Biagio worsted weight yarn (this is the same yarn one customer recently said it was so soft she didn’t know whether to crochet it or take it to bed.)    Once the winner is selected, the other 19 hanks will be posted for sale on the Specials Page.   Just remember that your comment has to include the reason this line is called Biagio if you want to be in the drawing.   Oh, and only one comment per person counts for the drawing, although you can comment all you like on other stuff!

Into the kitchen I go.    See ya!

No other word for it.   Just   “WOW”!!!  I guess tax refunds are being posted or something, but whatever it is, bless you all for coming around to visit.   Wheeeeee!

I had a good lawn-mowing session this afternoon, came in and showered, and started flipping through the latest Interweave Knits that came in the mail.   A while back I was bitching about the crappety-crap in another magazine, but I have to be fair.  THIS issue of this magazine is full of some pretty cool stuff.   There’s even a guy sweater, and a pair of socks even I would wear.   I get so pissed off at those lacey-looking ever-so-dainty socks that just don’t cut it.

There are some interesting interpretations of mosaic knitting stitch patterns, and it seems that several patterns take old stitch patterns and put an updated twist on them.    I suppose after a few years everything comes back around, of course, so I’m not surprised at that.  But I am pleased to see that this latest magazine is actually interesting for both the patterns and the articles.

So anyway, as I’m flipping through the magazine my head fell off.  About an hour later my chin was pointing toward my navel, practically drilling a ledge into my chest,  and I was enjoying wonderful visions of cool things in my head.   Being the normal adult-sized human that I am, there’s a limit to how far (and for how long) neck muscles will stretch before complaining.   Ohhhh, but I had a goodly nap just the same. 

Tomorrow I have all these yarns (from this morning’s dyeings) to rinse and dry, and gobs of packages to pack and mail (the Specials page continues to empty — thank you!).   But then I also have about a half dozen jars of leftover dye to use up and a bundle of leftover Biagio worsted weight to dye.  Wheeee!!!

Using up all these leftover dyes is what I call a Dump Dye Session — there is NO WAY to repeat these mixes because they are pretty much unplanned.    The last time I did it, there was too much of the dark-dark going on, so this time I’m going to try to aim for lighter mixes.  But I’ll try to do enough of each bundle that two hanks will combine for something like a felted purse or bag, or maybe some felted clogs?  It seems to do well when I combine the Biagio into matched/coordinated pairs, so I’ll try to do that again.   Even if they are the best sellers, they are definitely unique combos so no matter what you make, there will be NO ONE with exactly the same colors.

Onward into the evening.   See ya!