KnitterMan

Okay, so there’s nothing I can readily, physically ‘do’ about the ink cartridge, so it’s up to me to think my way out of a funk.  Certain I can relish the though of not spending electricity having the printer running!  That’s a good thing.   And the A/C isn’t running this morning either.  Yippee!

Plenty of yarns to reskein, so there’s no lack of stuff to do.   With luck I can be all caught up and ready to go when the cartridge arrives, so there will be a mass printing, packaging, and postage-printing.

So onward into the day.  

For lack of a Magenta Cartridge my business is on hold.   My printer refuses to print ANYthing because the ink cartridge ran out, and the local Office Depot doesn’t have it in stock and their online person says it won’t be able to deliver until MONDAY!   The silly printer won’t even let me print “Black only” — it won’t budge without all four cartridges able to print.

And yes, I had “strong words” with the guy on the phone from Office Depot, he was running me around the bushes telling me, “If you just order $50.00 or more, there’s no handling fee, and you’d get overnight shipping.”

I told him,

“No, I had an order in for almost $60.00 just to see if it would ignore the handling fee and it was STILL asking me for that dang ’small handling fee’.   I walked* to the local Office Depot because I don’t have a car and there are no buses out here and it’s a four mile walk, but I did it to avoid that damned handling fee because all I need is a frigging $14.00 ink cartridge and they didn’t have it in stock and they told me to buy it online.  Why should I have to pay a handling fee on top of shipping when I’m the one running all over town for something you guys can’t keep in stock??

“Well, sir, if you call one of the other Office Depot stores they might have it for you.”

“Did you hear what I said?   It’s a four-mile round trip walk to the CLOSEST Office Depot; how am I supposed to get to some other one?   This is HOUSTON!”

^{* actually I didn’t walk; I begged my daughter to interrupt her evening to carry me down there, between getting off work and picking up her kids from daycare.}

And we went round and round, with him saying, “I’ll go ahead and place the order and you should have delivery on Monday” and I’m telling him “Thank you, yes, place the order and I expect to have it tomorrow or Friday at the latest.”

Grrrrrrr.    I am sooooo not a happy camper at the moment!

In the meantime I have about 30 skeins or more to reskein, and that doesn’t need a printer.  So I guess that’s what I will do this evening and tomorrow.  More dye jobs to do on Friday and Saturday, so that’s good.

SHEESH!

This is SO unacceptable.  I have yarn labels to print, work orders to print, shipping labels to print, postage to print.

You have NO IDEA how frustrated I feel right now … nor the volume or vocabulary currently being expressed.

It’s not that I have no work to do off of the computer, it’s just that the work to be done needs to process through the computer before it can go out the door to its intended recipients and customers.

And what a bundle it is!

Most of these have already been seen, and are still available. there are a pair of pale purple Dura-Lace there on the left, and then 5 skeins of sock yarns, which I’ll list below. Regular shipping applies (remember it’s just $4 or less through July 5!). The Dura-Lace is on the left and each is 75% superwash/25% nylon, 4 oz., approx 920 yards. The sock yarns are regular Down Home Art Yarns are each: SOCKS, 75% superwash/25% nylon, 4 oz., approx. 460 yards. (hint… be sure to read the bottom of the post before making your choice!)

How to get the deals — Just click here and tell me which ones you want. Unless I’m away from the computer, I’ll mark them off as they are claimed, first-come first-served, based on email time stamps.

Blog Reader Special - July #1 & #2

1 & 2 - Dura Lace in Pale Purple - intended to be Grape Ice, but the dye acted funny and I wasn’t happy, but they’re still perfectly fine. Normally $24.95 apiece, you can have #1 OR #2 for just $22.45 apiece, OR $42.95 for the pair. Gone!

—–

Blog Reader Special - July #3 - Socks in “Sandy”

This is a skein of Down Home Art Yarns SOCKS reminds me of a sandy beach. Normally $24.95, you can have it for $22.45. There’s only one of these.

Blog Reader Special - July #4 - Socks in “Spanish Shawl”

This is a skein of Down Home Art Yarns SOCKS is an extra skein that was dyed, and is ready to go. Normally $24.95, you can have it for $22.45. There’s only one of these.

Blog Reader Special - July #5 & #6 - Socks in “Pineapple Ice #1 and #2″

These skeins of Down Home Art Yarns SOCKS were part of the early Italian Ice Collection, and have been waiting for adoption since January! Normally $24.95 apiece, this pair needs to go together so you can have them as a pair for $42.95.

Blog Reader Special - July #7 - Socks in “Grape Ice”

This is a skein of Down Home Art Yarns SOCKS done for the Italian Ice Collection, and can be had for $22.45.

Blog Reader Special - July #8 - The Bundle!

In case you are the very first to claim it…. all 7 skeins shown above, normally priced at $24.95 would be a total of $174.64. If you want ALL 7 SKEINS RIGHT NOW, you can have them for $150.00, plus priority flat rate shipping at $10.95. Click here to claim this special bundle deal. This deal goes away if someone snatches even one from the bundle.

(silly me… accidentally posted this on the other blog!)

it’s already the end of June, and I’m overwhelmed with ’stuff’ still.   But never mind that.

Yesterday I changed the Dicey Knitting price and gave it a page of its own, as well as putting it in the side columns of the regular yarn pages.  I expect Mr. Brown(andHandsome) to bring me yet another shipment of cubes today to assemble more sets.  Yayy.

Also, in case you didn’t see it on the emailings yesterday, from now through July 5, all shipping has been reduced to $4.00 or less (inside U.S. — international shipping still applies, but email me to be sure you get the lowest rate, as PayPal only allows one international rate and your country might not be that expensive for me to ship to).

And, if you order FIVE or more socks or lace (either variety) between now and July 5, you’ll get a free Dicey Knitting set ($13.95 value).

Although it has only been a problem 2-3 times in the last couple years, I want to mention that you need to check and verify your PayPal shipping address.   The first time a package went to the wrong place, it was lost to the ethers and I had to replace it and reship to the right place.

And then last week someone just happened to mention on a group list she hadn’t received a special order for a group project — even though I’d sent all the packages to all the people for that project on the same day.   She wasn’t complaining, simply thought I was waiting for yarns to come in for shipping, so I wrote her and realized Paypal had given me the wrong address.  So I ordered another one of what she wanted.  It arrived yesterday and I shipped it out this morning … and the mail carrier left the original package, marked “Return to Sender”.   <*whew*> (how often does that happen?)

Whenever possible I do try to make up for errant shippings and lost packages, but i really need to be sure people check the address that PayPal sends me, since they usually show it on the confirmation emails to me and the customer.

I have yarns in the soaker getting ready for a big dye session this afternoon and then… woo-hoooo!  nothing left to dye, and there’s a little yarn left. (OMG, how often does THAT happen?)  So I will “finally” be able to play again and work up some new colorways.   YAYYYYY!!!!!

So, into the day I go.

Sundry notes for the weekend:

Okay, so I did a brief batch of dye jobs this morning… that was after slogging my tired bum to the grocery this morning, as soon as I could get out the door to beat the heat.   Y’all will be so proud of me — a week’s worth of edible breakfast, lunch AND dinner stuffs for under $50.00, plus a handy-dandy styro chest that fits exactly down in the bottomof the granny cart for frozen foods — it came in SO handy this morning, considering the frozen stuff I needed to buy today, and it was still actually c-c-c-cold when I got it all home! As I said, it’s “edible”, no fancy foods, just basic edible stuff.

Funny thing — coming out of the grocery, there was a woman offering home-made chicken tamales in bundles of a dozen.  I asked how much, and she said they were $7 a dozen.   I opened my wallet and showed her I only had three dollars so I couldn’t afford a dozen tamales.  She brightly said, ‘Oh, okay — half dozen!  I have.  Here.”    So I got a half-dozen homemade chicken tamales for three bucks.    I’m wondering if she realizes that if a dozen are seven, then a half  dozen should be $3.50 or perhaps $4.00.   Oh well.  I brought them home, and CryBaby and I shared them on the front porch after I put away the other stuff.

I wanted to brag on Patricia’s socks again.   Our illustrious PZMyers posted the finished socks on the feet of his (in his words) “Trophy Wife”.  You can see them and his comments here.  Very cool!   And it looks like several other folks approve as well.    Waytogo, Pat!  (PZ writes over at Pharyngula, a professor of biology at the University of Minnesota, Morris; he has thousands of readers, so it is definitely good promo!)

Once again my Dicey Knitting sets have sold out, and another order is in the works, which should arrive in about a week, so go ahead and order.  I keep ordering twice what I think I will need and they still sell out.  YAYY!

I’m trying to stay cool, but staring at a trunk of leftover Noro Kureyon, a dozen balls of the discontinued Prairie Silk from Brown Sheep, and a tub of remainders of Manos del Uruguay, mostly leftover from the Manos-and-Cascade sweater from several years ago  (I also have a tub of Cascade 220 leftovers as well, now that I think of it).  Trying to figure out what to do with it.   The idea of a quick-knit blanket on the machine sounds enticing, but I have absolutely NO interest in having to wash such a thing, even if it would only be a couple times a year like my other afghans.

Maybe just for grins I’ll do a crocheted vertical stripe blanket, changing every row and leaving the tails to hang as “fringe” …. ?  Maybe in the Indian Tears pattern or something similar…?   Heck, I dunno.

Maybe I should just do another pair of socks and take it easy on myself.   Mostly I’m just looking for something brain-dead for evening hand-occupying busywork while I look at movies or whatever.  Definitely NOT looking for a major challenge, since I also have to do my daughter’s tunic/shell thingie.

Onward into the evening.  Tomorrow is a large order dye job, all on Dura-Lace, so I’ll be busy the whole day.

Woo-hooo!

ALL the Earthly Paradise (except those ordered in the last 2-3 days) are SHIPPING TODAY  (Hi, Kate–yes, your Dura-Lace, too!)   [ed:  oh crap... I can't find where I put the grape ice... don't worry, it's coming!]

Check it out:

And here’s a close up of both the Dura-Lace and a Sock:

It has now been shown on the front page and on the Socks-Lace page.

Okay… now, back to packing and shipping (and hoping the mailcarrier is running late today!) .

This is just insane!   It is just after 3:50p

97.3 °F Mostly Cloudy

YIKES! The A/C is running an my indoor digital weather station shows that the temp INDOORS is 86.3°F  I think tomorrow I might drape extra blankets or big towels over the windows.

No wonder my head is feeling fuzzy around the edges, having a hard time focusing on what needs doing, with very little motivation to get physical with reskeining yarns to go out.    What I might do is get up in the night when it is cooler.

For those not following, this is a record-breaker all the way around, even for south east Texas!  And it looks to be up in the mid-90s for the rest of this week and probably next, night-time temps not getting below mid-80s.  Seriously, this is hot!

Anyway, I made some good progress on detangling the lace weight.   I have both ends working now.  I started by fiddling through the mess to find where I joined the two ends, wrapped around the skein to hold it together:

Then, I put a clip onto each end before cutting the knot.

And then, slowly (v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y) I traced each strand around.    I would pull one end or the other, with my other hand at the opposite side of the mess so I could feel if something was tugging.   I’d find that long strand being tugged and ever-so-gently draw the whole end of the strand through at that point, lay it carefully aside, and repeat.

After about an hour, this is what I had:

Yes, I know … I know … it’s insane to do this for a skein of yarn I can just as easily replace (it’s not like I don’t have more Dura-Lace on hand!)   I’m somewhat anal-retentive about these things, and I just cringe at the idea of wasting a perfectly good hank of yarn, especially when it is my own stupid carelessness that created the mess.  

At some point I am expecting to find a little more orderly pile that will make it easier to finish it up.   In the meantime, I’ll work at it.

The key to this (or ANY similar mess that you might have) is to find the ends and never ever just pull on it.  Give a little tug and observe (or feel) the resulting pull and then work it backwards, so that your free end is pulled back through that point in the middle where you know there’s a real connection along the strand.

Pulling a tangle makes it tighter, and the goal is to keep it all loose.  That’s why it takes so long.

Anyway, I’m going to work on it a bit each day. 

Tonight, however, I’m going to try and draw and then plot out the tunic for my daughter.  And try to stay cool.

Okay, so maybe that is a bit contrived, and perhaps half my audience doesn’t even remember Mae West.

Whatever!

Here, lookie this:

This is a skein of Down Home Art Yarns, in 100% wool, sport weight, appx. 420 yards, normally $17.95 from the regular ordering pages.

The colorway is Melonballs - plenty of Cantelope, along with a bit of Crenshaw and Honeydew and similar others.

As you can see (both in the center and the toward the upper left), the skein came in contact with a splatter of a previous colorway I had dyed just before this one, most likely because I didn’t completely wipe up every single droplet between dye jobs. I’m referring to this as belonging to the “Mae West Collection”, thinking of those little dark spots as beauty marks, as she was known for her beauty mark(among other things).

(Although, come to think of it, it may seem risqué to put “Mae West” and “melons” in the same phrase, huh?  Oh well, we’re all adults here.)

Anyway…..

Blog Reader Special - 24 June - Melonballs!

If you’d like this skein, ready to go, beauty mark and all, you can have it for $15.95, and $3 shipping (if you’re in the States — tell me if you are outside the U.S. before I create the PayPal invoice!) , just be the first to click here and claim it.

Well, there it sits….the gawd-awful mess of Dura-Lace yarn around which I failed to put adequate binder ties.    In the midst of it I can feel the nugget around the original binding tie, so I know that one is secure.   I just need to let it dry thoroughly and feel my way through it.

I put the other objects in the picture for contrast.   Everyone knows what bananas, oranges, and Jif peanut butter look like.

There’s already been one potential inquisitor asking about it, so he gets first option if it is just too daunting for me to tackle myself.

Almost a pity that it is a superwash/nylon blend of tiny lace weight.  I mean, if it were regular wool, I could form it into a cute shape and felt it into a mat for something!

On the other hand, if I DO succeed in subdueing this mess and bringing it into submission, that’s a pretty good testament to the washability or non-felt-ability factor, huh?

Anyway, plenty to do.  Back to work.

I don’t believe I did what I did.

<*hanging head in shame*>

I can’t believe I’d be so careless….

Since I had some extra dye (pretty dye) and I had to dye up one Dura-Lace today, I went ahead and wound off two hanks.   Into the soaker, out of the soaker, onto the workspace, dye-dye-dye.   Okay, the first one was fine.   I reached into the tub for the 2nd one.

Oh. MAH. GAWD!    And then I remembered….   just as I finished winding the 2nd one, and joined the ends in one skein-binding motion, the phone rang.  And when I got done with the phone, I turned about, snatched that hank off the skeinwinder and deposited it into the soaking tub …  without the other 4 binding ties.

So there it was, lying limp on my workspace like a glob of spaghetti … angelhair pasta, not the broad noodles.  You don’t fiddle with wet yarn.   EVER!

So I dumped some yellow and some gold-fushia blend together onto it, wrapped it up and tossed it into the steamer. Ever seen neon orange?    This comes close!

Tomorrow I will have to burst the wrappings, wash and rinse it, and then hang it for drying.   And then comes the fun of finding that single lone binding tie, and manually winding it to a ball.  All 920 yards of teeeensy tiny brilliant orange laceweight.

(Hey, Lisa — if you hear the echoes of a piercing scream wafting over the waves, pay it no mind… it’ll just be me!)

Just for fun, I had been planning to use that extra skein with a rich purple violet (similar to what I’d done for a custom order the other day).   At least I had the presence of mind, once I found my mistake,  to make it a more brilliant color to facilitate seeing the strands to maybe mitigate the impending agony. hehehe (See? I really do have a brain, it just doesn’t always work at full speed.)

O’course, it if turns out completely maddening, I might offer it for full half-price to a qualified Yarn Whisperer.

Wish me luck.

I finally found the time and resources to get this first batch photographed and prepped. They’ll be on the Specials Page on Friday at the regular prices by Friday — that is, if there’s anything left after you loyal readers get done!

You know the drill… just click the appropriate links to send an email claiming the one you want. If you want more than one, just list them in your email. I will send you a PayPal invoice totalling your order, with appropriate shipping. If you’re in Texas, let me know so that I include the state sales tax. Also, be sure to let me know if you are overseas so I calculate the shipping correctly for your country.

As always, these are almost all one-of-a-kind, and mostly cannot be exactly duplicated, so it is “first come, first served”.

Special P.S. for Blog Readers - if you order any of these items below, and haven’t already ordered a set of the Dicey Knitting cubes, you can add a set for just $10.95 — just ask for it when you claim your Blog Reader Specials below!

WORSTED WEIGHT

These are the most recent regular Down Home Art Yarns worsted weight (4 ounces/approx 270 yards). The normal price for worsted weight is $17.95 apiece; prices for Blog Readers (that would be you guys and gals!) is shown below each item.

First up, is a pair of blues-and-greens. This are being sold together as a pair. They aren’t *exactly* identical, but they were made with the same dyes on the same day so the colors will be compatible. Normally, they’d be $35.90 the pair. Blog Readers can claim them for $30.00 the pair. Gone! (holding for dallie)

Then we have a brilliant single skein, just $15.95 to the first to claim this brightly colored mix: Gone to Barbara!

And a skein that was intended to go on superwash and accidentally got dyed on regular wool, a simple version of deep forest camo. You can have this one if you are the first to claim it for just $15.95.

==========

Superwash Sport

And here is a skein of Superwash Sport weight (normally $18.95) — (4 ounce, approx. 405 yards) I think it was dyed on an empty stomach because it came out in a thorough Summer Fruit Salad range - deep grape purple, blueberries, watermelon, strawberry, apricot, melon… <*sigh*> You can claim it for yourself for just $16.45. GONE to Virginia!

==========

Superwash Worsted

And this interesting skein of Superwash Worsted Weight (4 oz/approx 226 yards) came out looking like a drop cloth — I was aiming for something else, but when I saw the splattering I decided it look exactly as it was supposed to, so I stopped!. Normally it would be $18.95, but you can have it for $16.45, just claim it for your very own. GONE

==========

And some Lace Weights!

The first one is a 100% Merino laceweight (880 yards/ 3.5 oz/100gm). It was dyed the same day as the Superwash Sport, show above, with virtually the same Summer Fruit Salad colors (minus the blues) — deep grape purple, watermelon, strawberry, apricot, melon. Normally $24.95, you can have this one by claiming it for $20.95 GONE TO AUSTRALIA!

And this one is on Knitivity Dura-Lace (4 oz, approx 920 yards, 75% washable wool/25% nylon). Looking like a desert landscape, it’s full of greens, golds, and a bit of sand. Normally would be $24.95, you can claim this one for yourself at $22.45. GONE TO AUSTRALIA!

==========

And now… The Socks!

These are all Knitivity’s Down Home Art Yarns SOCKS, 4 oz, approx 460 yards, 75% washable wool/25% nylon. Normally, these are $24.95, but you can have any of these (order by the number) for $22.45 apiece, just claim the one(s) you want.

#1 - Dark and manly? Mostly dark-dark blue, with shots of coppery gold-browns and flashes of light blue

GONE TO AUSTRALIA!

#2 - An extra version of Art School, Sr. GONE

#3 - A light version of Scruffy Jeans (a little too light to be Stonewashed Jeans). GONE to Virginia!

#4 - An extra Spanish Shawl that wasn’t claimed.

So! there you have it! Claim the ones you want!

First, check out my notes — a feeble attempt to keep track of what I’ve done row by row:

That last section is what I just did this evening.  I even got to work in a couple of YOs, and had the challenge of a 1×1L, followed immediately by a 2×2L, a YO, and a SSP.   A bunch of other challenges along the way as well.    You can see one of the YOs just a little below the green block.   But notice how the earlier parts were fairly tame compared to the definite chaos in the last couple of sections.   The cool part about all this is that if you come up with a really cool segment, you can just repeat it over and over to make a visible and orderly pattern.   OR, if you love the idea of “not knowing until you get there” what comes next, you just keep on rolling the dice.

One of the weird things, which I suspect is my personal inability to write EVERYthing down, is that sometimes I’ll do (just for example), I’ll do a 3×3R, but then on the 4th row up, when I’m supposed to be restoring some order, it’s not in the right place.

Like, I’ll reverse some previous increases or decreases along the row, and a rational mind would expect the 3×3L (to reverse the 3×3R) to be directly above the previous cable.   Not so.   Maybe it’s because I’m not doing it as carefully as I thought, or maybe there’s something else at play.   So far, I don’t think I’ve EVER reversed a cable on the stitches exactly above where the previous one was done.   I can’t figure it out; it is definitely CHAOS!   And LOADS of fun to watch the knitting control itself.     But I assure you, that after each row where I Invoke Order my stitch count is returned back to the 30 stitches that are supposed to be between the two markers.  And yes, I have had to ‘fudge’ a couple of times. 

Also,  I’m already working on a real garment project that makes use of this technique.   I’ll share that in the booklet that goes out with Dicey Knitting II, but first I want to have 5 or 6 different specific projects to make it worthwhile.

And now that it’s nearly bedtime, I suppose I should start shutting down and pretend I’m on my way to bed, huh?

Okay, so I finally had time to start my own Chaos Scarf!

Here’s the first several repeats:

Underneath is the page where I tried to keep track of what I did so that I could reverse it on the 4th row and thus restore the stitch count and be able to start over on Row 8.

The original instructions said to Knit Chaos on Row 1 and then restore order on Row 3, but with some of (like the 3×3 cables) that’s just nonsense, so I changed to new instruction sheet to be an 8-row pattern instead of 4.

Row 1:  Roll the Dice, and Knit Chaos — write down what you’ve done!

Row 2, 4, 6, 8 - purl

Row 3,  7 - Knit

Row 5 - Do the opposite of what was done in Row 1, in order to restore the stitch count.

So, you Impose Chaos on Row 1 and Invoke Order on Row 5.

The other thing I also learned:  Roll all 5 dice at a time.   View the Ivory Cube and then do what is required as reflect on the Ivory and whatever other cube.   That saves time instead of rolling the ivory and then rolling whichever next one is called for.   (Those who have the Dicey Knitting Set already and have read the instructions know what this means.)    So, roll all 5 together, and then just use the ones you need.

I was somewhat disappointed that my second segment seemed to be just knits, purls,  and slips, with just a couple K2tog.   But you can see farther up, closer to the needle, I had more cables and expansive increasings.

The original brown Biagio that I’m using is difficult to see in the picture (although the yarn itself is single ply and in person the stitch definition is quite nice) , so I colorized the image to (hopefully) highlight the Chaos effect:

Virtually every column of stitches is interrupted, which is the intent.

I’m enjoying this, and I’m surprised at how quickly it’s progressing, even having to stop and write down the stitches for the Chaos rows, and then reversing it to write out the Order row.

And, for the record, it’s REALLY awkward having to do a left-lifted increase immediately followed by a right-lifted increase.   At times like that you just fake it or make up something to make it work.  Just be sure to write down what you did, and try to have somewhat of an idea how to un-do it 4 rows later!

Oh yeah, and if you reach the end of your row and you roll “Purl 4″ and there’s only 3 stitches available … Purl 1, purl into front and back, purl 1.   And then when you Invoke Order, you will K1, K2tog, K1 to get back to 3 stitches there.

Anyway….   that’s what one example of Chaos Knitting looks like.   I can almost completely guarantee that YOUR example will be different.  But don’t take my word for it.   Get your own set of cubes (click over there in the left column) and try it for yourself!

I forgot to mention yesterday — I had ANOTHER dream about work-related stuff.   It  was very strange, and quite troubling because of some of the people who were in the dream, but I’ll keep that stuff to myself.

The cool parts was that it was apparently my birthday (!!).   Now, I don’t “do” birthdays in real life.  It’s just not my thing.   But I was at home with my dad (??) (in a house I swear I’ve never actually been to or even seen inreal life)  and there came a knock at the door.   Suddenly the house was FILLING with people.  Hundreds of them.  And it seems they all brought cake.  Dozens and dozens of cakes, in the most brilliant colors.  Even the insides look like layers of cake sandwiched with layers of Jell-O or something.   It was amazing to see the cakes being cut to reveal a myriad of  cake-stuff inside.  They all just seemed to sparkle.

I was flabbergasted anyone would bring any cake at all, and I busied myself in the kitchen or something.   And then I came out and joined the crowd, wearing a pair of my newest hand-knit socks (no, not the Fun Socks, but some pair that only exists in my dream, apparently).   I was showing them off, and suddenly they came apart at the top of the heel, and just unraveled from there.  Very odd. And very embarrassing.

But then I looked on the table and saw the most AMAZING pair of hand-knit socks.   In my head I could see (and still now see) exactly how they were executed, I can see the colors in the yarns.   And after I finish the weekend dye jobs, I’m going to dye up as close as I can to the colors I saw in my dream.  And then I’m going to knit The Dream Socks. 

0Okay, so I said the UPS delivered the cubes last night.    I spent the evening carefully swabbing and marking each cube.  (I discovered the ink flows better if I use an alcohol swab to wipe them all down first — gets rid of body oils and dirt from previous handling.)

Also, I forgot to mention that they were able to get the yellow cubes for me this time.  I really think the yellow is much easier to see than the blue, since I’m using black ink on them.  I wish they had a lighter green color as well.     The colors may change along the way, but the markings will be the same.  (Dicey Knitting II will have different shaped blocks, and Blog Readers will have a month-long preview of those as well, which I hope to make available long before the winter holiday shopping season.)

Anyway, if you’ll notice over there in the left hand column, I’ve made it an easy-buy option.   And I’ve adjusted my PayPal shipping rates so that I don’t have to write special invoices with low shipping rates for these things. (BTW, that includes lowering the shipping rates on most yarn orders as well!)

That means it is easy to order as many as you want.  I currently have just 6 sets remaining unclaimed, but  it appears the turnaround time is fairly quick from the supplier.

Gabrielle wrote in the comments the other day that the charity knitting/crochet group she knits with is apparently clamoring for some of these.

Other folks have suggested making a “Group Knit” — everyone has a set of dice and makes blocks for a Chaos Blanket for their charity or raffle project.    Or you could make a game out of it, where you roll the dice and the next person has to knit on their project whatever you roll… and then they get to roll for the next person, around and around.  If nothing else, it could be a way to learn and practice several different increases and decreases, but learning goes faster when it’s fun.

For anyone ordering 10 or more sets in a single order will get a 15% refund through PayPal.   For large orders I will have to order more cubes and get them marked up, of course, but each set will come with its own instruction page, so everyone can have their own. When they go to the regular pages in July, they’ll be $14.95, so this would be a great time to stockpile some stocking stuffers for your knitting clubs before the holiday rush begins!

Okay, it’s like eleventy-thousand degrees outside, my A/C is running, and I’m STILL feeling icky gross and disgusting.

Anyway, I have 8 more skeins to dye before the dye work is done today, and THEN I get to sort out some of the remaining skeins.   Some of them are obvious, but some of them I have to figure out “okay, this is worsted … but is it worsted-worsted, or superwash worsted?”   EEK!

Last night I wrote to my supplier waiting (almost impatiently) for the next set of cubes to make up more Dicey Knitting sets for the remaining orders waiting (very patiently).   He emailed me back at 5:00 p.m. last night:

Hi there Ray-
I just got in the last of the cubes today, so they’ll go out in tomorrow’s
mail pickup!

Hey, okay, that’s cool…. <*ponder, ponder, plot, plot*>  okay, so they’ll get here Monday, maybe Tuesday, I’ll mark ‘em up, and ship ‘em out.

Guess what?   Mr. UPS-dude just brought them!  Holy cow!

So I’ve got a full weekend ahead.   I probably will not get the new specials posted this evening after all, since I have about 2 dozen skeins of unclaimed (and unmarked) yarns to sort.  (Yeah, I know….  I should label them straight out of the steamer…   I’m going to find myself some heat-resistant, not marking, snap-on rings to attach to the confusing yarns sothey’ll be identified from start to finish.  You’d think I would learn, huh?)

Anyway, back to work I go.

Well, okay, maybe not.

Anyway, here are 8 skeins of Down Home Art Yarns SOCKS that will be going onto the Specials Page Friday morning, along with some random sport weights, and a few worsted and superwash worsted… and some other socks and a few random lace weights.

But these are probably the most unusually brilliant collection overall of extras so I wanted to share them with you here first. They’ll be $22.95 on the Special Page with standard shipping charges, but you can have them here for $22.45 and $3.00 for shipping (or adjusted shipping if you snatch more than one at a time. (All 8 would ride in a flat rate box for just $10.50!)

First, the big picture, all 8 together. Numbers 4, 7, and 8 might be okay for bedsocks, but the rest of them are simply too loud to allow a pleasant sleep!

And here are CLOSE UPS of each one, so you can get a better feel of the colors. Click on them for a shot of the whole skeins.

The Fine Print - Blog Reader Special - 17 June SOCKS

To claim any (or all) of these for $22.45 plus shipping, just email me here and tell me which numbers you want. I’ll strike them out as they are ordered, first-come, first-served. If people order through the night and I’m not awake to strike one out, I’ll let you know by email that your choice was already taken (which, if I know my knitters, is a very good possibility). There is ONLY ONE OF EACH available.

17 June Sock #2 - GONE

17 June Sock #3 - GONE

17 June Sock #4 - GONE

17 June Sock #5 - GONE

17 June Sock #6 - GONE

17 June Sock #7 - GONE

17 June Sock #8 - GONE

Wheee!… All Gone!

Here ya go…

sort of a crappy picture (glare from the open window), but these are the two blocks I made for the love blanket project, marked out to 8 inch squares, all neatly pinned into place.   I’m going to let it sit and dry thoroughly until Saturday.  That should be adequate, no?

It’s the 8th day in a row over 95°F, and heat indices reaching 105°.    This is disgusting, and makes it very VERY hard to want to knit.   I’ve had the A/C running (dammit), but just turned it off to use the ‘vacuum method’ of cooling (both fans at high speed facing outward).

But no matter… knit happens, regardless the weather.   I finished the 2nd block last night, and now I’m debating whether to re-do the first one, which has a glaring error right in the middle:  almost an entire row with the k1,p1 sequence reversed, so with the adjoining rows makes it look like a strip of ribbing across it. Sheesh.   But having done them, I’m thinking to just leave it be and send it along.

Meanwhile, I’ll be up in the night reskeining bunches of yarns for the Specials Page.   I lost about 8 hours during the day futzing around with virus detectors.   There were a few infected files found so it wasn’t a wasted effort.  Merely time consuming.

Having finished the Fun socks, and now finished the blocks, I need (NEED, I tell ya) to design a lightweight ‘blousey’ tunic for my daughter, something loose and light to wear over a tank top.   Sleeves without tight cuffs, somewhat flouncy but not frilly or lacey.  She doesn’t wear yellow (as I discovered), so I”m leaning toward something light tan/light pink.  She won’t fiddle with blocking, so I”m going to have to use sock yarn, (or maybe the Dura-Lace…?) for easy care.    I’ve looked online and found gobs of “ideas”.

She wants it open in the front, a V-neck cardigan, but not with buttons, just a tie or other fastener across the chest.

What I’m thinking is bell sleeves in the round up to the armholes, and working the body in one piece (back and forth) up to the armholes, then joining in a raglan-style join, with an abbreviated ribbing around the neck and down the front.

Thoughts?  Ideas?   Ready-to-go (and free) patterns?

Thrice in the last 24 hours I’ve gotten the dreaded Blue Screen of Death.   I’m scared.   This computer is about 5-6 years old (purchased a couple years before Katrina.

If this computer goes down, I’m out of business.  Period.   I don’t have the money for a new one, and I’ve been turned down for credit to buy one.   In order to raise the funds for MODEST replacement computer, I’ll have to sell an additional 60 skeins of sock yarn (or Dura Lace or Merino Lace)  (or 120 at wholesale).    That would be over and above how many I need to sell just to break even on monthly expenses.

EEEK!

Meanwhile.   I’ve dyed all the sock yarn orders up to but not including the Earthly Paradise — because the yarn for those was ordered on Friday and hasn’t yet arrived (duh), but I learning this morning when I had to order more sock yarn that the yarn for the Earthly Paradise had already been packed for shipping, so that means I should get it Wed or Thurs.   YIPPEE!     Ditto for the superwash sport weights that a few have ordered.

So tomorrow I get to dye up the bits and pieces of other odd little yarn orders.

You may have noticed that the Specials Page is currently empty.  YIPPEEE!    Well, no, not really “YIPPEE” …. more like “woo-hooo” because there are a few oddments left.   There’s also a BUNCH of NEW GOODIES to add to that page so I’m going to start it over clean.  That’ll happen tomorrow or Wednesday, as soon as the most recent oddments are reskeined and made ready.

It is almost 7:00p and fortunately it has cooled down considerably.   Here’s the current report:

87.9 °F Scattered Clouds

A couple hours ago the temp was 95F and heat index was 105!    So yeah, it IS coolER but not really COOL.  ICK.   I’m debating whether to flip my clock and start working the nights and sleeping during the day.   I dunno.

I’m nearly done with the 2nd block for the Love Blanket (a group project for Witt Pratt’s husband), so I’ll work on that this evening and try to stay cool.   Last night’s sleep was fairly nonexistent, so perhaps tonight I’ll get to make up for it.