Knitivity

Happy Monday!

First, the good news: The new-size cones for my Phydlbitz Sock base arrived.  They are most definitely smaller than I used to get, but the weight marked on the cones doesn’t include the weight of the actual cone, just the weight of the yarn on the cone, so I am able to get my regular 4-ounce hanks.  So I don’t have to worry about switching to metric measures (with slightly shorter skeins) in order to get the most from the cones.  Having  sold my yarns at four full ounces for almost 17 years, I find myself resisting the idea of converting to 3.5 ounce/100 gram skeins.  I’m old and I’m stubborn, and make no apologies for it.  <*grin*>   I DO recognize the logic for converting, I’m just not emotionally there yet.

Someone on Facebook suggested selling the small remainder bits off the cones for people who want to experiment with dyeing. Since the cones weigh more than the remainder bits of yarn, I would manually turns the remainder yarns into butterfly bobbins and would sell in bundles of two or four ounces.  It would seem silly to pay postage for just a bunch of cones if all you wanted was the small amount of yarn on them.  But, I would consider selling them if people expressed an interest in buying a bag of undyed sock yarn put up into butterfly bobbins.

I went into the dye session yesterday hoping the dyes would tell me what to do.  I was not disappointed.  I ended up with some monochrome fades, a speckled, and several segmented.  There are several vibrant splashes of color as well as some subtle color changes.

Twinset #689-690 was particularly interesting to me.  Using very-very pale dilutions, there are four or 5 layers of different colors, including a light blue, a gold, some rich chestnut, and even some yellow.   It looks like a solid wheat, but I assure you there are several colors layered on that one.  This would be perfect for lacework,

I was concerned that this morning’s early light wouldn’t show the colors well, but even Twinset #695-696 is well displayed, showing off it’s many colors blending into each other along the strand.   I think this pair in particular would be an amazing lacework shawl.   Also, the two monochrome gradients (or fades)  #693-694 (blues) and #699-700 (smokey taupe) would also do well in either lace or simple rippled/wavey like Old Shale or a chevron pattern.  Twinset #701-702 is not a monochrome gradient, but a dusty sage-and-gray sort of color

The obvious speckle-dyed (#687-688) would make some amazing socks, as would the brightest Twinsets (#685-686 and #703-704).

All of these are Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards), and are normally $27.50 each.  For Monday and Tuesday this week, you can claim any two or more from this current collection (#681 – 704) for just $25.00 each, matching or not.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email (ray@knitivity.com) with the numbered items you want.  I will mark them off from the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send you a PayPal invoice. If you don’t have a PayPal account, that’s okay — they will still process your credit or debit  card purchase and collect your shipping information.  If you are outside the U.S. please let me know so I can calculate your shipping charges; I will still mark your selections off, but will let you accept or decline the shipping before I prepare your invoice.

I expect this week’s collection to be ready to ship on or about Thursday or Friday of this week.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 681, 682, 683, 684, 685, 686, 687, 688, 689, 690, 691, 692
Rack 2 – 693, 694, 695, 696, 697, 698, 699, 700, 701, 702, 703, 704

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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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