Happy Saturday!

Starting the day yesterday, my brain was full of ideas of different things I wanted to try, including the Cat’s Paw Nebula.  I was looking through my recipe book and discovered a few other colorways to combine, including the amazing Carina Nebula colorway.

and the colors I derived from it (shown here on a sport weight yarn).

And, since I have both recipes, I’m going to do a “Look To The Stars” set of dye jobs next week when I have nothing to do but focus on this project.    If you know if a similar amazing colorway from the Hubble Space Telescope, or elsewhere, with amazing colors, please let me know.   I’ve seen several images of the Horsehead Nebula, for example.

Anyway, this week we have a stunning collection of color combinations, some very brilliant and some calming and subdued.

These are all on Phydlbitz Sock 2.0, 25-micron Superwash Merino/Nylon, 430+ yards, which are normally $27.50 each when they go to the Blog Reader Specials page.

For Saturday and Sunday, you can take any two or more skeins (matching Twinset or random singles) for just $26.00 each.

A few deserve noting:  Twinset #363-364 is a two-tone fade of  blue-gray and speckled chestnut, with a band of solid chestnut in the middle.  Twinset #371-372 is a medium gray with just a light fade, while #367-368 is a chestnut fade.  Twinset  #379-380 is a pale turquoise fading into an ice blue.

Any of the fades, either two-tone or monochrome, would work up into a stunning simple triangle shawl in garter stitch with a 3-stitch border and 3-stitch center spine, starting with either an Emily Ocker cast-on or even a tab cast-on

Of course, any of these skeins would make fabulous socks (one skein will knit an ample pair of adult socks), but there are many amazing patterns for sock yarn pillows, baby goods, and even sweaters.  A friend of mine knitted her husband a sweater vest from just two skeins of my sock yarns.

By the way, you’ll note in the images below that they are marked as 430+ yards.  I have always added a little extra yardage when I pull hanks from cones, but the  yarns I’m using now come pre-hanked at about 460 yards.  Since I prefer pulling my own hanks I’ll leave the labeling as I have it, but rest assured you will always get more than 430 yards.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your selections.  I’ll mark your selections off the Available Yarns tally chart below and send you a PayPal invoice to include shipping.  If you are outside the U.S., please let me know so I can calculate international shipping.  In most cases, I can ship up to six skeins for $37.50, whether it is 1 or 2 or 6, so the shipping-per-skein is less when you order more at a time.  🙂

I expect to have these ready to ship Wednesday or Thursday.

Available Yarns:
Rack 1 – 359, 360, 361, 362, 363, 364, 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370
Rack 2 – 371, 372, 373, 374, 375, 376, 377,  378, 379, 380, 381, 382

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The other day, a regular at the Knitivity Facebook page mentioned “Cat’s Paw Nebula” and asked about recreating it.

This morning I did a deep dive into the ancient catacombs of my earlier dyeing days and discovered I do still have the dye-mixing recipe with the dye placement schematic, and was even able to find a couple of pictures.  The top image is after dyeing, and the lower image is when they are all reskeined and ready to label and ship.

It was so long ago that I don’t remember which yarn base I used, although it was definitely a sock yarn, and I am pretty sure I can somewhat replicate it, although maybe not exactly, since my techniques have changed over time.

Because this is complicated process, involving both time and labor, I won’t be able to offer my regular Preview Pricing on this, if I decide to do some of these.  But I am wondering if there is an interesting in getting hold of this colorway for your sock and sweater knitting pleasure.  Feel free to comment below or send me an email to express your interest.

Are you a mother? Do you have a mother? Do you know a mother?  Have you ever met a mother?  Place an order today for two or more skeins of yarn and get 20% off your total order!  So simple. No special codes. This deal expires at midnight, Sunday, 11May2025.

This includes any available yarns not claimed in yesterday’s post as well as any previously posted Blog Reader Specials.

Update:

The yarns not claimed during the Preview Pricing period have now been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.  Here is the group shot of them all.

Good morning!

What a beautiful day in Houston!  I had a fun time dyeing yarns last night.  I wasn’t sure what to expect, as I went into the session without a specific goal in mind.   Actually, if you know me, you know that this is how I normally approach a dye session — grab a random selection of 10 different dyes and then see what happens.

Four Twinsets in particular — #335-336, 339-340, 341-342, and 353-354 — are practically begging to be knit up with strong contrasts, either undyed off-white, deep charcoal, or some other solid contrast, either in stripes, stranded knitting, color blocks, intarsia verticals, or some other technique to show off the beautiful color arrays in the multi-color yarns.

Twinset #337-338 is a two-tone fade of violet and chestnut.  I don’t think I have ever combined these two colors before, but they came out stunning, in my opinion.   All of the two-tones this week are perfect for knitting up with plain knitting to take full advantage of the two-tone effect.   Twinset #351-352 is a beautiful Foggy Fade, while #355-356 is a fog and a light martini olive fade.  In a future session I want to  capture that light olive color and dot it with bits of russet, reminiscent of the pimento bits in martini olives.  🙂

This week’s Dump-Dyes — #345-345 was a Dump-Dye of all the remaining violet, navy, and other blue-related colors, and it came out a rich navy solid.  Then for #357-358 I used up all the gold, yellow, gray and other colors, which resulted in a lush shade of grass green   Either of these would be perfect contrasts for an of the multi-colored skeins mentioned above.

By the way, I don’t do a Dump-Dye in every dyeing session, but when I do they nearly always result in deep rich solids (or nearly solid), so they are always great for your solid-color projects. Another fact is that the Dump-Dyes are created by combining remaining dyes from that day’s dyeing session, so they nearly always coordinate with at least one or two other yarns of that week’s session.

These are all on Phydlbitz 2.0, 75/25 25-micron Superwash Merino/Nylon, 430+ yards, and are regularly priced at $27.50 each.  For Saturday and Sunday, however, you can claim the ones you want for just $25.50 each.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your numbered requests and I’ll send you a PayPal invoice.  Once paid, I will prepare your shipping label right away so that I can ship as soon as the yarns are fully dried and ready to go.

I expect to have these ready to ship on or about Wednesday or Thursday.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 335, 336, 337, 338, 339, 340, 341, 342, 343, 344, 345, 346
Rack 2 – 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 354, 355, 356, 357, 358

Happy Saturday!

I had a great dye session last night, and I am impressed with some of the new combinations this week.

A friend asked me to replicate the red and gold Twinset I did last week, and I really did try (#317-318), but I’m not sure it turned out as glorious as previously.  But I did try.

I also tried a new-to-me dye color, called Crocodile Green (#321-322).  It’s not much different from my Knitivity Green #1, sort of a grass green.  I did it as a solid so I could see what it looks like in full saturation all by itself.

There are several two-tone Twinsets this week.  Twinset #311-312 is a 50/50 two-tone of palest gray and palest yellow; #319-320 is two-tone of bold yellow and bold pink; #331-332 is a two-tone of salmon and blue with a third color with the two dyes overlapped.  Twinset #327-328 is a two-tone of a darker blue-gray and purple, with a small span of salmon in between the blue and purple.

A surprising sprinkle-dye is #325-326 – up close it reminds me of the colors you might see in a children’s storybook, light happy colors.

When I got nearly finished with the session I mixed most of the remaining colors for a true DumpDye, but it came out looking like a slightly lighter version of spruce, so I dumped in all the red, pink, and salmon as well to overdye the green effect.  The variation in color along the strand seems most evident in bright daylight, but even in the photo you can see a sort of brown and then a sort of red-brown.  Fascinating.

These are all Phydlbitz 2.0 and will be $27.50 on the Blog Reader Specials page, but for Saturday and Sunday you can have any matching Twinset from this week’s collection (#311-334)  for $50.00 the pair.

To claim the ones you want just send me an email with your numbered requests.  I’ll send you a PayPal invoice and mark your requests off the Available Yarns tally chart (shown below).

I expect to have these ready to ship on or about Wednesday.

Available Yarns:
Rack 1 – 311, 312, 313, 314,  315, 316, 317, 318, 319, 320, 321, 322
Rack 2 – 323, 324, 325, 326, 327, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 334

update:  All the unclaimed yarns have now been posted to the Blog Reader Specials page.  Here is the group shot:

Happy Monday!

I had a great time last night playing with fibers and dyes, and was pleased with how this week’s collection turned out.  Saturations where I wanted, paler fades in just the right places.

While I often extol the value of Phydlbitz Sock yarn for socks, shawls, baby things, etc., what comes to mind this morning is summer-weight tee-shirts.  There are quite a few patterns on Ravelry, of course (sock yarn tee-shirts on Ravelry) but you can easily take a tee shirt that fits and make your own unique design by knitting or crochet fabric to the shape of the tee-shirt you already have.  You could go with simple stripes, mitered squares, or even free-form crochet to complete a lovely casual tee or beach cover-up.  And being a study sock yarn, your creation will do fine in the wash after a day at the beach or weekend camping trip.

As I mentioned in a previous post, I just found out this past week that the fiber content of Phydlbitz Sock was changed several years ago without my knowledge.  I’m not going to go back and re-label previously posted Phydlbitz Sock yarns, but all the new labels will have the fiber content as it was explained to me last week – 75/25 25-micron superwash Merino/Nylon.  It was sold to me under the same name as I had always bought, so I was unaware of the difference until this week, and it is the same yarn customers have been buying all along, so I will continue to use the Phydlbitz label.

And unless or until things change drastically in light of recent political actions (which I will not address here), I will not raise prices.  Phydlbitz Sock will remain at $27.50 per skein.

For Monday and Tuesday, visitors here at Knitivity can claim any two or more skeins at $26.00 each, as preview pricing discount.  When these yarns are reskeined they will be posted to the Blog Reader Specials page at the regular price, so it is good to claim the ones you want at preview pricing.  Even better: when you claim any two or more from this week’s collection (BRS25 – #287 – 310) you can claim any number of skeins from previously posted Blog Reader Specials at the same discount price.

After the wash-and-rinse I hang the yarns outside to dry (when weather allows), and number them for claiming.  When appropriate I will rotate one skein of a pair, and then twist the bottom of each skein to most effectively show the range and distribution of colors across each Twinset.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email (ray@knivity.com) with the numbered items you want.   I’ll mark your selections off the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send you a PayPal invoice.  Upon payment I will immediately purchase your shipping label so that when the yarns are dried, reskeined, and labeled, they can ship right away.

I expect to have these ready to ship on or about Thursday or Friday of this week.

Available Yarns
Rack 1 – 287, 288, 289, 290, 291, 292, 293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 298
Rack 2 – 299, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 310

Yes, another month draws to a close!

Just visit the Blog Reader Specials page and take any available skeins for just $22.50 each, Friday through Sunday, 25-27 April 2025.

Happy Friday!

I’ve had a fairly good week, and I hope yours has been good as well.

I went into the dye process ready to film at least part of it.  Got all my dyes mixed and arranged, work space cleared, slippy solution in the red bowl, camera in place.  The only issue is that I didn’t have a cord long enough for the ring light, but all the other house lights were on so it was okay.    I had earlier filmed a little bit of preparing a hank of yarn at the start, and then a bit of the dye process.  I still need to film the intro and outro which may take a day or two, and then upload it all to YouTube, since I’m not sure social media will let me upload such a large video file directly.   I’ll have it done in a few days and will certain post a link when it is ready.

So I went into the dye session expecting good things, and I surprised myself with how well these all turned out.   Twinset #263-264 is the one I filmed and you’ll see that in the video.  The other Twinset I filmed was #273-274, which came out as a sort of Sage Fade.

The significance is that I did the Sage Fade entirely from the combined excess run-off of #263-264.  It’s amazing how colors work together. There was some purple, navy, teal, gold, and bits of last week’s combined leftover dye, but when the run-off got stirred together in the catch bowl, it became this amazing sage color.   I dipped the Twinset slowly so it would take up all the color, which created the fade technique.

Twinset #265-266  is a “hand-slap” application of a little sky blue and some silver gray; instead of applying dye straight to the yarn, I squeeze a little dye onto my hand, which I then slap randomly onto the yarn.  Gently slap, I should add; I don’t want to create splatter all over the work space.  🙂

Twinset #271-272 is what some might call Clown in a Blender; this type of wild splattering of colors nearly always creates fun socks for kids and grown-ups alike.  The cool thing about this mixy-mix of colors is that you do not need fancy stitching patterns on your socks; you let the color create the texture on its own with simple stockinette or maybe seed stitch for the leg of a sock between the heel and the cuff at the top.

Twinsets #269-270 and #279-280 are two variations of combining mostly sky blue and emerald, with a little smattering of aztec gold.  The excess run-off from one of those (I forget which one), created  a very pale aqua wash for #285-286; on one end of the hanks I splattered a mix of teal and turquoise, which always tickles my soul when I see it.

There are also several apparent solids, which were actually dipped solids created from mixes of dyes directly into the catch-bowl (not excess run-offs), so these are one of a kind solids that I wouldn’t know how to replicate.

These are all Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each), and will be available at $27.50 each on the Blog Reader Specials page.   For Friday and Saturday, you may claim any matching Twinset from this week’s collection (#263-286) at $25.50 per skein, preview pricing discount.

To claim the ones you want just email me with your numbered selections and I’ll mark your selections off the Available Yarns chart below and send you a PayPal invoice.  When payment is made I’ll prepare your shipping label so your yarns can ship as soon as they are ready.

I expect to have this new collection ready to ship on Tuesday or Wednesday of this coming week.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 263, 264, 265, 266, 267, 268, 269, 270, 271, 272, 273, 274
Rack 2 – 275, 276, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 282, 283, 284, 285, 286

Edit 16Apr25:  Here are the yarns not claimed from the Preview Pricing period:

Happy Saturday!

I started the day’s dyeing with a sense of hope and promise.  And, truth be told, the day did go pretty well.  But there were some interesting developments along the way.   I think I broke some dyes in ways I wasn’t expecting.

Some of you know I use the “waste not, want not” philosophy when it comes to my dyes.  That is, I don’t like wasting dye if I can help it.  When I am using full-strength dyes, I will wrap the yarns and gently press excess dye into a bowl below the dyeing workspace.  And then I will use the next Twinset to pick up that dye.   That is just one of the methods I use for creating some of the Fade Twinsets.

In particular Twinset #245-246 appeared to have a lilac or lavender hue.  If I’m not mistaken I was using the run-off or excess from #247-248 (which used purple, teal, and navy).  Anyway, in the bowl i stirred  it around and it appeared well-blended, and I expected a fade effect of the combined dyes.  What happened is that the purple struck first, while the little bit of navy and teal remained so the tail of that Twinset took on a pale green-blue cast without much of the purple at all.   The other Fade Twinsets (#249-250, 256-257, and 259-260) were done in a similar fashion.

My other main method for doing fades is directly applying dyes onto the yarns and moving the dye inside the pouch.  I didn’t do this method at all yesterday; all the fades this time were made using the run-off or excess dyes from the prior Twinset.  And the dyes pretty much broke.

The rest of the Twinsets are fun combinations of colors, some related and others with strong contrasts. But there are no ugly colors, just unusual combinations. 🙂

These are all Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each), and will be available at $27.50 each on the Blog Reader Specials page.

For Saturday and Sunday, you can claim any matching Twinset for $50.00 each pair, at Preview Pricing discount.

To claim the ones you want just email me with your numbered selections and I’ll mark your selections off the Available Yarns chart below and send you a PayPal invoice.  When payment is made I’ll prepare your shipping label so your yarns can ship as soon as they are ready.

I expect to have this new collection ready to ship on Wednesday or Thursday.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 239, 240, 241, 242, 243, 244, 245, 246, 247, 248, 249, 250
Rack 2 – 251, 252, 253, 254, 255, 256, 257, 258, 259, 260 261, 262