Hey, do you remember the yarns I showed hanging on Saturday?  The yarns that were claimed have been packed and ready for shipping.  Shown below are the unclaimed yarns that I have just put to the Blog Reader Specials page.  Click through to see all the individual pictures.

Tuesday through Friday (May 20-23) all matching Twinsets will be invoiced at 15% off, and all individual skeins will be invoiced at 10% off.   Just make your requests by email, same as normal, but no special codes for this Twinset TWOS-day offer!

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