Update:  For Friday Only, 28 November– Today is the last day for the Black Friday Sale with every skein invoiced at 15% Off. Special for Today Only — take any four or more skeins and get Free Shipping inside the U.S. 

Happy Saturday!

Black Friday seems to be an American tradition — the day after Thanksgiving is usually a day of big pre-holiday sales when people stock up on their holiday gifts and supplies.  It seems in recent years the Black Friday sales are announced earlier and earlier; can you believe it — some store already have their Christmas wares out on display!

Anyway, from now until the end of Friday, Nov 28, all yarns on the Blog Reader Specials page will be invoiced at 15% OFF, and I’ll charge just $5.00-per-order for shipping inside the U.S.  Just visit the BRS page and make your selections by sending me an email (ray@knitivity.com) with the item numbers you want.  I’ll prepare a PayPal invoice for you and will ship the day after payment is made.  Of course, Thursday is a postal holiday, so no mail that day.

If you want me to ship yarns to someone else  I’ll be happy to ship to whatever address you provide.

And, of course, it is never too soon to think about all the people who deserve a skein or two of Phydlbitz Sock!

I’ll be ordering yarn this weekend and should have a new batch of yarns to show next Saturday or Sunday if it arrives by Friday.

Last night I posted all the unclaimed yarns of the most recent collection of Blog Reader Specials; here is the group shot:

For today, Tuesday 18Nov25, all matching Twinsets will be invoiced at 15% OFF; single skeins will be invoiced at 10% OFF.

I was just waking up with coffee and Facebook, and there was a Memory post from 2019, featuring “Fraternal Twins”.  I had completely forgotten this technique, and I would probably do it differently today since I have gotten better at creating solid dyes.

The main concept is to have one skein with a mottle, sprinkle, confetti, or something, and the other is more of a solid color made from all the colors of the first one.

Please note: these are from 2019 and no longer available.  Not all the Twinsets shown were done this way, and there are even some single skeins at the end of the second picture.

Would you be interested in seeing some more sets like these Fraternal Twins?

Happy Saturday!

I had a fun evening dyeing yarns yesterday, although I wasn’t sure where it was going, but it turned out to be a really good dye session.

There are a few unusual combinations this week.  For example, Twinset #839-840 I started with a full saturation of purple in the centers with a dip into yellow that allowed the purple to migrate into the yellow; the repeat purple to purple is about 36-inches.

Other Twinsets with 36-inch repeats include #823-834, #829-830, and #837-838.   Some of the other Twinsets have a roughly 72-inch repeats, like #825-826 and #827-828.

Knowing the length of the repeats is helpful in deciding what sort of pattern or design you want to appear in your knitting.  While my repeats are not exact measures, the difference between the 36-inch and the 72-inch repeats is clear.

There are several Twinsets this week without clear repeats, like #821-822, #831-832, and #835-836, which were done in a variety of techniques that I use (e.g., sprinkling, confetti, random segmenting).

And, of course, I ended with session with a DumpDye (#841-842) with a blended combination of royal blue, teal, and turquoise — no measurement, just dumping what was left of those three dyes.

Need More Than Two? — many projects need more than just two skeins, like light weight blankets or adult sweaters.  While I normally dye two-at-a-time Twinsets, I am happy to discuss larger order in a custom dye job, either as solids or as combinations in any of my regular techniques.  Feel free to email me so we can discuss your needs.

Holidays Are Coming — If you have knitters on your gift list, it is never a bad idea to consider giving hand-dyed yarns.

All of these are dyed on Phydlbitz Sock 2.0 (75/25 Superwash 25-micron Merino/Nylon) and are 430+ yards each 4-ounce skein.  Since I pull individual hanks from coned yarn, I always add 20-30 each yards to ensure ample yardage.

Phydlbitz Sock 2.0 is normally $28.00 each skein. For Saturday and Sunday, you may claim any matching Twinset from this week’s collection (#821-844) for just $26.00 per skein.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email (ray@knitivity.com) with your numbered selections. I’ll mark your selection off the Available Yarns tally shown below and send you a PayPal invoice.  If you are outside the U.S. please let me know.

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

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 821, 822, 823, 824, 825, 826, 827, 828, 829, 830, 831, 832
Rack 2 – 833, 834, 835, 836, 837, 838, 839, 840, 841, 842, 843, 844

=================================

Want to always get the deals first? Insiders get a better Preview Pricing discount and sometimes reduced shipping, too! Subscribe to the Knitivity Insider.

Shown below are the unclaimed yarns from this past weekend’s collection of Blog Reader Specials.   They now join all the previously posted yarns on the BRS page, so click through to see all the beautiful yarns you can work with.   And if you see some you like but  aren’t sure if they work together, email me and ask for pictures of the combinations you like.

For today, Tuesday, everything on the Blog Reader Specials page is on sale — matching Twinsets will be invoiced at 15% off; single skeins will be invoiced at 10% off.  And yes, it is okay to split up a Twinset if you only want one skein from a pair.

Happy Saturday!

Yesterday’s dye session was fun, and a little surprising.  To start, I had 3 nearly full jars of leftover dyes from last week, blended together from the several remainder jars.  Usually my remainder jars are less than half-full, often barely one-quarter full, so I mix them with similar or related colors.  This creates very unique colors not typically provided by the dye manufacturers.  So, anyway, those 3 reblended jars, plus all 7 of the newly mixed dyes were all used yesterday, leaving this glorious mess of empty jars and squeeze bottles.

My first surprise came early — using the run-off dyes from the first Twinset, I created a monochrome fade that looked to me like the dried and wilting leaves at the top of  celery (#803-804).  It tempered a little bit during the steaming process so now it looks to me like a Green Olive Fade.  But no matter, it came out fairly even.   Then later on in the session I used run-off from another Twinset and came out with what looked like a Roasted Cantaloupe Fade (#807-808), but again during the steaming it tempered into something a little different.

I learned two things from this — first, don’t name colors until they are fully done tempering in the steamer; and second, stop dyeing yarn will painfully hungry because everything looks oddly edible.

Another monochrome fade (#817-818) came out looking somewhat blue-gray.   I like doing the monochrome fades because I envision them being used in shawls or blankets with simple stitching but allowing the undulating colors to do the work of creating motion.  This should be especially useful when using multiple different Fades in a stripe, chevron, waves,  or other pattern.  All of the monochrome fades are on roughly 72-inch repeats, which is very useful for a dramatic woven project, as one customer showed me several years ago.

Sometimes I will do a 36-inch repeat in a monochrome fade, but that usually works better when doing single skeins rather than Twinsets.

This week’s DumpDyes, done at the end of the evening, are #797-798, combining all the blue and blue-related colors, looking like a dark spruce sort of color; and #809-810 using all the red and red-related colors, creating a very deep rust.

If you want to see a particular Twinset in a close-up image please let me know before Monday so I can photograph them before I start reskeining on Tuesday.

These are all on Phydlbitz Sock 2.0 — 75/25 Superwash 25-micron Merino/Nylon, labeled at 430+ yards but they run 460-480 yards and a little heavier than 4.0 ounces.   Phydlbitz Sock is normally $28.00 per skein, but visitors are invited to claim matching Twinsets for $26.00 per skein when you order on Saturday or Sunday.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email and I will send a PayPal invoice.  If you are outside the U.S., please let me know.

I expect to have this week’s collection ready to ship on Wednesday or Thursday.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 797, 798, 799, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 805, 806, 807, 808
Rack 2 – 809, 810, 811, 812. 813, 814, 815, 816, 817, 818, 819, 820

=================================

Want to always get the best deals first? Insiders get a better Preview Pricing discount and sometimes reduced shipping, too! Subscribe to the Knitivity Insider.

Update!  Wheee! Here are the unclaimed Phydlbitz Sock yarns from the most recent Blog Reader Specials! Visit the BRS page and make your selections today.

Happy November!!

Tonight, most of the country will turn the clock back one hour to mark the end of Daylight Saving Time.  For some reason I went to bed last night and woke this morning thinking the clocks would have changed last night instead of tonight.  I was befuddled when my phone and computer (which change automatically) showed the same time as my battery-operated wall clock.  Have you ever had a funny, strange, or confusing experience with the time change?

Last night I tried a slightly different technique for applying dyes to the yarns — I’m calling it Cloud Prints.   The first one I did was in Espresso (#789-790) and it really tickled me so I tried it again with Spruce overdyed in pale Turquoise (#779-780), and then in Red overdyed in pale Sky Blue (#777-778).  I’m not sure the technique works in every color or combination, but I think I will use it again to experiment further.

This week’s palette selection didn’t really lend itself to the confetti technique (#787-788), so I didn’t do that technique again this week.

There are several segmented yarns where I blended the segment instead of leaving hard edges (#773-774, 775-776, 785-786, and 793-794).   Any of these should work up into self-striping spiral stripes, if knit in plain stockinette, but by doing seed stitch you could break the colors up even more for an interesting effect.

There are a couple nearly solid Twinsets, like #783-784 and 795-796, as well as a couple of monochrome fades (#781-782 and 791-792).

These are all on Phydlbitz Sock 2.0, 75/25 Superwash 25-micron Merino/Nylon, and are metered out at about 450-460 yards, but I always marked them as 430+ to ensure you always get more yardage than is marked on the label.   🙂

Phydlbitz Sock is regularly $28.00 each, but for Saturday and Sunday this week, you may claim any matching Twinset for just $26.00 per skein.

To claim the ones you want, just send me an email with your requested items noted.  I’ll mark your requests off the Available Yarns tally chart below.  I post in many places across social media, and I can’t update all of them, so marking them off here in one place anyone can see when they visit which ones are still available.

And, of course, any previously posted yarns are available on the Blog Reader Specials page where they have been reskeined, labeled, and ready to ship.  If you see some there that you want to get with today’s Preview Pricing discount, feel free to add them with your order.

I expect to have this week’s collection reskeined and ready to ship on or about Thursday.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 773, 774, 775, 776, 777, 778, 779, 780, 781, 782, 783, 784
Rack 2 – 785, 786, 787, 788, 789, 790, 791, 792, 793, 794, 795, 796

=================================

Want to always get the deals first? Subscribe to the Knitivity Insider.