Happy Saturday!

I hope this finds you well.  It appears the post office is starting to get their systems back online (see previous posts about package tracking).  I just checked the tracking for a package I sent out on Thursday, a Priority flat-rate shipping box.

It shows a label was created here in Houston on the 13th. Suddenly it is up in Antioch, TN, and then it shows up back here in Missouri City, TX, and will then move on to its destination up in the Pacific Northwest.   For reference, Missouri City is sort of west southwest of downtown Houston, about the same distance west as I am east of downtown.  It is one of the main sorting and distribution hubs in my area.  I don’t understand why this package had to travel to Tennessee just to come back here, but I am happy to know things are once again getting tracked.

Anyway, back to the real reason you’re reading here — Yarns!

After considering all the yarns I’ve dyed still waiting to be adopted on the Blog Reader Specials page, I decided to do mostly darks and solids this week to encourage mixing and matching for those who like doing colorwork and contrasts.

All of these are done with multiple colors.  One Twinset in particular, #554-555,  is a true DumpDye done at the end of last night’s dye session.  I took the leftover portions of all nine colors I used (but not the black) and stirred them all together for a dip-dye.  When it came out wet it looks like a very dark-dark forest green, but now that’s been rinsed and spun out in the washer, I can see hints of all the colors.  It is fascinating to me how even mixing the colors in a bowl so it looks fully blended, the dyes strike the yarn to reveal a wonderful array of color.  Dye molecules are, of course, different sizes at the molecular level and so will strike the yarn in interesting ways.

All of these are Phydlbitz Sock and are normally $27.50, but for Saturday and Sunday you can claim any two or more of your choice (matching or not) for just $25.50 each.    And, when you claim any two or more of this week’s collection (#544 – 567), you can take any number of yarns from the BRS page at the same discounted price.

To claim the ones you want just send me an email with your requests, and I will mark them off the Available Yarns chart below and send you an invoice.

I expect to have these all dried, reskeined, and ready to ship on or about Wednesday.

Available Yarns: 
Rack 1 – 544, 545, 546, 547, 548, 549, 550, 551, 552, 553, 554, 555
Rack 2 – 556, 557, 558, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567

Okay, I have just posted the unclaimed yarns from the most recent collection of Blog Reader Specials!
Many of these will work amazingly well when used as contrasted sets. For Thursday and Friday, if you take any THREE UNmatched skeins I will let you have them for $70 for the three skeins. It is VERY OKAY to split up an existing Twinset, or select from any of the available single skeins. 🙂
https://knitivity.com/index.php/blog-reader-specials/

Happy Saturday all around!

As most folks may have heard, we had a hurricane come through on Monday.  I was without electricity from around 5:00 a.m. until late afternoon on Monday.  CenterPoint Energy is hoping to restore power to at least 80% of the Houston metro area by tomorrow — a whole week into this recovery!  I am thankful I got electricity back early this time, yet sad so many others are still without, including three of my children who live in the great metro area, one of whom also has solar panels and battery back-ups which for some reason also failed him.

Even though I do have power and water, it has been nearly impossible to order groceries or meals delivered.  I tried to order groceries on Wednesday, and the Instacart system tried to schedule me for delivery on Monday.   And (more relevant to my Knitivity customers) the mail systems were impacted, with packages and mail being delayed.  I have four yarn packages for which I put in a package pick-up request for Thursday, and the packages are still here.  I will try again on Monday.

I’m not a fan of Big Storms.  I had hoped Beryl would have remained aiming more toward the Texas-Mexico border area, but it turned almost directly toward Houston, mostly on the west side which put me quite firmly on the “dirty” side of the storm.  It is called the dirty side because it is where most of the winds and torrential rains occur.  It was just me and BigBoy in the trailer, and the noise was absolutely terrifying to me, with the trees whipping around beating the trailer, dropping branches and debris on the roof and all around, and generally creating an unpleasant time for me.  As we are always reminded in these storms, it’s not so much how the wind blows but what the wind blows.  I had my patio chairs and outdoor trash bins stacked and wedged next to the steps behind the porch.  The neighbors on the other side of the property had loads of stuff blown about, making the whole yard look like a disaster.

Anyway, the storm has passed, the yard mostly cleared, and I decided to dye some yarns last night, failing to realize today was forecast to have rain all day.  I prefer not to try photographing yarns in the yarn, but was able to catch a brief pause in the rain this morning and got a couple good pictures.

All of these are Phydlbitz Sock, dyed as Twinsets.  I didn’t have a particular theme in mind, but several came out looking like something from the Dark Forest (in a hauntingly pleasing way, of course) and others are a delightful mix of garden nursery displays. Or perhaps a children’s nursery.  Very lovely either way, in my opinion.   Several of the multi-color Twinsets would look terrific being knit in high-contrast vertical or diagonal stripes.

Twinset #540-541 is solid navy, but the rest are a variety of dye application techniques with multiple dyes on each Twinset.   I started Twinset #536-537 with a dipped brown, but for some reason my brown came up as a dark slate gray, so I topped that twinset with some gold ochre and sun yellow.

Phydlbitz Sock is normally $27.50 each skein, but when you claim any two or more of this new collection (BRS24 – #520 – 543) matching or not you may have them at $25.50 apiece on Saturday and Sunday.

To claim the ones you want just send me an email with your numbered requests. I’ll mark your requests off the Available Yarns tally chart shown below and then send you a PayPal invoice, which you can pay with a credit or debit card even if you don’t have a PayPal account.  If you are outside the U.S. please let me know so I can calculate your shipping costs.

Due to wet weather, it may take an extra day or two for this week’s yarns to dry and get reskeined and ready to ship.  Even so I hope to have these all ready to ship on or about Wednesday or Thursday.

Speaking of shipping costs, I noticed last week that all rates were increased on July 1, both domestic and international, so shipping will cost a little more.

Available Yarns
Rack 1 – 520, 521, 522, 523, 524, 525, 526, 527, 528, 529, 530, 531
Rack 2 – 532, 533, 534, 535, 536, 537, 538, 539, 540, 541, 542, 543

If you’ve been following the news you may have noticed Tropical Storm Beryl is coming to Houston tonight or tomorrow.  At one point it was a category 3 or 4 major hurricane out in the Caribbean, then it went over the Yucatan Peninsula and was downgraded to a Tropical Storm.  It is forecast to increase to a category 1 hurricane as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico before slamming into the Texas coast just southwest from Houston.  Far too close for comfort.

I knew the storm was coming, but hoped it would still take a more westerly route instead of arcing northward.   I also knew I had more Phydlbitz Sock yarns coming (they arrived yesterday afternoon, btw) but I didn’t want to be dyeing during a storm.  So I finally collected all the once-posted Phydlbitz Sock yarns that weren’t re-uploaded with the big Website Disaster a couple months ago.  Shown below are those  yarns, which I laid out and sorted for reposting.

I would really love to see these and all the other yarns on the Blog Reader Specials page to be adopted to find new homes and new projects.   So, for now, through Tuesday, everything on the BRS page will be invoiced at 20% off.

I am hoping we will not lose power this time, but I am able to edit the BRS page as claims are made, prepare invoices, and do most of what I need to do at this end, thanks to my new phone and better access.  But if the power is out I can’t print packing slips or shipping labels — my phone is not connected to my printer.  I hope to pack and ship all requests by Thursday.   I will, of course, update here on this page as well as on Facebook any status updates that may be needed, in case power does go out.

Happy Sunday!

I started last night’s dye session with the idea I wanted to try a cool gray, a warm gray, and a French gray.  These are colors in my big collection of Prismacolor color pencils, with (if I remember correctly) 5 gradients in each range, from 20% to 100% saturation in each.   I know that cool gray leans toward blues, warm gray leans toward reds, and French gray leans toward browns/neutrals.

Obviously I don’t have computerized color/dye matching or a huge manufacturing plant; I could not hope to create the correct proportions for those gradient saturations in each range.  But I could try mixing my base gray with “just a smidge” of a primary blue, a primary red, or brown.  Apparently what I considered a smidge turned out to be quite overpowering so I ended up with a slightly grayed blue, slightly grayed red, and slightly grayed brown.   UGH!  Not at all what I wanted.   Next time (if I grant myself another attempt) I will have to increase the gray by a factor of three or four, and reduce the add-in colors to barely a hint or suggestion.    However, Twinset #498-499 is almost the French gray I was hoping for, even though it is still more brown than I’d like.

Even with my disappointment in the grays, I think all of this week’s Twinsets came out pretty good overall.   Twinset #496-497 in particular reminds me of a partly cloudy sky over a meadow in full  riotous bloom.  Similar meadow colors appear in #506-507 and #512-513. Twinset #502-503 is a straight gray fade.

All of these are on Phydlbitz Sock, and would normally be $27.50 on the Blog Reader Specials page, but for today and tomorrow (Sunday and Monday) you can claim any two or more, matching or not for $25.50 each skein.

To claim the ones you want just send me an email with your requests.  I’ll mark your requests off the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send you a PayPal invoice.  Even if you don’t have a PayPal account, they can process your credit or debit cards, and they collect your shipping information to expedite the shipping process. Upon payment I will prepare and print your shipping label right away, so that when the yarns are fully dried and reskeined, I can ship without delay.    I expect this week’s collection to be ready to ship on or about Thursday Friday of this week.  (I forgot that Thursday will be a postal holiday.)

Available Yarns
Rack 1 – 496, 497, 498, 499, 500, 501, 502, 503, 504, 505, 506, 507
Rack 2 – 508, 509, 510, 511, 512, 513, 514, 515, 516, 517, 518, 519

This Trio is now sold.

Recently I was asked to create a custom-dyed set of Phydlbitz Sock in an amethyst color, but with lights and darks similar to all the array shown on a cut or faceted stone.  So that’s what I did.

And since I had so much extra dye prepared, and some extra yarns ready in case I needed them, I decided to make some extra purple skeins.

These were all dyed as individual skeins, so they are NOT Twinsets and can’t be sold with a Twinset claim.  But they were all dyed the same day with the same batch of dye.

Normally, Phydlbitz Sock is $27.50 per skein, and would be $82.50 if bought normally.  BUT if you email me and ask for the Grape-ish Trio I will let you have them for $70.00 as a bundle, plus normal shipping/handling.   🙂

Happy Monday, Everyone

I don’t know where you are but in Houston it is hot.  Just plain hot.  I saw a meme this morning that said, “Remember to drink lots of water and stay indoors between 11:00a.m. and November 1.”  Yeah, for real.   And I’m of an age and condition where I need to seriously pay attention to air quality warnings, pollen warnings, and all the rest.

So I take my morning walks as early as I can.  If you follow me on Facebook, you’ll know I carry dog biscuits to feed the friendly dogs along the way.  Today I set out with a pocket full of treats, and didn’t see a single dog anywhere on my route; none of my regulars and not even a wandering stray.  And it was barely 8:00a.m., so I guess they’re already all staying cool somewhere.

Anyway, I hope all of you are staying healthy and protected from the heat.

Last night I dyed up another collection of Blog Reader Specials, all on Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards).

As is my custom, these were all dyed as Twinsets, to allow for larger-than-socks projects, but a single skein is more than adequate for an average  pair of adult socks, although knee-highs would need both skeins of a matched Twinset.   My Twinsets aren’t always identical twins, although I do try to make them as similar as I can.  And to ensure you can see all the colors within a Twinset, I will twist the bottoms on the rotate as well as rotate one skein of each pair.  I hope this helps.

When I hang the yarns to dry in this manner, I do try to make sure each Twinset is different from its neighbors on either side, but don’t normally try to show off any particular Twinsets.  This time, however, I put Twinset #483-484 deliberately next to #485-486 — there’s just something striking to me about the apparent orange and apparent purple.  I say “apparent” because both of these Twinsets were made by layering multiple colors, repeatedly dipping into one and then another color to create the end result.   Actually the colors layered in #483-484 are the same colors that were segmented for Twinset #469-470.

While part of me feels like I’m getting (almost) too old for this sort of work, I am pretty sure I could go several more decades before running out of ways to make new combinations.  Other dyers like to create a stable of special repeatable colorways, I prefer playing with colors and discovering new things each week so there is always something new to inspire your knitting and crocheting adventures.

Phydlbitz Sock is normally $27.50 each skein, but for Monday you may claim any two or more skeins, matching or not, for just $25.50 apiece.

To claim the ones you want just send me an email with your requests.  I’ll mark your requests off the Available Yarns tally chart below and then send you a PayPal invoice.  Upon payment I will prepare and print your shipping label right away, so that when the yarns are fully dried and reskeined, I can ship without delay.    I expect this week’s collection to be ready to ship on or about Thursday or Friday of this week.

Available Yarns
Rack 1:   469, 470, 471, 472, 473, 474, 475, 476, 477, 478, 479, 480
Rack 2:  481, 482, 483, 484, 485, 486, 487, 488, 489, 490, 491, 492