Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Winter Freeze?

I know, I know — much of the country is already freezing, and I am sorry about that.  I just learned that we here in Houston, Texas, will be getting a possible freeze with sleet, ice, and maybe even snow from Monday through at possibly Wednesday.  No guarantee how bad it will be, and no assurance that ERCOT will manage to keep the lights on with the Arctic blast coming our way.

So, I’m not planning to dye anything this weekend.  I do have a custom job to do before I make a new BRS collection, so I’ll be doing that first.

In the meantime, however, I have uploaded all of the unclaimed yarns from the most recent two collections, over on the Blog Reader Specials page.

Here’s the January 5 unclaimed collection:

And here’s the unclaimed yarns from what I dyed on Saturday:

That yellow and green could most definitely be worked double-stranded together (one yellow, one green) and come up with a soft green similar to what I did with the Devyn Rae shawl sample (it was knitted in a lace-weight of yellow and green).

By the way, if you would like a copy of the Devyn Rae pattern, named after one of my granddaughters, just let me know when you order yarns this week.  I’ll add it to your invoice for $7.00 and will email you a PDF copy.  It has pictures, charts, and other information for working a half-drop pattern repeat as shown here.

Another fine pair that will definitely work together is this foursome; the underlying red base on #27-28 is the same red that I used for #33-34.  Imagine the stunning stripes you could knit with these two … like maybe in a Fibonacci sequence, or in intarsia Harlequin diamond blocks or even Entrelac?  Just looking at these two Twinsets together fills my head with ideas.

Because I won’t be dyeing new BRS yarns this weekend but still have to pay the water bill and buy groceries before the freeze, EVERYthing on the Blog Reader Specials page can be yours for $24.50 per skein.   Offer is good through Sunday, so feel free to visit again over the weekend.

Just email me your requests (ray@knitivity.com) and I’ll get you taken care of.   Everything on the BRS page is ready to ship, but if you wait until Sunday, I don’t know if your yarns will go out before Thursday — it all depends on the weather and if I can navigate to the street for the mail carrier.  I lost my balance and took a fall last week and I don’t want to risk walk on ice if it occurs.  If you order today or tomorrow, I can ship out on Saturday.  🙂

What are all these colors?

Happy Monday.

Yarns didn’t arrive until Saturday,  so I couldn’t dye until yesterday.  This always seems to throw me off my routine, as I like to show new yarns on Friday or Saturday.

Earlier over the weekend I asked on Knitivity’s Facebook page for ideas and suggestions for this week’s dyeing, and got several wonderful images of color combinations.   I set out to try to do some of them and promptly screwed up my dye-mixing.  I put some dye powder into one of the jars and promptly got interrupted.  When I came back later I picked up a new dye jar and deposited a scoop of different dye into the jar I’d already put some dye into.  But I couldn’t remember which color I’d already put into that jar.  All I know is that I probably (?) mixed two different blues, since there were several blues on my workspace ready to mix, along with russet, brown, gold, and yellow

I’m not at all disappointed with any of these Twinsets, but only disappointed I didn’t end up actually replicating any of the ideas that were offered.

These are all Phydlbitz Sock (75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, 430 yards each), all dyed as Twinsets.   The last Twinset of the session (#743-744) is a true DumpDye, combining all the leftover blues and a bit of yellow.  Some of the other solids are combinations of two or more colors into the dipping vat for an over-all solid-looking dye.

Phydlbitz Sock is $27.50 per skein.  For Monday, you can claim any two or more skeins (matching or not) for at 10% off at Preview Pricing.

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

International Customers:  I mistaken thought I would safely send up to 8 skeins for the same shipping cost.  I was mistaken.  One bundle I recently sent out had 8 skeins, and the shipping company came back and charged me again for another full package worth because one of the packages was an ounce or so over their strict 2-pound limit.  BUT that still means you can get up to 7 skeins for one shipping rate, which is still a great deal.

I expect to have this week’s Blog Reader Special Collection processed and ready to ship Thursday or Friday.

Available Yarns:
1 –  721, 722, 723, 724, 725, 726, 727, 728, 729, 730, 731, 732
2 –  733, 734, 735, 736, 737, 738, 739, 740, 741, 742, 743, 744