I’ve posted progress pictures along the way, but I wanted to document it all in one place.

Several weeks ago I showed a couple cones of commercial yarn

and wondered what to do with it.  I ended up starting a Christmas Stocking, with a patterned instep and straight vertical stripes up the sole.  Here is where it stands so far.

Clearly I made the heel too deep, but I’m hoping fulling it will draw it up somewhat.  The most difficult part for me was continuing up the leg after the heel, because the stitch count for the pattern wouldn’t properly fill the space.  I solved the issue by removing 1 stitch at the center of the heel, giving me a 5-stitch center band going up the back.

This also provided a visual barrier instead of having a job where the pattern repeats step up a row.  This way, the jog is still there, but not quite to obtrusive and visible.  And, I as somehow magically able to work the peerie pattern from the instep up into the leg without a visual break.

The peerie pattern is 6 stitches wide and 4 rows tall.  Super simple.  You can use it for any sort of knitting, flat or in-the-round, but it needs to be a stitch count of a multiple of 6, plus 1 extra at the end

so that the last stitch of the row is the same as the first stitch of the row, like this:

I’m not going to write a formal pattern for this, as most sock knitters/stocking knitters already have their own favorite methods or techniques for forming toes and heels, and some people like working socks from the top down.  I do not and will not, but others are free to use what suits them best.

Okay, I have a challenge. I have four cones (2 Brick Red, 2 Evergreen), about 12 oz of yarn on each. They are sport weight wool (not superwash). They are about 16-17 years old, and from a company I do not mention by name. Because of [reasons] I cannot sell them, but if I make something I can sell the finished item.

My mind is all a-flutter with ideas — a holiday houndstooth pattern? simple holiday stockings? a shawl or scarf? winter caps? maybe some clever stranding design?

I would dearly love some ideas.

Since around 2011, maybe 2012, my primary yarn has been what I called  Phydlbitz Sock, a solid sturdy sock yarn.  It was labelled as 75/25 Superwash Corriedale/Nylon, because that’s how it came to me.

Originally this yarn was spun in the U.K.   I found out just this week that the U.K. mill that created this yarn closed about 5 years ago, when I was still buying from my then-current supplier.  My former supplier contacted my current supplier and had them create the same yarn, but it was 75% 25-micron superwash Merino and 25% nylon.  And it is spun in Peru, well-known for excellent knitting yarns, so that’s not an issue for me.  This change was done several years before my former supplier retired and my current supplier took over the former’s line of yarn offerings.

But they kept the original mill’s yarn name on their label, and I have been buying, dyeing, and selling this yarn thinking it was the same yarn that I started with back then.

Doing a little research, it seems most Superwash Merino sock yarns use 18-22 micron Merino, so it is definitely a finer wool yarn than my Phydlbitz, but now I need to change my labelling.

Should I call it Phydlbitz II or Phydlbitz 2.0 or maybe some different name entirely?  I mean, I really like the Phydlbitz name as it has special meaning for me.  I could just keep calling it Phydlbitz Sock, much the same way other companies change the formulas for their product but keep the brand name.

Obviously I will change my labelling for fiber content.  I’m only disappointed that this change was made several years ago and I only just now discovered the change.

I am playing with an idea. I know I have described the process I use for making Twinsets in various techniques. Many (too many?) years ago I even made a video on YouTube showing me making a few Twinsets. I am thinking about making a new video showing how I do it, start to finish — pulling hanks from cones, the pre-dye soaker, laying yarns out for dyeing, steaming, the wash-and-rinse, the reskeining after drying …. the whole thing.

If I could trim it down to the salient points, is this something you’d like to see? Should I do shorter videos, breaking the steps down into a series? What techniques (dye application) techniques would you want to see?

Comment down below, or drop me an email (ray@knitivity.com) and let me know what you think.

While pondering my future I tried chain-plying sock yarn, on a size 8 circular needle. Now that I have the rhythm of it, I’m thinking it would be fun to see if a single skein of Phydlbitz Sock yarn would make a typical beanie in a basic pattern. My thinking is that chain-plying would be super for mixing up the colors in a wild multi-color skein, thus avoiding obvious pooling.

If it works I may try doing some more of my sprinkled or splattered multi-colored dye jobs specifically for that purpose, to be sold with instructions on how to do it.

What you think?

Okay, so it’s Tuesday, January 21, and literally freezing in Texas.   Currently it is 28ºF/-2.222 ºC and we have actual snow this morning. Here’s how it looked when I got up around 4:00 this morning.  I’m pretty sure there will be more later in the day as the snow won’t be ending until late-morning.

I live in an older mobile home that has lots of “issues,”  including a persnickety central heating unit.  It hasn’t turned on since last Thursday or Friday.  I can hear it trying to come on, but it keeps giving an error code for “Ignition Failure.”   Yes, the landlord is aware and will be working with his HVAC guy to work on a better solution, but he has brought me a couple of milkhouse-style heaters.  They work okay, and I have both bedrooms closed off to consolidate whatever heat I have into the living room, kitchen, and bathroom, but the poor insulation combined with the current Arctic Blast, I am always cold anyway, currently huddled under a heavy fleece-lined blanket.

I am grateful that ERCOT has kept the power grid alive this time, but until this cold moves on and the threat of freezing temperatures is gone, I’m not even trying to work this week.

I’m sure many of you are familiar with stitch holders, like these:

I have several of various sizes. I’m not one for fancy stylish shawl pins, but these stitch holders work a charm to hold a scarf in place.  The tips are blunt enough to not pose a poking problem and wide enough to do a brilliant job of holding scarf ends together.

I suppose I could line the front bar with a variety of doodads and dangly beaded stitch markers, but I’m not that posh.  🙂

Anyway, wherever you are, I hope you are warm, dry, and safe.

I don’t normally post non-yarn issues here.

Tuesday afternoon the mail carrier took away all the many yarn orders, some of which should have been sent last week but were delays with repairs on the trailer.   I was standing there handing her package, with one foot up on the edge of her truck.  Got down to the last one and I lost my balance and fell backward, stumbling a few feet and then losing to gravity.

I ended up with a  cut on the back of my head.  The mail carrier turned off her truck and helped me up, then yelped that I was bleeding.  Eeek.  It looked far worse than it actually was, since head wounds tend to bleed a lot.

My daughter took me to an urgent care facility where they checked me out, cleaned up the wound, checked me for possible concussion, but thankfully it was just a cut on the head and not something worse.  I’m thinking since I fell first onto my butt, then shoulders, it wasn’t such a long fall for my head to hit the ground so there wasn’t a lot of damage.

I’m still really sore all over — amazing how many muscles jump into action to brace against a fall.  But I’m taking it (mostly) easy today.  I’m surprised that I hurt more today than I did yesterday. Anyway, I’m reskeining the most recent collection of yarns and then I’ll be pulling hanks to be dyed tomorrow and shown on Saturday.  I’ll have this week’s packages ready to ship out on Saturday as well.