My Phydlbitz Sock yarn comes on cones, from which I pull 4-ounce hanks.  I can get 8 hanks from each cone, which leaves barely an ounce of yarn remaining.  Technically, I  could just tie on a new strand and keep building hanks, but I really, Really, REALLY do not like knots in yarn.

I know knots happen, and I know that the “industry standard” is to allow up to 8 knots in a pound of yarn (or 2 knots per skein).  But I still resist including knots in the yarns I send out.  Knots are more easily dealt with when knitting with a solid color yarn, but most of my yarns are decidedly not solids, most of the time.

So, I have all these tiny bits of sock yarn base — an overflowing box of cones.

I don’t want to pitch them into the trash, so I’m trying to figure what to do with them.  My biggest decision is whether to knit (or crochet) with three strands at a time, joining new yarn when one strand runs out as I pull from 3 separate cones, or chain-ply as I work from a single cone at a time.

Another but lesser question is what to create.  The actual cones weigh about an ounce or ounce-and-a-half, not counting the yarn still on the cone.  I think the absolute easiest would be to work up a giant granny square, totally mindless handwork.

One thing I will not do is try to sell these remainder cones, nor will I tie the yarns together into knotty hanks.

Just a quick update, thanks to the winter storm crossing the country.

First, yesterday afternoon the mail carrier finally took away all the packages ready to ship (save one that was requested to ship next week).

Then, the incoming yarns for February’s dyeing.  I put in the order last Saturday.  Normally, I would order on a Wednesday, and I’d get it that following Friday or Saturday.  This time, it was Wednesday before I even got an order confirmation with a tracking number, with delivery expected yesterday.   Then yesterday it was adjusted to show delivery today.  As of this morning, my yarn was somewhere in Kentucky, with expected delivery on Monday.  I know this winter storm is impacting things, so I can’t get too upset.  It’s just frustrating.  When it gets here, I’ll get back into the regular cycle of putting out a new collection of Blog Reader Specials each week.

Meanwhile, I’m occupying myself with a bit of knitting and puttering around the house.  I’m still working on the socks, just about to reach the heels.  And the holiday stocking project is in line for me to re-work the heel.  And I need a cozy for my French press; I get frustrated that by the third cup, the pot has gone rather tepid.  Yuck.

So, I’m sitting in limbo, waiting for current yarns to sell, waiting for new yarns to arrived, and fiddling with projects that need doing.

I hope the rest of the country is reaching a point to start thawing soon, although I know many of you are snowed in or iced in.  Hopefully, it is only a few more days.

Feeling sorta frisky (wink-wink), getting ready to make a video about planning some sock adventures, will post later today or maybe tomorrow.

I was (finally) able to order some more yarn on Saturday, my supplier processed the order this morning, and I’m waiting for the UPS tracking number to see if my yarns will arrived Thursday or Friday.

Two weekends in a row without new yarn on hand is both frustrating and liberating.  No yarns to dye means no money to be made, but it also means time to breathe a bit, maybe catch up on a little housework, and do a little bit of “Me” stuff.  As long as my rent and utilities are paid, I can breathe a day or two.  🙂

It’s all good, in the end.   But anyway, I’ll be back later or tomorrow to show the yarns I have pulled to knit myself some socks and discuss my intention for making 4, 6, or even 8 socks.  🙂

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.