Mosby and knitting

Starting to feel a little better. I just listed Mosby, which is based on Ted Mosby from How I Met Your Mother. I LOVE LOVE LOVE these colors. Brown and Turquoise- great combo! I just started watching the HIMYM seasons on DVD from netflix. I noticed that Ted wears A LOT of blues with brown, but it was the episode where he picks out this awful shirt that he suddenly decides looks good. The only thing that looks good on that shirt is the coloring. I wish I could find a picture of that shirt for comparison...



I've decided to start knitting up samples of each of my yarns to give customers a better idea of how yarns will look. Hoping it will help with sales.
Also, I'm waiting for yarn to come in from my supplier, but once I can order, I will have some more.

Princess Zelda and twitter

Just listed the bulky version of Princess Zelda. It's very pretty and goes perfectly with its' Aran counterpart. I'm still fighting a cold, but I'll be trying to get the 2 remaining yarns up this weekend. They've been knitted and look pretty awesome. So once they are re-skeined, I'll be listing them.
Here's the two Princess Zelda items together:


So my two tv show yarns are based on colors from How I Met Your Mother and Big Bang Theory. I'll give you more when I'm ready to list.

Finally, I've made a twitter account for my shop. Feel free to follow me! Propschicknits is my account name. You'll know immediately when I'm about to list a new item and what it will be, along with some other stuff...

Anyway, I have a runny, stuffy nose to take care of, so I'm off!

New upload(s)

I'm feeling sick and had to do some family time stuff yesterday when I planned to work, so I got behind on dying and reskeining. I also decided that I am going to knit up each color to give my customers a better idea of how everything looks. Anyway, I finally got International Superyarn! ready for listing. I really like it and plan on making it again when I get my next batch of yarn in.



I finished dying all the yarn I have in stock, so now it's time to reorder. I'm thinking 5 superwash fingering and 5 BFL Aran. This will be my last yarn order until I start selling because I can't afford to put out more money, but I figure that 26 items in stock is a good start.
I have a Princess Zelda Bulky that needs reskeining, so that will hopefully be up tonight. My 2 newest colors are based on TV shows. I'm going to withhold details for now, but I'll post about them before I list.
Crossing my fingers for some sales in the near future.

Giselle Line

Since Etsy only allows 5 pictures, I thought I'd add some more on here of the Giselle line.

Here is the second of the Aran skeins knitted up. I knitted 36 stitches in stockinette on size 9 needles. Of course, I managed to blank when it came measuring it.




Here are more pictures of the first skein and the fingering skein together.





I also have 2 new bulky weight yarns ready, I just need to knit them and reskein them. Hopefully I'll have them up in my shop tomorrow for my first showcase.

New Day, New colors

So after I got home last night, I started work on more yarn to get into my shop and out into the world. I ended up dying not 2, not 3, but 4 new yarns for purchase! All are on the BFL Aran yarn, which sadly kills my current supply of it. Needless to say, I will be ordering more of that in the near future. I don't have any pictures right now, partially because I'm babysitting again and partially because they are still a little too damp to re-skein. However, I felt the need to post about them here before putting them up on Etsy. So without further ado, here are my new BFL Aran color ways:

1) Giselle (x2) : I've received multiple complements on the forums over this yarn and it has 4 hearts, so I figured I'd take one last go at recreating the color. 2 attempts later, I finally came up with the right yellow:blue ratio again. Turns out I wrote it down wrong in my notebook... Anyway, I also figured it would not only be a good color way to recreate on the BFL line, but also a good one to try out the whole making multiples thing on. First off, I need to remember to mix more than my standard 1/2 cup of this color when I do it. I usually can get 2 batches out of each 1/2 cup when I'm doing multiple colors, but when using 1 color on a yarn...well, it runs out faster. The 2nd skein matches up pretty well, but it's not exact. Also, I wanted to steam both of them at once, so I let the first one sit while I painted the second one to save some time. The color spread out on the first one while it was sitting so the color ratio isn't the same anymore. Both are pretty and match and would work up well if alternated, but you wouldn't be able to work one skein and then the other. However, now I know the ratio so I can recreate the color and I've learned some other important lessons on that one. I'll put up some pics once I get home with comparisons of the 2.

2) The Emerald City : Remember the 2 batches it took to recreate the correct ratio? Well, I didn't want to be wasteful, so I put them to good use. From my experience with the 'How Do You Know' color way, I knew that these 2 dyes would be more emerald green than robin's egg blue. It also helped that I was listening to Wicked while I was dying the yarn. So I mixed up a 3rd shade of the green color to give it some nice range and voila!
It is inspired by one of my childhood favorites, The Wizard of Oz, and probably one of the most fantastic musicals I've ever seen, Wicked, "The Emerald City" is a wonderful variegated green yarn with some white. Why the white? Because it's all fake. Everything is shades of white and your emerald color glasses make it appear green. (Yes, I also pulled in from the original book).
I'm not sure where to categorize it. It's more inspired by the book/ Wicked, so I may just create a whole new section for Theatre Inspired or book inspired or there just may be a catch all/other section, which will make more sense when I explain the next color way.
This will also be a recreate-able color way. So if people seem to like it, I'll make more of it.

3) Unnamed steam pot pink dye/ooak purple skein : Okay, so here's the story behind this one. When I was steaming the Narissa yarn last weekend, a bunch of color leaked out into the steam pot's water (meaning I had WAY too much dye in the first place). I figured it would just be some nasty purply/brown color so I started to pour it out, but instead it was this really nice berry color. There was a lot of it and it seem that it was pretty well balanced in the dye:water ratio, so I put it in a large container and set it aside to experiment with later. Last night, I figured, what the hell, I have 1 more yarn, I can do 2 to a steaming session, why not make 2 different colors instead of 2 Emerald City skeins and see what comes of it. After all, if it didn't stick or came out really light I could always over dye it. Wanting to add a second color into the mix, I added some water to the VERY dark purple I had mixed for Narissa (I couldn't remember the ratio of red:blue that had made that color anyway) and decided I would do a couple of limited edition, truly one of a kind skeins from those 2 colors.
It turned out REALLY variegated for both colors and really pretty looking. I don't know if I'll be able to recreate the results on another skein because it is so variegated, but it looks really sweet. I'll probably use it to do a bulky tonight or tomorrow and if I have any dye left, I'll use it on my next shipment of yarn. I can't wait to put this one up, it'll definitely be the last one posted, because I'm still working on a name. I'm thinking Disney Princess... but that's not quite the right name. It reminds me of some movie or TV character, but I just can't place it. I was also thinking I'd just have a Wicked line and name it Glinda. Meh, it'll come to me.
I'll post some pictures later for anyone who actually reads this to give me ideas.

Now, to end this VERY long post, here's what I am planning for the remaining 4 Bulky yarns:
Under the Sea (with acid dye this time)
Whatever I name #3
International Superyarn
and 1 undecided color way.

I'm trying to decide if I want to shell out more money for more yarn before I even make my first sale. I have plenty of dye and supplies, so I might as well. More to come on what to expect as far as lines of yarn.

Plans, plans, plans

Well, I was going to dye some new color ways on the Aran wool today, but then I got a call early this morning to babysit my cousin. I may still get around to it tonight. I only ordered a 5 skeins of each of my new yarns to try out, so I'm torn between making 2 of this next color, or making 2 different colors. Of course, that also all depends on whether or not I get my order of dye in today...

It was pointed out to me today on the Etsy forums that I should offer 2 of each yarn if possible for people with bigger projects. I've been on a One-Skein-Wonder kick since I picked knitting back up again a few months ago, so the whole "I need multiple skeins" thing has been off my radar I guess. Also, I was having fun coming up with a bunch of different color ways. If I had realized that Paradise Fibers Double Knitting was actually fingering weight, I would've done 2 of a couple of my color ways under the same dye lot. This is especially true with Giselle, which seems to become more green in color after sitting for a week. So when I re-do Giselle, granted I have to be able to re-create the color as well, I will be making that one on multiple skeins.

Also, I am 85% sure that I will not be re-ordering the Paradise Fibers DK (AKA Less than DK). It was nice and cheap and I didn't mind the whole fact that it came in balls instead of skeins, but 220 yds is not enough for a fingering weight yarn. I have my own ball of Less than DK American Idiocy that I'm going try to make flip mittens with in hopes that 220 yds is enough. So I'm on the look out for a good, rather inexpensive Fingering or sock base yarn.

Along with finding a new sock yarn, I'm looking into finding a non-wool yarn for those people who like my colors, but can't wear wool. I'd like something I can dye with acid dye to save money, I'm thinking silk.

Feel free to comment on any of this. I'm always looking for feedback!

New Yarn!

Today, I add to the Propschicknits' family 2 new lines of base yarn from Wool2Dye4! The first one is an amazingly soft and squishy bulky yarn made with 100% Falkland Merino Wool from South America. The second is a very soft BFL Aran Yarn. I'm waiting on my restock of acid dyes to come in from Dharma Trading, so I began each line using colorways I had done for my "Less than DK" line.

The inaugural skein for Falkland Bulky is American Idiocy from the Green Day line. Seems that this yarn takes the dye darker than the "Less than DK" Yarn. I didn't get as much grey out of this and the red came out darker. Still, I like the way it came out and I hope you will too!

The inaugural skein for BFL Aran is How Do You Know from the Enchanted line. It turns out that Giselle may have been the fluke, not How Do You Know. I'll make another attempt at Giselle Blue, but I'm starting to think I just got really lucky that day...

Anyway, I still love How Do You Know. I think it's a fun peppy yarn. This does not have yellow in it like it's "Less than DK" counterpart, but the lack of yellow doesn't take away from it's beauty.

Quick note- The "Less than DK" yarn is the Paradise Fibers (Europa) Double Knitting base yarn. "Less than DK" is how it is listed on Raverly.

Ideas for upcoming colorways:

Wall-E (Colors of Wall-E himself)

International Superyarn! (based on the cover of Green Day's International Superhits!)

Big Bang Theory: Leonard and Howard (color combos based on some of their costumes)

BFL Aran Christian's Inferno

BFL Aran Giselle (If I can repeat my luck with the color)

Under The Sea using Acid Dye

If there is anything you would like to see or a suggestion of what base these colorways should be on, let me know!

Starting up again

So, I decided not to keep up on this whole blogging thing after my first post because I discovered Ravelry and that fulfilled my need to 'scrapbook' my projects and more. (Seriously, if you are a knitter and you aren't of Ravelry you need to be.) Anyway, I finished my christmas knitting...well, for the most part, I still have my dad's scarf to finish. I was burnt out on knitting and needed something new to fill my jobless life that may actually make me money until my gig in May. So I decided to start dying yarn.

I had been looking for something in the color scheme of Green Day's American Idiot. So I began with an American Idiocy yarn for myself and one for my shop. Then I started just pulling colors from all the movies I had been watching during my Christmas knitfest.

I'm pretty happy with the colors so far. I was disappointed at first that the yarn I ordered was apparently fingering and not DK, like it was advertised, but it's still nice yarn to start on and a good discount for only having to skein every ball first. And really, I was only disappointed because I wanted something a little thicker for the project I had in mind for my American Idiocy yarn.

So, in short, I'm restarting for my customers to give longer stories behind my yarns and an idea of what I have planned. Most of all to get feedback on ideas I may not be sure about.

I'm going back to skeining yarn and watching tv. I'll post some of my planned colorways tomorrow and info about my newest base yarns. Keep a look out for 2 new yarns on my shop within the next few hours.