MMario KAL 4

FINISHED!  DONE! FINI! don't you love those words?  I surely do.  After binding off for three hours last night I slept with it.  Today I washed it and put it over my California King bed... thank you very much, MASSIVE!  I needed an afghan so I had this cashmere fingering I'd dyed and it was perfect.  I used 4 balls and went with the square option of the shawl.  I'm glad I b/o when I did as the size is perfect.  Some photos for your enjoyment.  More information such as needle size and yarn can be found on my Ravelry.com page I'm WendyMcD

POSTED EARLIER_____________________________
So Mario, even though I'm running out of my third ball of yarn,,, and it's taking hours to get round the horn,,, AND I was on a KP cable that popped apart so off went all these live sts grrrrr... AND it's not like I don't have a million other things to do... I was wondering?  What did you want this to do?  When I see that last row on week 5 with it's 6 decreases I have to wonder if you didn't want it to continue?  Perhaps for 2 additional rows?

See how nicely it is lining up?  I love that large hole in the border and keep thinking that it would be fun to have a bit of a ruffle there since I will most likely be using this as an afghan.... lapghan.  What do you think of continuing it at least another 2 rows (and the plain rows between) to spread out those ///\\\ in that last row?  Then putting a seed st on for 2 more rows?  That way I'd be for sure and all that it wont roll?  I like your lace and picot edging but since this is a lapghan I'm wanting to be a bit more practical and subdued there.  I did this in a Yarn Fairy hand dyed cashmere sock which just looks smashing in this application.  I have another ball but I believe that the next one is a bit on the darker side. I can always go with that as it's the border so not a problem with the whole running out of yarn thing.

     Course on the flip side I do have a book I should be getting out but I have been so very ill that it would be impossible to work on which is why I spent the day in bed with my lapghan.  BTW, it's about a yard from center point to corner.  Nice size eh what!  PM me and tell me what you think I should do from here.  THANKS!!

Dye and Tea Party

Today was great fun our friends came over and the girls had a blooming tea and small impromptu party.  Then my lovely friend brought us In N Out burgers YUM!  We are very blessed.

Here I wanted to share the Yarn Fairy and the Pixies recent dyeing adventure.   What will follow are all lace skeins, some are available, Paca is the Baby Alpaca/cashmere/silk yarn, 1312 yards/100gm per skein fine lace weight that every one loves so much.   I have been buying as much as I can afford before the supply has dried up in the US.
      Introducing The Emerald greens (above) from left to right all emeralds to show you how different fibers take dyes, left non superwash on the right is the Paca, they were dyed in the same dye lot.  You can see that the paca takes color even lighter then the merino, although that merino on the left was dyed twice.  It will be interesting to see this technique used on the superwash yarn.

You all know London Calling... this is London Calling Dark.... a touch darker then normal these are the same dye lot and would make a lovely large shawl at 1700+ yards.  All sold out.

 Fun with purple!  GUESS WHAT!!!  Baby Paca LOVES COLOR!  Who knew!  Here we have 3 skeins of paca which dyed lighter then the superwash as you can see below,,, they were all in the same pot though. Only ONE skein left.

 Here we have from left to right Plum, Violet and Dark Violets.  These were all dyed separately, all on superwash base just for fun and for the love of PURPLE!  The center skein was dyed with the Baby Paca above so you can really see the difference in the colors due to the fiber change.  The one on the right was dyed twice. Sold out.

 

More purple love!  On the left are the 3 skeins of Paca which are available BTW.  In the center is the yarn in the photo above.  On the right is a sweaters worth of Potted Violets.  NUM I so want a sweaters worth so I will be placing an order this weekend for the following:

    CASHMERE

          1)  Baby Paca YUP loving the way it's drinking up the dye like there's no tomorrow.  I can't wait to work with purple and brown, red with brown and orange with gold.... Meldy method to see if they want to play as well.

          2) We will also be ordering 4 pounds of fingering cashmere/merino since that's just flying out of here these days.  Lots of folks want sweaters and shawls out of the fingering weight.

          3) For sweaters we are getting a superwash CASHMERE/merino again!!! in Aran weight as worsted gets a bit too hot unless you are in the snowy states.

     Taking orders now for the mid January dye day of cashmere and anything else you might need.  I figure the cashmere might go fast what with a back log of orders for it.  If you would like to see the Baby Paca in another color feel free to ask for it as I can do just about anything,,, just remember it's not superwash and wont get as dark as a superwash but as you can see above it does love some color.  That Emerald skeins sold but I want another for myself, isn't it lovely!  Feel free to ask for anything you need.  PM me at wmdress at SBCGlobal.net and we can chat.

Here's my friend and her youngest.  I made that hat and dyed it twice... the last time it went in with London Calling Dark.  It's cables, you can't really see here.  DD made her baby's hat.  Adorable aren't they!

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! 

Presents

This is my DD's presents well 2 of them.  It was fun constantly trying to keep it away from her... then I take the photo stick it on the desktop, name it and she opened my puter yesterday.  Can you say DUH!  UGH

I'm an idiot.  I have a pair of matching gloves for her really long, cold fingers as well that I'm working on.  I hope to finish up here as well.

Winter Wonderland Stitch Markers

In honor of the fact that we saw snow today... Winter Wonderland Stitch Markers it is!

If you have already placed a yarn order we can add these at no additional shipping cost.  If not the first set is $2.00 to ship and $1.00 for each additional set.  The sets are only $5.00 each.  Aren't they adorable!  I love them.   These are all top quality glass no snag (soldered or key ring loop style jump rings) stitch markers with high quality press to open lobster claws which are very sturdy, high end metal findings.  What you get per set:
      1 lobster claw with large glass character bead
      3 stitch markers with matching smaller glass beads
Choose from:
     Penguins needle size 7 and under
     Snowmen needle size 7 and under
     Blue Snowflake needle size 4 and under perfect for lace
     White Snowflake needle size 7 and under (not complete in this photo, top right.  They look like crystals!)
As you can see there are VERY limited quantities, first paid, first served so order now before they run out as I will not be re-ordering.

How to order:  Go to www.paypal.com click GOODS (very important to get free delivery confirmation) send funds to wmdress@sbcglobal.net if you need help figuring your total please feel free to PM me.  Please put into the comments which set you would like, how many and any yarn order as well.  Yarn Fairy and The Pixies thank you.  :-)

KAL Elizabeth by Stevieland AKA Dee O'Keefe on ILS

KAL along with us... the shawl is the Elizabeth by Stevieland shawl photo and you can KAL with us at ILS come join us!
There are four colors for this KAL:

Grape Ape - purple/red and black

 Ship Wreck - royal/sapphire and black

Sea Weed - subdued emerald and black

Those of you who know the Yarn Fairy and the Pixies will note that this is very similar to Meldy Deep, the only difference, color - they all read solid as I'm sure you can imagine. 


The KAL base is 877 yards/per 100 gm of a superwash, super soft merino 2 ply lace weight.  We will only be dyeing once for this KAL so you need to get your orders in by no later then 12-16, we will dye the following week and ship between the Holidays at the latest but we should be able to ship the same week as we dye barring complications.  

To order the price is $43 each due to all the extra handling, yes you can order more then one.  If you are State side shipping is included in that price (per skein).  

Black Cherry -subdued red/black

BTW, some peeps have wanted to go with fingering weight for a larger shawl no problem! I have regular, cashmere, & silver PM me for a price sheet.  You will need 2 skeins.  I am on chart 5 using size 4 needles and only WISH I'd have thought of that! :-)


Sorry about the photo of Black Cherry as it's not on my pretty hard woods.  This photo is very close to the original though, see all the pretty Meldy Deep in there? LOVE IT!

HOW TO ORDER

I take www.paypal.com click GOODS so I can make you a shipping label and delivery confirmation.  Put into the comments which color you'd like and any stitch markers, if so which type.  Send funds to wmdress@sbcglobal.net and I will be dyeing next week.  Yarn Fairie and The Pixies thank you.

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Just a quick hello from the Nut Ward!!  Here are a few more squares for my 8 x 8 square afghan.  That brown one is sooo soft, it was supposed to be books, can you see them?  Really old ones with gilt edging.

    Even feeling ill from my ailments, having a cold and crunch down to deadline on my book... I keep jumping up to dye more yarn every few days here and there.  Terrible right?! I know!

 This is London Calling, I dyed it on the wrong base, my error, your gain.  It's 435 yards per 100 gram skein and it's a superwash merino 80/20 with nylon, fingering weight, total of 1300 yards enough for a sweater? or shawl?  I love it but then I can't hang onto everything no matter how much I'd like to.  I can let the set go for $60 and shipping of $5 State side, yes I will ship International check with me on the price.  First person to e-mail me gets it. wmdress@sbcglobal.net  YARN SPOKEN FOR

We can dye more if you like. ;-)   E-mail me for a price list of my base yarns, I just took 4 cashmere fingering out of the pot.

 NUMMY on cashmere fingering. 

Knitting Fiend

This past weekend I was a knitting fiend.  The children said that they'd like to come up early this year and it threw me into whirling dervish mode.  This is the results of side whirlwind.
      Three hats, yes they are upside down... sort of the way I roll these days.  The photo was taken on my laptop so you can see their size.  They small, medium and large.

      And a pair of the smallest socks I have ever made!  Too cute!  I just made standard toe uppers on 34 sts with a K2P2 rib to hopefully keep them on those increasingly kicking legs.

Finished up the writing for the two pattern going into the new book What Else Would Madame DeFarge Knit.  I have a lovely lace beaded hankie and a pair of long lace gloves with LOTS of extras.
     This is a sweater I'm doing for a challenge.  I dyed up this yarn and just love it.  It's further along now but I only work on it here a bit and there a bit so it's going slowly.

      Also started a knitghan... it's just 8 x 8 squares... so far they are all solid but I am going to make a brown one with books on it next up.

     Looks as though there will be some Meldy Deep coming soon... look forward to seeing that in green, red-purple and blue all into black.  LOVELY I can't wait to share them with you all.

And because I seem to end on a pet... here's my Boo... pretending to be ET again.  Isn't he adorastinkingble!!!