At Last!

A real lys in St. Joseph! It is owned and operated
by Laura who is basically a dyer. She and her
husband moved here where he took a position as
Dean of Students at MWSU. She sells her yarn,
"Textiles a Mano" at a few stores in Colorado and
one that I know of in St. Louis. She basically
rented some work space for her dying, but since
an office came with it...a small but good yarn
shop! She says she likes to work with her yarn
in large hanks. The lovely shawl on the wall is
made from one skein of her yarn...with enough
left over for a scarf! Three of her skeins make
a sweater. She has a lovely sense of color, and
the yarns are nice and soft..such fun to visit!

While I was there I bought the yarn for myISE4 project. It's called "Shanghai" and is a soft, soft 50/50 blend of silk and wool. The gauge is supposed to be 20 stitches over 4" but I think I will use a larger needle to get a more open pattern. Laura said it accidentally got left in a vat and got overdyed. Now she likes it so much that she hopes she can create the green/turquoise/gold again.

Not much more going on with knitting...painting some shelves (trying to get them done before the rain comes), and working on costumes for our district's Sweet Adelines competition in April. Fringe and glitter and sequins..oh, my!

Surprise!

Look what came in the mail! An absolutely lovely, gorgeous, yummy shawl from my very sweet daughter! The stinker talked about it and showed it on her blog, but said it was for herself, and I never caught on!It's the Estonian Garden Wrap in Alpaca with a Twist Fino in Royal Velvet. All that gorgous lace, generous lenth/width and only one skein! It's luscious and soft and a scrumptious wrap and I absolutely love it! Our Sweet Adelines District Competition is soon, so I know what I will be wearing when we watch the quartets compete. This may call for something new underneath...





You met Ozzie on my last post,
so meet Topaz. She was a tiny stray, covered with ice and mud that I found on the campus during a sleet/snow storm. She's about 15 now and hasn't missed a meal since! Here she is guarding a bonanza of catnip!

Here is a part of my stash (some is still hiding in the closet). The tan on the bottom left is the beginning of a short-sleeved pullover for summer, in Artful Yarn's Candy in Toffee. Soft and stretchy with cotton/acrylic/nylon and 1% elastic. It will be so soft and comfy to wear, but I find I have to be very, very careful when I knit so that I knit loosely enough that I get the right gauge. The elastic is a new experience for me and I find it touchy to work with. I am going to love it and wear it lots but can hardly wait to get it finished!