Dye Day What Fun

We survived! Tick-Tick, my eldest granddaughter of 13 yrs (who insessantly drives me insane with the constant tick-tick of the keyboard as she chats constantly on messenger with her friends) , is slightly green and blue in several spots, and I even have a tinge of off colour on my hands too, but we had a blast!

I found all the natural handspun I had hanging around the house including the first practicing at beaded yarn and a skein of somewhat dark grey Icelandic Wool yarn I had spun.

Tick-Tick had her skein of 'First Handspun' to dye as well. I also decided to throw in some natural off white rovings as I had 4 kg of it before I starting spinning, aka playing with it and my wheel.

We went to Michael's Craft Store on Thursday night and Tick-Tick picked out 5 colours of Wilton Food Colour to use in our dying. We had Sky Blue, Juniper Green, Teal, Orange, and Buttercup Yellow. I am so glad the the local grocer's was sold out of McCormick's Neon Food Colouring! (Neon yarn is not my cup of tea)

We re-skeined the yarn that needed reskeining, put it all in a vinegar bath. I cleaned up the kitchen a bit and got the dye ready in it's squeezee bottles.

Then we went at it. We hand painted the off white skeins, including the beaded one, and two batches of wool rovings, wrapped them in Saran Wrap and steamed them on the stove to set the colour. 

I put one batch of wool rovings in the crock pot and when it was all hot and steamy I added three colours of dye to the crock pot and let it cook for a couple of hours.

The dark grey skein was an experiment to see if it would over-dye. I tried handpainting it and though you could see there was other colour added to it, it still looked grey. We left it till last and decided to try a dye bath for it with a microwave chaser. We chose teal as the dye colour. I make a strong teal bath, put in the grey yarn to soak, then nuked it for two minutes at a time until it had exhausted noticably some of the dye. At that point the dye water was much lighter teal than when we started. I took it out of the microwave to cool and as it cooled, it took up even more dye. After much cooling when it was good and warm instead of still hot I noticed the water was almost clear with very little dye colour left in the water! I was amazed! My grey yarn was now a deep greenish teal and I am extremely pleased with the colour. Truly amazing I say! I am so glad I tried this, and as I have more of the grey Icelandic wool to spin I can guarantee that I will be making more of this colour.

More to come after it dries but the bottom line is, we had a ball with it all, lots got dyed, none got felted and we are very happy with the results of our labours. Next time, it will be McCormick' NEON! (please help me!!!)

And now it be Silk

Specifically, hand dyed Tussah Silk by Libertina Yarns bought at All Strung Out in Guelph On. After spinning two braids of singles I am now wondering if I will ever spin anything but silk again. Oh it is so lovely and soft and cushy and heavenly and beautiful, oh excuse me, am I gushing? I plan to ply it for a resulting DK weight 2 ply. The braids have spun nicely, giving me generous yardage. I will measure the metres after I ply though.

 

 I am hoping to pop over to the store tonight and show the resident dye master the singles with my comments and hopes that more can be dyed to match what I already have. If I get enough yardage, I am going to make a light spring/summer camisole or tank top for me! 

Are the Knitting Fates Pulling my Leg?

I am happy again. Enjoying my knitting. LOVING my knitting. Flying through the cutest little tiny girly baby vest in the world. The MOJO has come back, I am sure of it. the 2 skeins of Filatura Di Crosa Maxime Print Soft Socks, colourway 5072 has me thoroughly enchanted and inspired again.It has grey in it. It will be for my Husby's replacement grey socks. ( to replace the socks I made for him that I gave away to his cousin on finishing them last summer)

I am truly inspired to knit my current projects and am excited to start a pair of socks again. 

Had I written this post yesterday, that is what it would have said.

Today, the knitting fates are kicking my arse. They have been playing me for a fool. They bumped me up a few notches just to drop me down and crush me yet again. Ok, yes I agree, that is what they do best. I admit it. I totally and absolutely bow in their presence and acquiescent in the  magnitude of their power.

What's up you ask? Well it's that cute little baby vest. I started the front last night, knit the ribbing, and worked up to the armholes this morning. Totally forgot, in my excitement over the beautiful work I was managing to get done, that I didn't change needles after the ribbing. And YES I needed to. Rib is on a 3.25mm, body of vest is on a 4.0mm. Major gauge difference between front and back that resulted in a complete frogging back to the ribbing.  

The Knitting Fates are still batting 1000.

My arse has been well kicked.

P.S. I think I will go cast on those socks. Lets see how badly I can screw them up! 

Good, Good Blogger (for a change)

I am patting myself on the back because in a timely fashion, for a change, I have some pics to post. Not too much to say though, I am tired. Knitting all day at Knit and Chat can do that.

        I have finished the sample Baby Sweater and matching Socks for my LYS, Shall We Knit  It is a nice lace pattern with short sleeves knit using Shepherd Baby Velvet DK. Matching socks make a nice touch. 

The spinning is coming along very well. I have spun a nice cushy soft skein of what I am now calling my Vampire Yarn. I got three batts of yummy hand dyed, fibre from All Strung Out My other LYS.

The colourway is called Real Vampires Don't Sparkle by Libertina Yarns. It is 65% wool/ 35% silk/ and a little bit of vampire sparkle. Very awesome! I loved it the second I saw it.

                                      

                      

Nice huh?

    

lost the interesting?

Oh knitting mojo,
Oh where did you go?
I thought you were back on the weekend.

You played me, and teased me, and led me along,
and what did I find?
that you were still gone!
:(

I even WANT to knit, and I am not making mistakes, I just can't get the interest going! What's with this? There are so many wonderful things on my to knit list that I can't wait to start, oh, and finish the ones already started. The baby sweater is finished. Yes pics to come. And the baby socks are started. Sock one is at the toe. I keep picking it up and feeling how soft it is, admiring how darn cute it is, ooooo'ing and ahhhh'ing in wonder at it's tiny size... but then I just put it back in it's baggie and NOT knit on it. It's so not me! Geesh!

I have however got the spins. I took pics last week of the 'Real Vampires Don't Sparkle' colourway of the hand dyed hand carded batts made at All Strung Out . I have not however uploaded them from my card to my puter. I have finished spinning all 3 batts into yarn. I used a thin singles and a thick/thin singles (that was supposed to be a thick singles, but hey as a still somewhat beginner, I am still winging it aren't I). I went with my knitting buddy to the All Strung Out Sunday afternoon spin in and worked on the plying. I plied the two singles together haphazardly without a care in the world. I wanted it to look the way I wanted it to look and went for it totally and relentlessly ignoring (on purpose) the fact that I was supposed to check for a balanced yarn. Ya man! It looked good, it plied good, and it felt good. Instincts prevailed and when all was said and done, and the yarn was skeined up, THE YARN WAS TOTALLY BALANCED! I am now the owner of 150 m of luscious, soft, cushy, wonderful chunky Vampire Sparkle Yarn. and did I say I totally LOVE the results?

Having finished my Vampire Sparkle Yarn, and planning to spin more of the Blue Fusion to make matching mitts to go with my Moebius (which is now finished and I love) I went over to the fibre shelves of the store and gave in to my cravings for hand dyed silk. So beautiful, so wonderfully soft and silky, 100% hand dyed silk rovings started turning into gorgeous silky singles on my bobbin before long.
Oh and by the way, don't forget to charge me for the silk on my wheel!

Simply a Rant

baby sweater (as pictured in previous post). both fronts done up to almost the armholes, you know all the lace part (go figure right?) mistaken in the patt and frogged halfway back to the start. I am now doing much needed and very overdue housework. Does that mean something?

OK! I'm UP!

and would be knitting but for a few minutes here to blog. Need coffee still, the writing might be bad! LOL

Linen Stitch Socks for husby are finished. And for your viewing

pleasure, I even braved the weather, ran outside in my pj's and bare feet and took a nature shot of them in the wild.

Work Socks #1 for The Boy are also finished. Work Socks #2 are cast with 4 or 6 rows done but will be frogged (today) and re-cast on with 48 sts instead of 44 sts. We thought they might be a little loose in the leg before they were finished. They were cast on with 50 sts so to tighten the leg a bit I cast on 44 sts on Socks #2. Now that Socks #1 are finished and tried on and even already worn once, they fit well. The leg is not too loose and it turns out that 44 is a rude number and just has to go.

Baby Sweater #1 is half way done. See (I am working on stuff besides socks!) The back is done and the fronts will be cast on as soon as I can get to them.

(It's lime green, colour in the pic is bad)

Moebius is into it's second lace panel, though I haven't been working on it as much as I was hoping too. You know how it goes when work and life just get in the way.

Oh and I have some errands to do today. It snowed (like crazy again) again and made winter miserable, messy, and hard to drive in. So I might end up not getting any knitting done today? Ahhh.... such is life.

Maybe since I might not end up with time to knit, my errands might just manage to take me to a yarn store or two today? Oh imagine how BAD that would be! NOT!

Pics are here too! (YAY for me huh?)

Non Sockdon Ended

If it's possible to get sock burnout, no I don't mean by blowing a big hole in the toe of it, sock burnout, I had it now it's gone. YAY to me? well pair one of socks for 2009 is done, and pair 2 is almost done. I am tired of socks again though and want to knit things. Not socks, but things. That wonderful moebius that is whispering to me from my canvas bag, just a bit more than half done and will be needing another ball of yarn spun before it's completed. That barely more than a start,and because of gauge woes second time around, sweater for me, you know, the one that has obsessed me since my copy of Interweave Knit's Winter 2008 has come into my itchy little knit friendly fingers. It's calling, and calling, and calling for more attention than I have time for. Poor old KW Guild Mystery Shawl, that lays depressed because of neglected since sometime in December when it was so on top of the world. Then it was 'THE project of the day'. Beautiful, beautiful Granddaughter Sweater, is thinking that it's not going to be worn by the girl that will be much to big for it before it's finished. And oh, the two new projects, one 'just' started and the other, only a strand peeking over the edge of it's bag of keeping. Baby sweaters, both of them, waiting for their birth.
What will I do tomorrow morning when I get up? Finish second sock of the pair that almost are, then cast on a new pair of socks.
I am going to bed now, it's late and I can't fight the urge to stay up and knit any more.
Good Night.

In Case You Were Wondering,

Yes Husby and I went to the show last night. After a wonderful day of knitting with friends and drinking Skinny Vanilla Lattes, I headed home, did my dishes as I said I would, and started supper. The Asian Chicken and Rice Bake was delicious. We will definately make that one again.


Wonderful Husby brought me the EcoWool colour 8095 from Shall We Knit that I wanted for my Blooming Cardigan from Interweave Knits Winter 2008 Yes I am totally obsessed with this design and I HAVE to make it.








Anyways. as a thank you treat for being a non complaining stash enhancer on my behalf, yet again, I decided to treat him to go and see the movie he has been wanting to go to. Gran Torino with Clint Eastwool.

Of course as the fates that control the midnight shift would have it, my sleep deprived body was slow in getting ready to go to the show and we were late for the early show!

The theatre was packed and we would have missed half the movie by the time we got our tickets waiting in the long slow moving 80% teenage strewn lineups at the ticket wicket and concession stand. Next show, 9:50 pm! We were at the mall with time (3 flippin' hours of time) to kill so we did what the teens do and hung out. Window shopped the mall 3 times over, tried on a ton of clothes, mostly jeans as Husby and I both need new ones badly, and sat and drank our Tim's (coffee) in front of the skating rink that was sporting kids hockey league games one after the other all evening long.

Yes it was nice. Yes it was a date. And yes it was fun. When it was time, we bought our popcorn and drinks and headed into the theater. Me, having not slept for over 24 hours now, gave Husby strick instructions to, in the case of emergency, wake me up before leaving the theatre after the movie was over. LOL. I didn't fall asleep. I enjoyed the movie. Husby enjoyed the movie. We ate popcorn, drank pop and laughed at all the funny parts. In short the movie was awesome. In my opinion, and that of Husby's a very good movie and highly recommened.
Go See It.


now... I have laundry to do, Husby went to the Toronto Boat Show with our grandon, lovingly nicknamed Bug and I have the day to myself.

Moebius Woebius?

We had Techniques Night at KW Knitter's Guild meeting this past Tuesday night. I was hoping to get in on Debbie New's Freeform Knitting Workshop, and Karen's (Shall We Knit) Moebius workshop. As it was announced to make your way to your chosen workshop in a few minutes, everyone rushed to the places they wanted to go to right away. Needless to say, Moebius was packed, and Freeform was even more packed.

My Knitting Buddy made her way up to Moebius but came back to where we were sitting saying she didn't have the right needle and it's packed. So we sat with Another Knitting Buddy (of the 'don't give her chocolate' fame) and chatted, and knit, and knit, and chatted. At the 20 minute mark, Knitting Buddy and I made our way to Moebius and got in on the second session.

The technique is very cool! I didn't start mine right then because the circular needle I had with me was too short to knit with but I did learned the cast on with it.

When I got home, in my rush to get to work, I took a few minutes to sneak my knitting needle box out of the bedroom without waking my Husby, and grabbed my longest circ, a 120cm long 3.5 mm Addi Lace.

The yarn I decided on is Wellington Fibres Mohair/Wool blend rovings in Blue Fusion colourway (blue/green blend) spun in my attempt to purposely make a chunky singles. Well, now that I have been spinning for a little while, my usual yarn is two plied to a fingering to dk weight yarn and I 'can't' do thick anymore! I had to work hard concentrating on NOT drafting more than just a little, and NOT putting a decent amount of twist into it. I took my time, predrafted to the size of fibre I wanted and put in just enough twist to hold it together. (at least I tried to LOL).
I am very happy with the results even though the finished yarn wasn't quite what I was going for.
I ended up with a dk to worsted weight singles, lightly twisted. IMO it is going to be a very nice Lacy Moebius. I cast on again during my break at work that same night and did my first round. I added a few more rounds last night including my first repeat of the 2 row lace pattern repeat.

I plan to wear it as a cowl not a wrap, and it's not very far yet but here's the pic.





The pattern is White Lacy Shoulder Wrap from A Treasury of Magical Knitting by Cat Bordhi.

So in answer to the question Moebius Woebius? NOT! In fact it's Moebius Glow-bius cause the pattern/yarn combo is just too yummy!

Obsessed I Am yet again

Ok so I got the new Interweave Knits Magazine Winter 2008 Issue, oh, a number of weeks ago now, and ya know, like most knitters I know, I don't like bobbles. But, I am totally obsessed with the Blooming Cardigan! bobbles and all! I just can't figure it out, but I HAVE TO make this cardigan for myself. (I think I am more obsessed by this cardigan than I am by the fact that I just HAVE TO get me the Shawn the Sheep game for DS) Well I had decided weeks ago I was going to cast this on over my two week Christmas holiday from work. I trashed my stash looking for yarn that would work, after all, it's Christmastime and the last thing that would be good for my bank book would be to purchase a sweater's worth of wool. Right? (sigh) I came up with nothing in my stash and that I had enough of that would match or be close to the guage in the pattern. My purple Shelridge Farms DK is too thin, and the beautiful Manos (colour # 42 Marl) that would work beautifully for colour and guage was bought over a year ago and is two skeins short of the right amount. Go Figure huh? Hence my dilema creating an even more growing obsession with this bobbled Cardigan.

When I was at Shall We Knit last week I got looking at yarns in the appropriate weight. I think that Cascade Eco Wool will work guagewise. Colour choice of the instore stock is somewhat limited though. The only in stock colour I can choose that will work for me is black. Ok so a textured stitched, somewhat aran style with bobbles, kind of cardigan will not look good in black. It's a waste of time. The beautiful stitch details will be lost in the blackness of it all. Won't it? hmmm... what do you think? (sigh, sigh, sigh) Ok so now I also NEED to HAVE a black cardigan.

(Happy side of the whole thing, more Cascade Eco Wool is coming in soon and I am pretty sure my colour of choice can be ordered if need be) (happy sigh)



P.S. I will placate myself by spending tomorrow knitting all day while I wait for the Mr. Fixit Dude of the washing machine variety to show up with the parts to fix my ailing fairly new Maytag! (Thank Goodness for extended warranties LOL)



P.S.S. I will placate my Blooming Cardigan and Black Cardigan obsessions (somewhat) by casting on the Climbing Vines Pullover (scroll down to find the pic) with the purple Shelridge Farms DK.

New Year To Try Again

So it's now 2009. January 4, 2009 to be exact and my first post of the year. Ok so it only took me four days to do this. Am I getting better at posting? I think maybe so? As I felt so compelled to post a post somewhat timely for and in the new year that I am actually doing it! Ok New Year to try again and be a good blogger again. My 2009 mantra is: If I post often, I won't have to write a novel every time I post. Think it will work? got my fingers crossed but I'm not gonna hold my breath. Ok now on to the post.
Tons of things have been happening since last I posted. Hopefully over time I can catch at least some of them up. But for now, today's doin's.
I finally made it to All Strung Out. A very nice store with some wonderful yarn and fibre. Ashley, the store owner is very nice and extremely helpful. My score for today, Briggs and Little Tuffy yarn for socks. This is a strong worsted weight wool/nylon combination that is a workhorse of a yarn for socks. My 'I'll never be caught dead in handmade socks' son, asked, of his own free will, shortly before Christmas for handknit work socks. His new job is working on cars and the big bay doors are open most of the time, freezing his feet. I took the trip up to Spinrite in Listowel for Tuffy and got two skeins of the only colours they stock. Light grey and darker grey. Those colours are fine for him but the hour long drive for only two boring colours (imo) will not be something I want to do alot. I was so thrilled to see Tuffy in All Strung out today that I bought a bit of a stash in generic colours for more socks. And best of all, it so close I can go there anytime I want. I feel so blessed. Now I have two wonderful favourite LYS's that I can stash enhance from any time I want. Shall We Knit and All Strung Out.

Spin-spired Again

It was the KWKnitter's Guild Knitting Fair this passed weekend and I volunteered for security duty so as to NOT (hopefully) be used by the yarn and fibre and provoked into yet again breaking the bank of Lyz!
It was a wonderful day. I worked too much (planned it that way and it was such fun) and therefore missed a lot of the 'good' stuff. But no need to despair, I got a few really yummy things and I am all in all very pleased with the day. Simply put the day was awesome fun for all. I had very little shopping time but since I had nothing on my 'I have to get it' list, that was okay. I went with the attitude that I would listen for what called to me and pick out a few special 'just for me' treats.
I treated myself with:

• An afghan pattern from Sandy's Needle Nook called Hexagon Afghan (Pattern #NN177)
• A cardigan pattern by Ilga Lega called Shorelines
• 100g of chocolate brown Alpaca fibre from Alpaca Acres, it's soft as butter and now half spun up into a lace weight singles I think for a nice light lacy scarf for me
• A litre sized mason jar filled with all sorts of fibre goodness by The Roving Spinners. It contains silk, wool, alpaca, firestar, and mohair for a total of 100g in the colourway Boysenberry which is mostly purples with a bit of grey and pink added in for fun. They call it a Gourmet Carding Recipe but it reminds me of the Surprise bags that I used to get at a birthday party when I was little. All sorts of good stuff stuffed and packed into it. Inside the jar there are all the makings for a luscious batt just not made into a batt. That's where the fun comes in. You can make your own custom 'designer' fibre batt or just spin it up as is. That is what my choice is. That is once it's finished being a gorgeous centerpiece on my coffee table LOL.

The highlight of my day though was trying out a couple wheels at Gemini Fibres. Though it won't happen for quite a while yet, I have already decided that I am ready for my next wheel and that I am outgrowing my first wheel. I love it to bits but it's just not always thinking along the same lines that I am. It seems to like thicker yarns better and I have figured out that it is going to be an awesome plying wheel, when I have another wheel with a little lighter touch and a little more speed to spin the thinner singles I love to spin. I tried out two Kromski wheels and they were both just lovely to work with. I liked the Minstrel a little more than the Sonata though. Even though I haven't touched my wheel in over three months and still consider myself a beginner spinner, just learning a bit more than a year ago, I sat and spun like I had done it every day. I plan at some time in the future to try to get up to Gemini Fibres and try out some of the other wheels. It doesn't hurt to be prepared LOL.

The only slight regrets (which I am not crying over at all cause there is always next year) is that I didn't realize that I was one skein short of the Jitterbug (Colourway 142 Sea Breeze) I was going to use for the Guild Mystery Shawl Kal. Had I known, I could have got some yummy fingering weight just for the shawl.

My other slight regret was that I had that awesome Heere Be Dragons Shawl pattern IN MY HANDS damnitall, and I forgot to go back and buy it!!!

So if I can't locate another skein to match my Jitterbug soon, I have decided to spin something up for the Kal and as for the pattern, there's always next year!

And, oh ya, as usual, pics to follow soon (hopefully)

Now I've Done It

See how long it lasted? I missed a bunch of time with my posts again. Sorry I tried. Oh well I am here now, right? Well at least I have been productive with my knitting time since I haven't been on the computer hardly at all lately. I have my New Year's Socks almost finished. I am working down the foot of sock #2 now and I WILL have them finished this weekend. Good thing happening here right?
I will post a pic when they are done so therefore another post in a day or two.

SSS Cast On

I went to Shall We Knit with Mom yesterday and got the rest of my Malabrigo for my Spring Shawl Surprise project and cast on last night. I have made a few stupid goofups already but I frogged back to the edging and redid the rows. I felt better after my little warm up of the pattern as I am preferring to call it now, and I have it going slow but sure. I am not saying that it's going to be easy sailing, that I know is such a total untruth as I have already managed an extra yo in the row I am working now and HAVE TO REMEMBER to drop it when I go back on the next row. I have worked a few rows on my Chevron Lace Socks from Get Started Knitting Socks book and I am decreasing at the gusset of sock 1 of my New Years Socks from Sockamania. Pictures to follow when I get enough on my needles to have it actually look like something.

Baby Surprise Sweater and Matching Hat

2008_0104 Baby Surprise Sweater and Matching Hat
Originally uploaded by Lyzert

I have finished the Baby Surprise Jacket with matching hat that I started in mid December. It was a gift for my daughter's friend that had her first baby shortly after Christmas. The matching garter stitch has was of my own design and matches wonderfully.

Swatch number 1

Of the Spring Shawl Surprise project as well as the yarn I am using.



the yarn is Malibrago in colourway Jewel Blue

and this is the swatch.

Swatch number two is blocked and drying. I will get pics up of it (hopefully tomorrow)

Swatching Blocking

Ok I finished up Swatch 2 a little late, this morning not last night, but that's ok. I am a little disappointed though. The decision to move down one needle size was not a good one. Now it's a little too small. I don't like the look of the excess stretching when I was blocking it to gauge size. I will go back to the 2.5 mm needle when I cast on the 'real' shawl. Later though, or maybe tomorrow. Now I am scared to actually start it for real! LOL. I think I will go work on socks now. bye....

Nope I didn't do it

yet.... The pictures I mean. I have my camera sitting here daring me to hook it up to the puter but I just don't want to spend the time right now with it. I will do it this week, I promise. We have had our 9 yrs grandson here for a week and no, it's not that he's a handful, it actually the opposite. He's bored and we have been wracking our brains (or what's left of our brains) trying to keep him busy. We baked Grampy a belated birthday cake today! YAY! Bug's first time making cake! yes Granny MADE him make it! and I was appalled that he didn't know how already! Well we fixed that! and the cake was delicious too! He did a great job on the cake.

I have been swatching for the Spring Shawl Surprise project and I have swatch 1 blocked and drying. Pics to follow even though I made mistakes in it that i didn't fix. I decided that it wasn't that important to start over yet once again because the size of the finished swatch would not be affected by the mistakes in pattern in the one area that I goofed up. The second swatch is on my needles and about 3/4 done. No mistakes in this one... yet... LOL. It's lace pattern on both sides and a bit harder to work. Excellent practice for me though and I decided to switch needles to one smaller size after blocking swatch 1. I am off now to that and not play with uploads of pics. I would like so much to get swatch 2 finished tonight.

BTW, anyone know how to make lace blocking wires? don't think they are in my budget right now, too close to after Christmas to be able to afford them. :(

Sad but yet so Happy too

I am sad, yes I am. Why am I sad? I broke one of my new knitpicks wooden circular needles yesterday. First time used, cast on and four rounds into it's very first sock and poof! Gone! Ruined in one quick snap of the wood. and now... I am so sad. But yes it's true I am happy too! I started swatching for the Spring Surprise Shawl project last night. I have been not feeling well and without truck again and not able to even swatch because of lack of lace weight stash. The ONE lace weight yarn I have is two skeins of lucious Sheldridge Farms Lace Weight Merino in off white colour that one day will be my Swan Lake Shawl. I cannot use it for another project or the Swan Lake Shawl will never be, I just know it! So I got on the phone with Karen over at Shall We Knit and asked her guidance of laceweight and colourways and she was sooo wonderful and helpful. We narrowed it down to two possibilites and she put them aside for my Mom to pick up for me. (YAY MOM!) Well Mom came over later in the afternoon bearing wonderful yarny treats for me :) I love them both! Malabrigo laceweight in Jewel Blue and Emerald. EWwww wow! what a choice. I started swatching in Jewel Blue and have picked another project from Arctic Lace for the Emerald colourway. I called Karen this afternoon to let her know that I would need more of both yarns LOL. Happy? YES!!! but still sad too... I will try to get pictures on tomorrow.