Introducing Madelinetosh Yarns!

Sandrasingh.com is excited and happy to be able to bring you the delectable yarns of Madelinetosh! A fellow Texan, Amy Hendrix the owner of Madelinetosh is renown worldwide for her luxurious fibers and hand painted designer colors. I have the pleasure of introducing two of her yarn lines in many of her new Fall colors, the knitting staple Tosh Sock and her newest yarn, Tosh Merino Light.

Tosh Sock Twig

Tosh Sock is crafted of a luxurious 100% superwash merino wool. With a generous 395 yards per skein one skein is enough to complete a pair of woman's size large socks, but you'll also discover its perfect for lace projects too.

Tosh Sock Posy

Tosh Merino Light Fathom

Soft, single-ply fingering weight Tosh Merino Light is also crafted of 100% superwash merino wool. Each skein is put up with a generous 440 yards. One skein is enough for a pair of socks and two skeins for a full sized lace project, but Madelinetosh's breathe taking color palette will inspire you to knit or crochet pullovers, cardigans, hat & mitten sets and much more.

Tosh Merino Light Antler

Each squishy soft skein of both of these yarns is hand dyed in small dyelots. Madelinetosh achieves her unique and rich colors by applying multiple colors to the fiber in thin glazes, adding true depth and dimension to each skein and making your projects stunning and unique. With so many beautiful colors to choose from you can use this yarn again and again, and each of your projects will be a unique work of art.

Tosh Merino Light Cherry

Meet Amy Hendrix: Madelinetosh began in 2006 with an idea of creating an artists palette of hand knitting yarns, fulfilling a desire for the perfect hue. Enthused with a love of painting and influenced by the rich history of art in textiles, Madelinetosh sought to create a color palette guided by the subtle nuances and layered depth of colors found in the natural world.

Selecting natural fibers that were soft and supple to the touch and enjoyable to handle, they began their dye process by applying multiple colors to the fiber in thin glazes, adding true depth and dimension.

Today Madelinetosh's colorway selections exceed one-hundred and four different shades and hues, a worthy palette for all to enjoy.

Who was Madelinetosh: Lillian Madeleine Atkins was born to a hopeful tenant farmer and a fair-skinned aesthete at a cross-roads town in Virginia named Moonlight in 1900.

At the age of twelve Lillian walked to the county seat, filled out a small form, and forever changed her name from Lillian to Madeleine tosh. when asked why, she offered, her school teachers surname was better suited for her than simple Lillian.

At nineteen, Madeleine Tosh met a tugboat captain working on the Pagan River. She married him to spite her father for an
undelivered gift four months later, bearing nine children Madeline raised six to adult hood.

Madeleine left her husband after the children were grown, moving to a brownstone in Washington DC off 14th Street. For money she worked, packing and unpacking crystal lamps and shades at woodard and Lothrop’s department store in DC.

Madeleine later moved to a prefabricated, quonset hut in claremont purchasing an oak loom, where she wove linen and handspun cotton fabrics for pocket money.

Madeleine was Amy's great-grandmother. Madeleine never traveled outside the Virginia, DC area, she died in 1984.

Ishbel

Scottish designer Ysolda Teague has caused quite a stir with her lacey shawlette design Ishbel. This simple shawl pattern can be worked in two sizes and in a fingering or lace weight yarn. If its been in your knitting queue you're in luck, its now available as a PDF download on my website.

The smaller, fingering weight version makes a cozy but pretty scarf while the larger, lace weight version can be worn as a scarf or draped elegantly around your shoulders. The solid stockinette center lends simplicity to the design and adds extra warmth when knitted in thicker yarn. Ishbel is edged with a vine pattern and finished with elegant scalloped points.

The shawl begins at the center and worked outward. Working increases at both ends of every row, rather than every second, creates a relatively shallow triangle that is the perfect shape to wear as a scarf. Either size can be worked in either yarn weight. The lace pattern is both written and charted.

Depending on the size you create you'll need 330 to 610 yards of yarn. Since gauge is not crucial, though your gauge will affect the finished size, versatile Ishbel knits up beautifully in many different yarns including Malabrigo's Lace or Sock, Pigeonroof Studios' Original or Circ Sock, the Alpaca Yarn Company's Suri Elegance and Schaefer's Anne or Lola, all are On Sale!

Kew Gardens London

Had a great day out and about yesterday. I've met a delightful American woman from Utah who is also here with her husband (who is on business like mine), so we been filling our days with trips around the city.

First we took the tube to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard than we wound up at Kew Gardens. What a beautiful place!

As usual my photos are all jumbled up. So we begin with the end of my day when I met my DH for dinner and a walk up Primrose Hill which is right by our hotel in the Regant's Park area.
DH and I at the top of Primrose Hill.
This is what the view looks like, its actually a very good view, you can see the Eye of London, St Paul's Cathedral, Westminster Abbey among other things.
These lovely tiles are outside a door in Kew Gardens near the train station.
These are the flowers of the Indian Bean Tree, brought to England from India when India was their colony.

Speaking of bringing other species into England, England has recently been invaded by the common gray squirrel. I'm not sure how they got here, but they're killing the native English red squirrel. They're not outright slaughtering them, but the gray squirrel is better equipped to forage thus stealing the lazier red squirrel's food! An English man was just charged $1500 pounds for drowning a gray squirrel that he caught in a trap in his garden. Apparently the little beast was eating the food he set out for the birds and he was fed up!

The Indian Bean Tree flowers and all of the rest of these shots are of the Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew. It was built about 250 years ago by royalty who originally used it as hunting grounds.
This Chinese Pagoda was added in 1761.
I loved the fields of lavender.
This is a holly bush, hopefully the ones I planted along my driveway will eventually grow this big.
I love marigolds, they're some of my favorite flowers.
This lily pond was amazing!
This is a pitcher pant, it traps small incests in these sweet smelling pitchers than eats them!
Gorgeous, maybe some one reading this can tell me what this flower is.

There is also a beautiful Victorian era glass conservatory..."The Temperate House is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world. Covering 4,880 square metres (5,850 square yards) and extending to 19 metres (63 feet) high." Sorry no pic but you can see one by going to the Kew Garden website.

If you're in London for a few days and the weather is nice take the time to visit Kew. Its an easy ride on the Green District line practically to the end, near Heathrow, and than a short walk from there.

Step "Into the Garden" with Jane Thornley

"We all love gardens, those pockets of beauty that light our lives with color and bloom. Despite the grand gardens existing in the world, our favorites are usually our own, no matter how humble."
Celebrate the greeness of summer with Jane Thornley's new book Into the Garden, it features a pattern threesome designed as a homage to your garden – a drapey shrug, fitted top and a loose, flowing, over-top, three little somethings for you to grow from your favorite yarns. Pick up your needles and watch them bloom.
Jane's book is sold as a PDF download that will appear as a Link after purchase. If you pay via paypal make sure to hit the "Return to Merchant" button to generate the Link. If you pay via credit card the Link will appear after payment has been made.

Quick, very quick, Paris Getaway!

This past weekend we had a speedy trip to Paris. And I finally got to see the Louvre and Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa!
This is the Greek Venus De Milo, the Goddess of Love or Aphrodite of Milos.
And here DH and I finally got our turn to pose with the famous Mona Lisa. The crowds were huge and the portrait is really very small, but thrilling to finally see! It is believed she is La Gioconda, the wife of the Italian merchant Francesco del Giocondo.
I'm not sure who this bust is of, but its old.
We had a bite to eat on one of the balcony cafes over looking the courtyard. The Louvre is really old and really big, each of the buildings was originally a palace that the kings had added during their reigns. This is the famous glass pyramid.
We did a sight seeing bus tour of Paris, of course, and saw many of the beautiful works of art the city has to offer. This obelisk was given to one of the French Kings by a real Egyptian Pharoh a long time ago.
And the decadent Moulin Rouge!
Of course the Eiffel Tower or the Tour de Eiffel. We saw it at night when it was all lit up, just beautiful!
And our hotel was on the famous Champ de Elysee where the Arc de Triomphe, built by Napoleon Bonaparte, is. We could see it, along with the Eiffel Tower, from the balcony in our room. It was a fast, but fun trip and we plan to go back when we can stay longer so we can see the Rodin Museum, Fontainebleau and Versailles.

Finally, pictures of all my recent events...
But first here I am in my lovely new scarf! My friend Lucy from Dallas, TX knit this scarf for me out of my Sandrasingh.com Superwash Fingering yarn and I love it! The pattern is the Leaf and Flower Stole by Linda Choo, you can find it along with more of Linda's patterns on Raverly. Every stitch is perfect and I can't thank Lucy enough!
I'll have you know that I have not mastered adding photos to my blog. Try as I will to put them in chronological order, I just can't seem to master the order that I'm supposed to put them in. So these first shots are from the 4th of July party at my cousin's home in Youngstown, Ohio.
That's me in the middle sitting with my cousin's Mary and Caroline and Mary's mom, my aunt Ethel.
It was a great party with lots of relatives and friends. We had our own fireworks, along with the rest of the neighborhood, the moment it got dark.
Youngstown had their fireworks on July 3rd so we raced downtown after the dinner you'll see below to see them!

Here are my DH and I at Youngstown's famous restaurant that used to be a bank, this is the original bank vault.
Here's Cousin Mary is robbing the vault!
Here's Mary's brother Paul trying to master his nephew's Justin's crazy skateboard. Not only does it have four wheels, they all go different directions at the same time and the two foot boards rock. To Paul's credit he finally learned it!
Here are my mom and I visiting my Aunt Metz.
That's Aunt Metz between Mary and Jessica.
Here's Toffee at the 4th of July Parade After Party, she's beloved by all!
Resting after the parade.
Zoe enjoying cotton candy, after the parade.
Our youngest cousins...Justin, the tall one in the American Flag hat got his picture in the local Youngstown paper!
Here's my brother George with my mom and cousin Jessica. My mom got to ride on the fire truck during the parade which made her very happy.
And here's the parade! These photos should have gone prior to the party above, some day I'll master the photo ordering!


The kids decorating our car.
And last but not least we made it to London! Here we are in Regent's Park visiting Queen Mary's Rose Garden. The roses were in full bloom and stunning.
And yes I'm holding a Harrods bag, a very small purchase, a tour book of London but I'll cherish this bag for years to come!
This is the food court in Harrods, just gorgeous!
And finally DH and I in front of the London Bridge.