Hey Night Owls! Surprise :)

Well, I don't know if anyone is awake - but I am in the process of stocking a Small Tunisian Soaker called "Tinker Bells" that is hot off the hooks. It is purple and green with little blue bell like flowers on the drawstring. Perfect for your little pixie! I will make it immediately active - so first come first serve :)

When it rains it pours!

Well, I tend not to air my dirty laundry in public. But at some point you just think - enough already!! I am sorry if I have not been as available this last month or so as I normally am. On top of creating the new website, completing the pattern, stocking my Hyenacart, doing 2 customs, dyeing a huge wholesale yarn order for Woolgirl (shipped it today so be on the lookout for her stocking!) we have been dealing with one thing after another in our personal lives. I don't like to complain because we are very fortunate and our problems are minor compared to so many others'. But I swear I have had enough! This month my husband went to the ER and missed 2 weeks of work, his Father had a stroke, my best friend's step-father had a heart attack, I'm sick, my son is sick and teething and his two broken front teeth are getting worse, my husband threw out his back, and now this morning my husband lost his job! Its going to get better right!!?? Anyway, end of rant - just had to blow off some steam so I can put up a strong front for the hubby when he gets home from applying for jobs. I am sure something better is just around the corner... right?

Thanks for listening,
~Melissa

Stocking on Monday!

Everything is now previewing!! See you Monday at 2PM ;)

Almost done with previews!

Well its 3:15 in the morning and I am calling it a night! Will try to add the last of the previews tomorrow night. I hope you all like the new spring colorways. I had to leave my comfort zone and try some new things, LOL! I wanted to add some "less busy and complicated" colorways - to quote a gentle critic who shall remain nameless ;) I can't wait to see how they work up - should be really pretty - especially where the colors overlap!

Night/Morning!
~Melissa

St Patty's Day Stocking!

Don't miss our St. Patty's Day stocking March 17th at 2PM. We'll be previewing some new spring colorways on our scrumptious Gaia Organic Merino - mmmmm..... yummy yarn! Since Spring is a season of transition we've created our new colorways focusing on lovely blending transitions of color. We'll also have some sock yarns in some of our classic colorways. The long awaited Tunisian Pattern is now complete! It will be available for sale for the 1st time on St. Patty's Day - there will also be 5 FREE Pattern Lotteries for pattern feedback - one slot available in each size! Join the yahoo group linked on the site in order to receive a coupon for the pattern purchase as well. There will also be an auction for an April custom slot for Tunisian Longies or Shorties. So mark your calendars - March 17th 2PM!!! I am so happy its finally Spring!!!! Yeah!

Everyone's Irish on St. Patty's Day!
~Melissa

New longies are posted on HC

Well, I had to buy a whole new copy of Photoshop because of the crash, but I finally got the photos of the new longies (for the pattern) posted on HC. I am working on the pattern photos - getting them cropped and plugged into the pattern - yeah! Finally!!

OMG! Its alive!! LOL!

Our new website is online now at www.familypendragon.com ! We haven't had our official Grand Opening yet, but it is up and running ;)

The demo longies are now done - pics yet to be posted on HC. The plan is to spend some time this week and on the weekend trying to finish up the pattern :)

My computer is put back together, although I can't find my photoshop installation disk - so photo manipulation is now a much longer process :( But we may just have to spring for another one... yikes!

Coming right along! Thanks for coming along for the ride - woohoo!

~Melissa

A tale of two websites

It has been a very full week! For those that may not have heard, I experienced a complete hard drive failure. I thought I had lost everything!! I was devastated to think I'd lost all my son's photos... not to mention the pattern, the website photos, all my data.... Luckily my wonderful Brother-In-Law, Austin, was able to retrieve all my data with his techy know-how. Now I have to find all my installation disks and reinstall all my programs on the new hard drive. I know its going to be slow and painful.... but at least it can be done!

In the meantime, Vikki and I have been doing several custom orders and working on streamlining production. The new site is about ready to go online and we've had to make some very hard decisions. Some changes were necessary in order to keep turn around times as reasonable as possible, quality high, and colorways as consistent as possible. We have decided that the new site will not carry yarns heavier than DK/ Light Worsted Weight. Heavier yarns take considerably more time and labor to dye. If we offer them on our new Dye-On-Demand site there will be no way for us to give reliable turn-around times. The Cestari's and Organic Gaia Merino will still be available on a limited basis, but ONLY through our Hyenacart in the form of either instock yarn or occasional custom slots. We have also decided to phase out the BFL yarns. There are many reasons for this - supply has been unreliable and slow, the minimum orders are three times as high, the overhead is high, and most especially the fact that the colors take in a much paler and less consistent way than the merinos. So - once our current supply is exhausted we will no longer carry BFL. That still leaves us with plenty to choose from! We feel we've made the best choices for our customers, and we hope you will love the new site :)

More yarn at Woolgirl!

We received another order from www.woolgirl.com today! Another 90 skeins will be headed for her inventory in March, and she will be premiering our new Merino/Nylon fingering weight sock yarn as well as some sport weight Merino. Look for more of our most popular colorways to include Madi Lu, Medee, and Minoan Temple - and a brand new colorway! Impressionists Rainbow is a new colorway - the first designed by Vikki for the Family Pendragon collection. It's gorgeous! Vikki has several others that have yet to be added to our collection - due simply to lack of time, LOL! Be on the look out for some more lovely spring colorways from Vikki in the near future!

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Wow - so much going on!

Well, knock on wood, but I think the new website is going to be ready really soon. We're working on ideas to celebrate our grand opening.... any ideas out there?

The longies that are the subject of the photos for the Tunisian pattern are almost done... which means - yes - the photos are almost done! Then I just need to to get everything edited, cropped and put together so it can get tested.... that is where a few FP fans will come in ;)

Woolgirl has let us know that she NEEDS more Family Pendragon yarn, LOL! So as soon as that new order is in we will be hopping again around here - just dyeing up a storm!

We are also going to be adding a few new yarns to our selection soon. They will probably be premiering at www.woolgirl.com with her next order!

I have some new colorways burning a hole in my head, and I want some new pics of some old colorways for our new website too. So that means we may be dyeing up some yarn for instock on our Hyenacart - more on that when it happens! You'll hear about it here first :)

Thanks again for being such great customers and friends!

~Melissa

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Sunday is the BIG day!

No not football :) YARN of course! www.woolgirl.com is planning to stock our Family Pendragon sock yarn for the very first time - Yippee! Check it out here http://woolgirl.com/cart/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=5_352 in the morning :)

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Its done!

We shipped all this glorious yarn out to www.woolgirl.com today! Now we're working on the order for Twist :)

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Yeah!! Website!!

Its official! We've taken the plunge :)

We have teamed up with Michelle of Elemetal Muse and are currently setting up our Iris Market Builder Account so that very soon.... www.familypendragon.com will be a fully functioning yarn Mecca ;) I can't tell you how excited I am about this! I am pretty clueless about web stuff - but Michelle is being very patient and helpful with me, LOL! The plan is to set up the site to make it easier for wholesale as well as regular customers to shop with us. Price breaks will also be built in for anyone that shops with us and wants to buy in bulk. I plan to set up a calendar system so that our dye schedule is visible - that should help people to get an idea of when their order will be started, based on how far in advance we are "booked". I am hopeful this will help us to keep a good turnaround as well as provide realistic customer expectations - with out having to "close shop" each time we get a large order :) It's a theory anyway! Wish us luck ;)

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Tuesday at 2 PM stocking

I will be loading custom dye slots to go on sale Tuesday at 2PM. There will be six 8 oz skeins available for dyeing in any of the current colorways. I will be offering 2 skeins apiece of DK Kona Superwash Merino, Montana Australian Merino Worsted, and Licorice Twist Merino Worsted. Its your chance to try something new at Family Pendragon!

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It isn't much but...

I am tip toeing our way toward having a website outside of Hyenacart in which to sell yarn... www.familypendragon.com

LOL! Now I just need to figure out who to get to do what and how... :)

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Whew!

So we finished up the order for Wool Girl! Now it is just a matter of waiting for the last few skeins to dry, then reskeining, packaging and shipping them Monday :) I promise to post pictures!!

We are also 1/3 of the way done with the order for Twist! So we'll probably be putting some custom dye slots up on Monday or Tuesday for those that want some yarn dyed. The new price info is up, although not much else is there right now besides sweater stones. I still need to get pics done for the pattern... Hoping you are all working on your Tunisian-in-the-round skills so you'll be ready for it! ;)

I have two long promised customs for friends that I haven't even started yet.... sorry your two - you know who you are :) Please forgive me! One will be a pair of longies for Jessica using the scrap yarn concept inspired by her Hudson Pants from Ky Baby knits - she asked me to use those as the inspiration for her Tunisian longies as well. Thanks to Lindsay for permission to carry on her theme with these unique Tunisian longies. I have done something similar in the past, but this one will be a little different. And Paully, I am sooo sorry I have been pushing these back since what.... October I think?? Once I get these two done - I will be listing one custom slot per month as an auction. I think that is the most I can safely plan on doing with all the yarn dyeing going on. If I get done early some months there may be some surprise stockings as well :) You'll hear about them here first!

I love ya' all! Thanks for reading :)

~Melissa

Dye Heaven!

I just have to say that cranky teething babies notwithstanding - the last two days have been really fun dye days. With Vikki graciously watching Emerson while I work, and occassionally getting to get her gloves wet too, we've managed to knock out 22 beautiful skeins of sock yarn in the last two days! Its sooooo pretty to see all the colorful skeins hanging up drying, LOL! We're painting some, and space dyeing others. Its great to get to do some old colorways I haven't done in a long time. Its also fun to see how differently things take on superwash wool! I will post pictures when its all done so I can share what a pile of 68 skeins of hand dyed sock yarn looks like :) We'll also be doing the order for Twist Yarn shop and a custom dye job for Andrea - since she asked so sweetly ;)

New colorway and "Hiatus"

A gorgeous new colorway has been added called "Euro Bunny" which was designed for Sam of http://www.mybeautifulgirldesigns.com Be on the look out for a very cute collab on her site with it in the future!

In the meantime, some recent events have made it painfully obvious to me that I must make time to revamp both the pricing and the policies on my site. With the exception of Sweaterstones, the site will be bare for a while. If you need something just email and I will see if it can be worked into the mix :)

The big yarn order has arrived! I have officially made Vikki a dyeing member of Family Pendragon - and we will be doing lots of it starting Monday!!

All done!

All custom orders  purchased from the custom slots listed are complete and shipping today!!

One slot left!

I have one custom dye slot left! My monster order is due to arrive by Monday, so lets get to dyeing YOUR yarn now ;) You know you want it... I'm not mentioning any names... you know who you are. LOL!

Anything goes!

4 slots are now available on the site!

Updates

For those of you who are interested in my pattern and Tunisian in the round in general, here is the free tutorial I put together a while back to show you how to use the double ended hook. This should help get you ready to follow the pattern once its finally all done :) http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v646/familypendragon/Tunisian%20In%20the%20Round%20Tutorial/?action=view&current=ea971fe3.pbw

I am partnering up with my best friend Vikki - also a dyer that I taught - to keep my yarn turn around times as quick as possible. So Family Pendragon is getting to be an even bigger family :) Right now her main job is to be my ever-handy assistant and to help with my son, but she can always jump in and dye in a pinch as well!

Stephanie - your Minoan Temple is done and will ship in the morning!

Leanne - your 2 1/2 lbs of BFL is all dyed up in the colorways you requested and ready to mail as well.

I have a 68 skein order from Wool Girl in the works and an 18 skein order for Twist Yarn Shop - so things are really buzzing around here. We're starting the new year off right!

I was also asked about undyed yarn recently. I generally keep large quantities on hand and order quite frequently from Cestari, Henry's Attic, Wool2Dye4, and in the future possibly Ashland Bay and/or Fleece Artist if I run low on BFL and want to try some different brands. If you want some undyed, while I am not interested in immersing myself in any co-oping, I would be happy to sell you some of mine for minimal markup if you are interested. Feel free to email me with any questions or interests on that front.

Going to my niece's birthday party tomorrow and then Sunday is.... tax day :( Or should I say - the first of the tax days.... ugh! And of course, in the midst of all this, I have several new colorways swimming around my head - dyeing (pun intended) to get out onto some yarn. They'll just have to wait their turn! It is likely that the pattern will also have to get finished in February instead of January. But miracles do happen - so we'll see!

Thanks so much for your interest in Family Pendragon - YOU are what it's all about :)

Longer than normal completion times...

Due to the fabulously large order that was just placed by Wool Girl my normal wait times for any new custom dye orders will be extended. Wait till you see what she's going to have! Woo hoo!

Unfortunately this does mean that my pattern photos will have to wait a bit as well. Bear with me please ;)

Its official!

Family Pendragon yarn will soon be available on Wool Girl !

Prices updated

Please note that yarn prices have now been updated to reflect increased costs. Wholesale accounts are available for retailers as well as coops. Email me for more information.