My busy week

I've had a busy week!

Highlights:

1. Found my yarn swift! Woohoo! Unfortunately not in time to save me from the 5 hours of misery which it took me to wind up 2400yds of merino lace from Cherry Tree Hill. My husband gave out after three hours of holding the hank for me while I unwound it & respun it onto the ball winder. The last two hours went really slowly!!

2. Found my Amigurumi book! Woohoo! I Instantly grabbed some yarn and started working on a teddy bear. I finished it in three days. My daughter instantly claimed it as her own & my son (who never wants me to knit him anything) asked me to make him something too! Photos to follow. :)

3. Went to my first sock knitting class - on dpns. I had knit some hats on DPN's before so it wasn't a total shock to me. Plus we are just knitting a little mini sock in worsted weight so it was not too daunting. We made it through the heel flap which was as far as I had ever gotten on my own with a sock so I can't wait to learn to turn the heel next time! I went home and started a regular sized sock in sock weight yarn. I want to try too have it finished up through the heel flap by next class so I can continue with it as soon as I learn the next steps. I am using Lana Grossa Meilenweit Fantasy - color number 4810.

4. Learned the German cast on in my sock knitting class. I'm so stoked about this cast on - I doubt I will ever use anything else for a garment. It is a very nice looking cast on with plenty of stretch & looks the same on the front and back. Pretty nifty. I have noticed that lots of European patterns (especially Gedifra) like to use this cast on so I feel like a whole new world has opened up! The sock class was worth the money just for the German cast on. :)

5. Not much advancement in the craft room. :( We pulled out the old shelves in the second closet and hubby repaired the drywall. Now we are just held up trying to find the time to repaint the closet before we hang the shelves. Hopefully done by this weekend.

6. Sent a package of goodies to my online yarn pal and co-hostess of Knit the Classics, Amanda. Since I don't know her in real life it was a total guess as to what she might like, but I just wanted to send her something because she's such a sweet person. Maybe I should have sent her some bear repellant! ;)

7. Went to my second knitting class this week (two in one week!!) where I decided that I actually didn't want to use the Cherry Tree Hill Merino Lace for the Shoalwater Shawl after all. I think the shawl needs a heavier weight yarn. So I didn't get much done in class. :( I knitted a few rows of my Leaf Lace Shawl but I couldn't really settle down with it so I went back to knitting on my trusty sock. This class has more people in it than last time & they are a bit more chatty so I think between that and my shawl angst I wasn't able to concentrate on lace knitting. That's okay though, sock knitting is just fine with me! :)